Fujifilm Sericol: The boutique ink factory

Fujifilm Sericol factory, located 30 kms from Pune at Sanaswad is equipped with a colour management laboratory with spectrophotometer and formulation software along with a central warehouse

Fujifilm Sericol India saw impressive growth this year. (l-r) M N Subramanyam, mentor; P Raghava Rao, managing director; Ganesh Krishnan, executive director, marketing and Sunil Happa, executive director, finance

The print demo centre and testing facilities are about finding the optimum ink solution. Industrial washing machines can be seen, which are used to test inks on textile

The demo centre's screen making unit has an emulsion coating machine, screen exposing unit and a dryer cum inspection machine

A new ink customised for an international textile brand, is being tested

Manual carousel textile screen printing machine is equipped with an infrared curing system. This enables swift drying of the ink for applying multiple coats

Sericol concentrates on ‘variety’ in inks rather than on volumes. For example, an international brand's requirement of withstanding the graphic on their fabric for a minimum of five washes was met by Sericol

The screen printing demo centre has machines to check the ink performance. Seen here, a screen printing machine (l) from Atma and a heat transfer label printing machine

The Newtech machine, especially designed to print on rigid surfaces. Subramanyam demonstrating its operation on a circular container

Test run: Before the ink reaches its user, a trial run on actual substrates is conducted to ensure the best performance across the many applications

Pigments, fillers and carrier are milled to achieve the required particle size as per the end application

Here, all the raw materials are mixed and stirred together. All four process colours - CMYK - are formulated separately

The process of ink formation demands continuous stirring for uniform dispersion of pigments and fillers in the carrier and also to achieve the required consistency

The final product is packed as per the customer's requirement. Sericol supplies even one kilogram of customised ink. Its portfolio comprises of 2500 SKUs

After the manufacturing is complete, the vessels are thoroughly cleaned in the pot cleaning machine to avoid any contamination

Since the ink manufactured is specific to the machine printheads, the estimation of its particle size becomes utmost important. A Malvern make particle size analyzer is used to conform to the customer specified standards

Every batch undergoes a quality check to ensure that the required standards are met. Here, a lab personnel checking the uniformity of ink on spreading on the substrate

In the digital QC lab, the moisture content is measured precisely by the Mettler Toledo instrument for all the inks. This is controlled below 0.3% as higher moisture in the inks - and can cause pigment coagulation which result in print head blockage

The digital wing of the demo centre comprises of five wide-format digital machines and they all offer something different. The kit is from Seiko, Proton, Konica, Roland, and two Chinese make machines

At Sericol, a constant check on the print performance is conducted against the machine manufacturer's inks, to offer a wider gamut of colours to the customer

The management believes in continuous improvement of its processes, products and services. Every face of the plant, including R&D, has a series of 'Do's and Dont's' to meet the requirements of relevant standards

Customer specific details of the ink manufactured till date is stored in the form of chips. This practice is diligently followed at Sericol since its inception

Samples of all the inks are stored for five years in the factory. This process is followed to keep a track on the type of ink manufactured as well as for reference in case of any complaints

The company caters majorly to the industrial, packaging, graphics and textile verticals

"One of the high profile brands tried to print on a black gloss substrate, but the ink peeled of straight off," says Subramanyan. "They tried three different printers but the problem persisted. Sericol solved the problem"

Layers of ink are printed onto the substrate, and the exact colour shade and detailing can be seen only under an illuminated light. Such inks find application in automobiles and consumer goods

The team at Sericol is bullish about its growth. "The breadth of possibilities presents innumerable choices to today's printers," says Rao, and the team at Sericol strives to achieve it