Accurate Graphics hopes to propel growth in the flexo imaging business

The tradeshop’s owner, Manish Singh is a technocrat in industrial production. He started a family-owned business of manufacturing of offset printing inks in 1992. The ink business progressed well. Ten years later he entered into the manufacturing of water-based inks, developing a sizable market in the northern region and a network of dealers pan India. A strong grip on the market and growing demand for corrugation, in which, Singh saw customers add high-speed CI flexo presses. “The demand for high-quality ink kept on rising. The customers also required technical knowledge of runability and printing results, which we provided.”

With a strong grip on the corrugation market in the northern part of India, Singh saw an opportunity in the flexo platemaking business, and decided to start Accurate Graphics early this year. He invested in a flexo platemaking line, comprising Flint’s Xeikon ThermoflexX TFXx48 E digital imaging equipment; and Glunz & Jensen (G&J) 305 DW plate processor and 305 ECDLF exposing, drying and light finishing kit. The northern region comprising Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan have around 2,000 corrugated box manufacturers, converting around 840 tonnes of kraft paper per annum and a turnover of Rs 20,000 crore. “It’s a huge market, and with many manufacturers moving to CI flexo, the demand for plates was rising,” said Singh.

However, as soon as the machines were installed in February 2020, and when the firm was just about finding its feet in the new business, the lockdown was announced. “A number of corrugated box manufacturer came under stress.”

However, as the country began to unlock, Singh and his company have started catering to its customers. “We started with zero, and have now progressed to producing plates close to 275 sqm. We have an annual target of 3,500 sqm.”

In the last few months, Singh has worked on the premise that for his customer’s customer time to market is key, and that was the reason, he opted for the Xeikon and G&J machines. “One of the factors that tilted our decision in favour of 35x48-inch size Xeikon was the imager’s ability to fire 5080ppi imaging resolution at a speed of three sqm/hour. We can produce the best possible image contrast, smaller screen dot and fine details,” said Singh.

Besides, Singh said, the G&J is an already established brand. “We visited some plants in China before finalising the deal. We listened to the positive experience of ThermoflexX and after proper validation about the equipment’s consistency and sharpness, we decided to invest in the kit.”

Besides speed and quality, the ThermoflexX digital imager offers a unique vacuum slider concept (VSC), which allows the operator to insert plate in the clamping system and slide the vacuum slider towards the plate edge. “It eliminates the need for taping or cutting plates to fit dedicated vacuum zones, allowing the use of cut-off scraps,” said Singh. The ThermofleXs imager was supplied by Mumbai-based Repro Graphics, which is the distributor partner for Flint flexographic division. “Repro Graphics has been instrumental in helping us set up the platemaking business. We would like to establish the set-up as an exclusive provider of Flint flexo plates,” concluded Singh.