Unick Fix-a-Form targets FMCG labels with Gallus ECS 340

The 10-colour printing machine was pushed into production in June 2018 and in the first month itself it was performing in three shifts, informed, Priyank Vasa, director, Unick Fix-a-Form.

Vasa said, “The machine came in during the peak season for the agro sector. The peculiarity of the agro sector is that the peak season is short and hence faster you deliver, you get more orders. Thanks to the new Gallus press, we could boost label printing capacity and as a result, we saw a 30% increased business this season.”

The new press shares the shopfloor with two older Gallus EM 280 presses at Unick. The ten-colour ECS 340 with one screen unit and two rotary die-cutters also enables Unick to handle filmic substrates more efficiently.

“We, at Unick, specialise in agriculture and pharma sector, however, FMCG is the only space we haven’t touched yet. When it comes to FMCG and cosmetic products, most of the labels use filmic substrates such as clear-on-clear or PE-based applications. We want to increase this portfolio, we are also looking at IML segment.

“Now, in order to print on sensitive filmic substrates such as pearlised BOPP or clear BOPP, one needs to have a robust machine in place because one needs to deal with static, use primers, plus it requires web cleaning device and corona etc. So we needed a machine that could take care of all of it. We found a solution in Gallus ECS 340,” explained Vasa.

When asked why he did not opt for a medium-width flexo press, Vasa said, “On an average, the run length of our label jobs is up to 2,000 running metres. For a one time job, it makes more sense to have a narrower width machine and print more impressions than going for larger plates and tooling on wider presses.”

In order to support the increased printing capacity, Unick has also invested in a Pulisi inspection rewinder.