Afflatus engraving green cylinders with Think Laboratory setup

Noida-based Afflatus Gravures, one of the country’s largest cylinder makers, having operations in pan-India basis, has installed an automatic robotic cylinder engraving setup from Japan-based Think Laboratory. The setup, equipped with laser, has been operating in the company’s Noida plant since October 2015., Business

11 Apr 2016 | By Rahul Kumar

The fully automated gravure cylinder making system, called FX2, produces 60 cylinders per day. It uses indirect fourth-class thermal lasers.

Arun Pandey, vice-president, Afflatus, said, “The Think Laboratory laser setup provides us the facility to produce fast and environment-friendly engraved cylinders. With FX2, the entire process of cylinder engraving is environment-friendly. There is comparatively less carbon dioxide and VOC (volatile organic compounds) emission, compare to conventional cylinder-making units.”

He added that his business is dependent on printers. Therefore, upgradation in technology was needed to make printers competitive, giving them fast turnaround and higher quality. The new setup engraves a cylinder in two to three hours. Earlier, the entire process took more than ten hours.

He added, “By 2018, we will purchase two more similar systems. The systems will be installed at the company’s Chennai and Sarigam plants. One installation will be done by the October 2016 at Sarigam in Gujarat.”

Presently, Afflatus produces 12,500 cylinders per month. It is now targeting 15,000 cylinders per month by 2016-17.

As per an estimation, there are around multiple engraving facilities in India, which engrave 150,000 (both laser and chemical etching) cylinders per month.

Pandey said Afflatus is the only cylinder engraving company, which offers online access to its clients to check their updates on their jobs. He said this makes the business more transparent, and makes the customers confident about on-time delivery.

Afflatus produces flexible packaging cylinders, leather embossing cylinders, decorative cylinders, embossing cylinders, coating rollers, among others. He added further that the Afflatus is a company who believes in faster turnaround, high quality and efficient production.

Afflatus, which is more than two decades old, has three plants, in Noida, Chennai and Sarigam in Gujarat. Another plant in Kolkata is under construction. The Kolkata unit will start production in a few months’ time.