NS Digital Flexo installs Kodak Flexcel NX System

NS Digital provides flexo services including wide web, labels, folding cartons, corrugated.  

 

‘With the Flexcel NX System it’s relatively easy for us to help customers become more efficient,’ Shyam Sundar, partner at NS Digital said.  

 

‘We really engage with each customer, so that we can see things from their perspective, and truly understand their current capabilities and practices. Then we show them how simple adjustments to their production practices — fingerprinting the press, for example — can improve efficiency without additional investments or press set-ups, because if we can work with the available resources, we save customers time and money.  

 

‘Next, we explain the further improvements and enhanced benefits achievable with Flexcel NX plates — how we can change anilox rollers and inks, reduce impression and generally introduce better control into the press environment.’  

 

Sundar explained that the biggest benefit for him is the simplicity of making Flexcel NX plates. The flexo process can have many variables, but the Flexcel NX System either eliminates them or makes managing them simple resulting in savings. It also makes it easier to solve any print issues because plates can be eliminated as a cause straightaway.  

 

‘With other solutions, the investigation is more complex — is it the file, or the software, or processing, or exposure, or the press?’  

 

As an example of a customer who benefited from the NS Digital approach and the Flexcel NX System, he describes a reverse-print packaging job. He explained that advantages of Flexcel NX plates includng better overall print quality, especially on the whites. Then he worked with Miraclon on the fingerprinting. This approach resulted in 20 percent reduction in ink consumption.  

 

He added that across all types of work customers report faster makereadies, lower white ink consumption, reduced start-up waste — down from 50 meters to 20 meters, in some cases — and varnish savings as high as 20 percent on many jobs.   

 

Mohan Rao, partner at NS Digital Flexo, singled out two features of the Flexcel NX Technology as especially valuable. ‘Kodak TIFF Assembler Plus software — TAP 5.0 — is a really fantastic product that makes our life easier, from layout optimization to automating job settings. And DigiCap NX Patterning is a huge advantage. We can use it to create a “micro anilox” on the plate, which produces efficient ink transfer and overcomes the usual challenges of maintaining ink density and controlling dot gain. Used in conjunction with press fingerprinting, it makes it easy to select the best pattern for each job.’  

 

NS Digital Flexo is part-owned by Mumbai-based prepress solutions provider Numex Blocks, who also provide technical expertise.  

 

Speaking about the most noticeable trends in flexo at present, Sundar said: ‘Gravure-to-flexo conversion, of course, but there’s also a big opportunity for flexo to take label work from offset. This is booming already, and there’s more growth to come, with more offset label players looking to have at least one flexo label press. For a tradeshop like us, this is good news on two fronts. First, there’s the challenge of helping many small label players produce complex jobs, which will keep the market engaged and growing. And second, there’s the demand for faster turnarounds, which is only possible with the Flexcel NX System.   

 

‘Put these capabilities together, and by providing a high-quality service and products we’re in a good position to respond to the price pressures that are common in the packaging printing space.’