manroland India launches installation services for pre-owned sheetfed presses

With launch of manroland India’s installation services for pre-owned sheetfed presses, Universal Print-O-Pack, initiated to take advantage of this offering, in installation of their pre-owned ROLAND 706 LTLV. Sunil Gupta (SG) of Universal Print-O-Pack shares his experience with manroland after availing these services. Excerpts

When was your press established?

SG: Universal Offset was established in the year 1990 at Naraina Industrial Area in New Delhi. Over the years, our business grew and we shifted the unit to own premises in the prime Industrial hub of East Delhi, Patparganj Industrial Estate. In the year 1999-2000, we doubled our floor space to enhance our printing offerings to clients by providing comprehensive printing solutions under a single roof including prepress, press and post press facilities. In 2006, we decided to expand our business in the field of packaging and carton printing. We established a dedicated packaging unit in the Baddi region of Himachal Pradesh with a pre-owned six-colour ROLAND 706 LTLV UV press from manroland.

How many printing units, you have installed in your press?

SG: The press room at Universal Print-O-Pack is equipped with a series of multi-color offset printing presses. A total of 22 printing units including a ROLAND 706 LTLV, a 6-colour press with two inline coaters and complete UV equipment, complement our wide range of pre-press and post-press equipments. The latest technology in our pressroom enables us to deliver high quality printed products with value added finishing effects such as double coating effects, metallized board printing to cater to our esteemed clientele in the board packaging segment.

Which are the main applications, you cater to? Like, are you in packaging, commercial area, etc?

SG: We have two printing establishments – Universal Print-O-Pack, our packaging division at Baddi and Universal Offsets, our commercial and publication printing division in Delhi. Both our units are comprehensive printing units with in-house facilities for prepress, press and post press. Till the year 2006, we were concentrating majorly on commercial and book printing in our Delhi unit catering to several multinational clients in the telecom and FMCG sector. The dynamic growth and emergent demand for high quality packaging products caught our attention and in the year 2006, we decided to diversify into packaging printing with a dedicated unit in Baddi.

We understand you have recently availed the services of manroland India in this regard. Can you share your experiences in detail?

SG: We contacted manroland India for the installation of our pre-owned ROLAND 706 LTLV press and we have received excellent support from their service team. In the beginning, we had hired freelancers for installation of the press but later shifted to manroland India’s installation services. Their experienced service team turned around the press to deliver high productivity printing within no time. manroland engineers have done a great job in the installation of the machine and we have also signed up for manroland India’s comprehensive annual maintenance contract (AMC) for the maintenance of our six-colour press.

The pre-owned R 706 LTLV installed at our Baddi facility is a high capacity six-colour plus coater press with two inline coaters and complete UV system. manroland India’s engineers are widely experienced in installing complex and high end configurations such as our six-colour UV press with double coaters. The press was installed in 2011 and we are very satisfied with our decision to avail manroland India’s services and delighted by the company’s support.

Spare parts – its availability and genuineness, being very vital: your opinion and expectation levels?

SG: Machine downtime in every industry is a critical factor influencing the efficiency of the business model. Presses and other ancillary equipment require regular maintenance and upkeep to ensure high return on investment (ROI) on capital infrastructure. Regular maintenance assures longevity of the equipment and services provided by the original equipment manufacturer are decisive in this domain. The original manufacturer ensures round-the-clock availability of spares and genuine components which are vital to increase the life span and productivity.

Concept of AMC: how viable, important and preferable for you in particular?

SG: Annual Maintenance Contracts (AMC) are convenient and efficient service agreements offered by the original equipment manufacturer. This assures that experienced and company trained personnel are maintaining and servicing your equipment, thus eliminating any element of risk in the entire process. The company maintains the complete history of the equipment and is consistently offering suggestions to improve productivity. Under the AMC offered by manroland India, the company maintains a regular health chart of our equipment detailing the service and spare history of the press, which is a very helpful tool for our pressroom.