India gets first Kodak Flexcel NX 5080 system

Shilp Gravure, one of Asia’s largest gravure cylinder makers based in Ahmedabad, has completed the installation of India’s first Kodak Flexcel NX Wide 50x80 system.

Kodak Thermal Imaging Layer (TIL) sheet on Shilp’s first run of the Wide 50x80 NX system

The company announced the investment at Labelexpo Europe 2017. 

Explaining the investment, Gajanan Bhavsar, marketing director at Shilp Gravures, said: ‘The market and our customers demand higher levels of productivity and improved output. There is a realization that flexo quality today rivals gravure, while also reducing the number of colors on press. With the Flexcel NX system and plates, Kodak has better technology on offer and also the capability of imaging a 50x80 flexo plate – a first for India, that enables us to efficiently make large format plates.

‘With this, we can also cater to the demands of the corrugation industry. We have observed smoother vignettes and better solid ink density with Kodak’s NX digital flexo plates, meaning we can use higher screens and really bump up quality. Add to this enhanced ink transfer capacity and higher resolution with flat top dots, and we get a quality plate that allows for fine image reproduction that delivers superior output with new CI and label presses.’

Abraham Prabhakar, vice president of the flexographic packaging division at Kodak India, added: ‘In the flexible converting space, the West of India has been a sort of Silicon Valley as increasing number of wide web CI flexo presses are getting installed. Hence, Shilp Gravure’s choice of installing a wide 50x80 flexo platemaking system is apt to cater to the demand on these presses.’

Bhavsar concluded: ‘Kodak and its technology has been serving the printing and graphic arts industry since a long time. Its local service as well as continuous efforts with global research and development are a good fit. This recent addition of the Flexcel NX Wide 50x80 System blends well with our existing set-up and helps us be future ready.’