Art-O-Print uses Heidelberg Anicolor for ECG printing

Ahmedabad-based packaging specialist Art-O-Print has seen a productivity boost in its carton printing capabilities thanks to the commissioning of 8-color double coater, double drier Heidelberg XL 75 two years ago, Niral Patel, a partner in Art-O-Print told Packaging South Asia.

Niral Patel says, “The Heidelberg XL 75 is one of the best printing machines we have ever seen. It is working like a digital machine. If your prepress is strong enough, the machine will give you wonderful results. Apart from the technology we are also using Heidelberg’s Multicolor technology for 7-color extended gamut color printing. We can achieve more than 80% of the Pantone shades using this technology.”

“The Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 75 -8 LYYL Anicolor configuration is first of its kind in Asia. We are happy about the Anicolor press installed at Art-o-Print, our long-term Heidelberg customer. Especially for pharma jobs, the Anicolor technology opens up the potential for huge savings even for short production runs. Spot colors can be changed extremely quickly with the help of our Multicolour technology,” says Samir Patkar, president, Heidelberg India.

The Speedmaster XL 75’s Anicolor zoneless short inking unit is designed for high productivity, especially with short runs. The Anicolor inking unit consists of a single-speed screen roller with an ink chamber blade. The ink is transferred from the screen roller to the printing plate by an ink form roller. The ink density can be markedly changed and adapted to a wide range of substrates and spot colors by adapting the temperature and activating the Anicolor booster.

Art-O-Print supplies cartons to the pharmaceutical sector and is printing all types of cartons on the Heidelberg XL 75 Anicolor 8-color double coater press. Apart from the integration of this highly configured press, it has implemented a stringent quality management system in accordance with ISO certification 9001:2015 for the scope of manufacturing and supply of plain and printed secondary packaging materials.

Established in 1969, the company’s plant is equipped with state-of-the-art printing and converting machinery and benchmarked technologies. The numerous in-process controls support the packaging requirements of the current pharmaceutical industry as well as its regulatory compliances.

The range of products includes manufacturing large and small volumes of cartons including Braille cartons, cartons with security features, labels with security features, leaflets, product literature, marketing materials, pharma outserts, pharma inserts for the US market, brochures, and 3 to 9-ply corrugated boxes.

Art-O-Print is a packaging supplier of choice to numerous pharmaceutical as well as non-pharmaceutical companies including Torrent Pharma, Zydus Cadila Pharma, Macleods Pharma, Ajanta Pharma, Amneal, J B Chemicals, ACME Generics and Formulations, IMA-PG, Asian Paints, and Puniska Healthcare. 

The Heidelberg XL 75 Anicolor isn’t the first or only piece of machinery that Art-O-Print has bought from Heidelberg. The company is a long-term Heidelberg customer and has multiple pieces of equipment supplied by the German press and prepress manufacturer.

On its shop floor, apart from the XL 75 Anicolor, the company operates Heidelberg prepress equipment such as a CtP 74 and a CtP 106. In its pressrooms, the company runs a Heidelberg 4-color SM 74, a 5-color CD 74 with UV and coater, an SM 74 2P, two SM 102 2-color perfectors, and an 8-color Gallus ECS 340 narrow web flexo label press. Its Polar cutting and Stahl folding machines are also from the same supplier.

Patel praises Heidelberg India’s after-sales service. “The success of Heidelberg India goes to their service team. We are very happy with the machines as well as their services. The availability of parts and service engineers are the key to their success,” explains Patel.

Recently, the company installed a semi-automatic corrugation plant which includes 2-ply steam-based corrugation, a 5-ply laminator, a printer slotter, and side pasting for producing corrugated boxes. In the 2021-22 financial year, Art-O-Print also invested in a Bobst Novacut 106 die-cutter and an Expertfold folder-gluer. With the installation of these two Bobst machines, the company now has two Bobst die cutters and two Bobst folder gluers for enhanced reliability of its converting and overall monocarton production workflow.

After the new investments in the corrugation division and significantly enhancing the capabilities of its converting department, Art-O-Print is looking to increase the printing capabilities of its label section. The company may also add equipment to its post-press section. “Over the next year or so, we may go for one more flexo printing press for labels and post-press machines,” Patel concludes. 

The Covid-19 pandemic led to the country-wide lockdown on 25 March 2020. It will be two years tomorrow as I write this. What have we learned in this time? Maybe the meaning of resilience since small companies like us have had to rely on our resources and the forbearance of our employees as we have struggled to produce our trade platforms.

The print and packaging industries have been fortunate, although the commercial printing industry is still to recover. We have learned more about the digital transformation that affects commercial printing and packaging. Ultimately digital will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future.

Web analytics show that we now have readership in North America and Europe amongst the 90 countries where our five platforms reach. Our traffic which more than doubled in 2020, has at times gone up by another 50% in 2021. And advertising which had fallen to pieces in 2020 and 2021, has started its return since January 2022.

As the economy approaches real growth with unevenness and shortages a given, we are looking forward to the PrintPack India exhibition in Greater Noida. We are again appointed to produce the Show Daily on all five days of the show from 26 to 30 May 2022.

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