manroland web systems had a good experience at the recently concluded PrintPack India 2019 exhibition. In addition to highlighting its new machines, the company also talked about its services, solutions and e-commerce platform to the visitors to its stand. “We represent the entire perspective of the printing world – it is not just that we are selling only new machines. That is why we had been quite successful in the last year. And that is how we plan to take it forward,” said Sudeep Bhattacharjee, managing director of manroland India.
In addition to its range of offerings, the company promoted its new offset-gravure hybrid press, Varioman f:line, at the exhibition. Varioman f:line marks manroland web’s foray into the packaging domain. The hybrid press which prints on films offers a low priced production process at highest quality. Printable substrates include films or paper from 10-300 micron. The range includes options for different web widths and a production speed of up to 400 m/min.
Speaking about the new press, Bhattacharjee said, “The Varioman provides a lot of advantages. First, since the press is an offset press, it gives a huge cost benefit to customers as the press uses aluminum offset plates instead of gravure cylinders. The offset technology enables low-priced and reproducible high printing quality. The additional usage of gravure printing equipment in the press enables an integration and automation across all systems.”
“Second, worldwide even though packaging is growing, there is a lot of product segmentation happening. Which means, the number of runs has increased although the quantity has remained the same. Hence shorter runs are gaining popularity. In shorter runs, traditional processes becomes uneconomical. Thankfully, offset offers tremendous advantage of very short make-ready time as well as low cost.”
“Third and the most important benefit is that the Varioman uses Electron Beam (EB) for curing. EB Systems help to make photo initiators, as used for UV-color, redundant. This makes the press perfect for food packaging. Worldwide UV is shrinking as it is not a very good thing to have directly on food packaging. EB on the other hand is very safe and eco-friendly.”
Bhattacharjee shared that the combination of technologies in the Varioman f:line, particularly the quality of the printed product from the offset side, combined with the benefits provided by gravure printing (in the areas of varnishing, adhesives and opaque white) provide the quality and differentiation that a modern package printing operation requires. “Recently, we did a job of a client in Europe who was using 22 pantone shades for a certain product on gravure press. However, the Varioman f:line replaced it with 7 offset colors. This was a huge saving for the client. Since for certain special application you need gravure, we also provide gravure units along with the press,” he said.
Manroland sold its first Varioman press with 7 offset and 3 gravure units to a customer in Europe. “Last year, we had an Open House in Germany visited by major players form the flexible packaging arena worldwide. In India, we are approaching leading packaging converters. A few of them have even visited Germany to see the machine. We are getting a very good response from the India market for this press,” concluded Bhattacharjee.