Pragati shows off India’s first Miyakoshi intermittent offset label press

Pragati Pack along with Miyakoshi’s Indian representative Provin Technos hosted an open house to showcase the Miyakoshi MLP16C press at Pragati’s factory in Kukatpally in Hyderabad.

The full day open house included a live machine demonstration and technical presentations by the Provin and Miyakoshi team. The event was attended by top names from the Indian label industry to see the MLP16C at top speed.

The MLP16C at Pragati is a high-end configuration machine. The 70-feet machine starts with a flexo unit, followed by five offset printing units, a Pantec Rhino flatbed hot foil embossing unit, which is followed by another two offset printing units for overprinting on hot foil, second flexo unit and die-cutting station. With a maximum repeat length of 16-inch and two cameras for automatic print registration, the machine boasts of a maximum speed of 250 impressions per minute (101.6 metres per minute).

Speaking to PrintWeek India, Hemant Paruchuri, director, Pragati Pack, said, “We now have six label printing machines – four narrow web flexo, one digital and one intermittent offset. It gives us a good mix of printing technologies for label production. We as a company have proficiency in offset technology wherein the print quality is superior to other technologies. This coupled with finishing options like hot foil and overprinting on hot foil allows us to produce high-end labels with embellishments in one pass.”

During the demonstration, Pragati team ran two print jobs. The first print job comprised on printing on clear film with white plus four-colour plus gold printing followed by coating and die-cutting. This job was produced at 160 impressions per minute. The second print job consisted of four-colour printing plus hot foil stamping and coating. In terms of makeready, switching from the first job to the second took 20 minutes.

Vinay Kaushal, director, Provin Technos, said, “The idea of this open house was to showcase the print results of Miyakoshi’s intermittent offset technology and the speeds that you can achieve with the machine. This is a robust and very stable machine. In the second print job, we saw the machine printing reached a speed of more than 210 impressions per minute.”

Talking about the intermittent offset technology, Kaushal urged the label print firms to do their homework before investing in the technology. “For most label print firms with flexo background, it can be quite cumbersome to adopt offset technology. There are various technical parameters which are unique to offset, for instance, the ink-water balance, quality of water used for dampening solution etc. It is important to understand these basic nitty-gritty of the technology before making a decision.”

Miyakoshi’s international sales deputy manager, Masamichi Nakamura, said, “Miyakoshi’s intermittent offset presses are effective for label printing firms who have most of their jobs in the run length range of 500 metres to 30,000 metres. So standard wine labels, cosmetics labels, and food packaging labels are moving towards shorter runs and appealing offset appearance. We are confident about the Indian market especially with a partner like Provin Technos, which is efficient with their support and service capabilities.”

Trend Alert: With this installation, Pragati Pack has joined the league of label printing firms like Signode India, Seljegat, Coats and Pack, Mudrika, which are adding intermittent offset printing to their label printing technology mix.