Noida-headquartered Hora Arts Centre recently installed a Xeikon 3500 digital label press at its Western India plant in Ranjangaon near Pune. The investment was made to ensure just-in-time production in the region. Hora Arts is a short-run packaging and label supplier to leading global manufacturers of white goods and electronics such as Panasonic, LG, Samsung, and a large number of original equipment manufacturers. Hora Arts benefits from its location being in the same industrial park as its major customers. The rational behind the investment is to ensure that the company meets tight deadlines and offers a 24/7 service in addition to exploring new opportunities in the market.
“Because of its technical capabilities and its 20-inch width, the Xeikon 3500 digital label press is exactly what we needed. It will help our assembly lines run 24/7 without a hitch and cater to each client’s specific type of label. We have done our homework, and while we are not keen to say too much before we have worked with the machine in production for a reasonable length of time, we are confident about its reliability,” says Sanjay Hora.
Short run and just-in-time
The key to the company’s continued success and growth is the immense trust of its customers, who rely on Hora Arts to deliver specialized pressure sensitive labels several times a day. To deliver short runs of high-value labels on time and with numerous variants, Hora Arts optimized its processes with many value-added and security features. These allow the production of labels with variable print features such as bar-codes and security marks that uniquely identify each product and collateral throughout the manufacturing process, the supply chain and on to the consumer.
At both the Noida and Ranjangaon plants, Hora Arts uses offset, flexo, screen and digital presses to deliver high volumes of labels several times each day and night to its customers. Maximizing its digital capabilities in the region, the first digital press installed at Ranjangaon is the Xeikon 3500 label press, capable of printing at 1200 dpi with variable dot density on pressure sensitive film and paper label stock up to 250 gsm at 19.2 meters a minute. With heavier stock such as 350 gsm paperboard for mono-cartons, the speed remains at 9.6 meters a minute. Apart from CMYK inks, the fifth print unit of the Xeikon 3500 can be used for coating applications or for special colors, including a flat white. The Xeikon 3500 press is capable of printing heat transfer, water transfer, in-mould labels, and continuous length wallpaper materials. All of these are of interest to Hora Arts, who is looking to explore the capabilities of the new press to diversify its business, especially in the production of continuous lengths of roll-to-roll wallpaper designs.
Shailender Kapoor, plant head at Noida, is very clear about why the company purchased the Xeikon press after evaluating it carefully. “Frankly, this decision is based on our customers’ demand, and this was also the reason why we set up the plant in Ranjangaon years ago. We needed to replicate our digital capabilities in that region to help us supply special labels at very short notice, even on a Saturday morning or a Sunday or at any time, and to keep the customers’ assembly lines running.”
New capabilities can bring innovation and creativity
Hora Arts is a structured and professionally run company managed by the second generation of the Hora family, Pradeep and Sanjay Hora. In the past year, the third generation also joined the business. Ramneek and Shivam Hora, who recently joined the family business, are equally enthusiastic. They see the new Xeikon installation as an adventure with many opportunities. “The Xeikon 3500’s capability of printing with invisible inks for brand protection and anti-counterfeiting requirements are important features for our customers. For us, the new press also opens up an opportunity for learning, discovering and being creative. We can see innovations and new products for our existing customers and the possibility of diversification into new areas as well – for instance wallpapers. As the press is capable of printing with food safety compliant inks, it can be used for short runs, personalized paper cups and other new products too,” explains Ramneek Hora.
Vikram Saxena, general manager sales at Xeikon in India, is naturally pleased with the installation of the fourth Xeikon digital press in recent years, and of the first 20-inch wide digital label press in Western India. Saxena says, “We consider Hora Arts an important player in India and we are delighted to partner with their ambitious growth plans. At Xeikon, we are pleased to have a customer who is keen to bring new applications to market and use some of the unique features and capabilities that the 3500 digital press offers.”
