NBG Printographic launches label press

Nitin Garg, director at NBG Printographic Machinery, said: ‘We have entered the label industry with high caution and worked on this press for three years. It was on the drawing board for almost two years so we did a lot of work before starting the manufacturing process. It took us six months to make our first machine which we will exhibit at Labelexpo India 2018.’

The 6-color, servo-driven flexo press has a web width from 10in to 20in, depending on customer requirement. It can be equipped with UV lamps, cold and hot foiling units, delam, relam, turnbar, chill drums and other units. ‘We also have a possibility of offering a combination press whereby we can integrate rotary screen, offset and gravure units on the press too,’ said Garg. While gravure and offset units are developed by NBG Printographic Machinery, the company is partnering with other companies for UV lamps and rotary screen.

StarFlex is claimed to have been tested successfully on aluminum foil, unsupported films, labelstock and other substrates. It has been tested to run at 120m/min with labelstock.

Garg believes that automation is the future so each printing unit in the first machine has one servo. ‘In the next few months, we can have features including pre-registration, remote assistance and have plans to connect this machine to collect data and serve the customers better. It will have capabilities to talk to prepress and post press department,’ he said.

‘It is a high end automated Indian press that can fill the gap to compete with European and American label presses. We are very confident of the product quality because we have used years of our experience and in-house infrastructure to build this press. We believe it will be well accepted by mid and top end printers who are looking at consistency, reliability and customized product,’ said Garg.

The company is targeting to sell 12 to 15 presses by the end of the 2018-19 fiscal year.

NBG Printographic Machinery has an existing sales network in India and overseas markets. It regularly exports to 25 countries worldwide. With this press, it will focus on India, Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe markets. ‘We will sign agents abroad but in India, we will use our existing network to sell the press. We will train the dedicated and loyal team that we already have,’ concluded Garg. The company is also in the process of setting up a new demo center for the label press, which will be ready by March 2018.