Parksons Packaging recently added a new KBA Rapida 106 7-color plus coater press at its Daman plant, thereby maintaining its tradition of keeping up to date with the latest technologies. For the Mumbai-headquartered packaging solution provider, this is the third press that has been installed at Daman. The new press was inaugurated on 11 July 2018 by the company’s chairman Ramesh Kejriwal.
Speaking about the new press, Kejriwal said that it is equipped with modern technologies and replaces an older press that was in operation at the Daman plant for almost a decade. The KBA Rapida 106 press is expected to help the company ramp up production significantly without compromising on quality, as it comes with an array of quality control features. Kejriwal expects the productivity of the new press to be 50-60% higher than the older press that goes out.
Some of the key features incorporated in the new press include a simultaneous plate changing (SPC) system and a Qualitronic Color Control (QCC) system equipped with a camera to measure online color density and LAB value corrections. The press can print with both conventional and UV ink and has a maximum production capacity of 18,000 sheets per hour. The format size of the press is 740 x 1060 mm. Kejriwal informed that it is the first press in India to boast these configurations.
Rationale behind having the new KBA
Since the company already has two KBA presses of similar size at the Daman plant, installing the new KBA Rapid 106 makes perfect operational sense, as it gives the flexibility to seamlessly switch jobs among the presses, reasoned Kejriwal.
Looking into the future
The Daman plant, which is one of the six plants the company operates in India and also the oldest, is saturated which has almost circumscribed its scope for major expansion, according to Kejriwal. As a result, the company is looking to explore it’s options at the other plants, where investments can be made for further expansion. The company currently has plants, besides Daman, one each at Sricity (South India), Chakan (Pune), and Guwahati (Assam) and two in Pantnagar (North India).
The Guwahati and Sricity plants, among the newest plants, were the major growth engines for the top line in 2017-2018. The company now intends to add a new packaging press at the Sricity plant, while the Guwahati plant will see some sort of capacity addition. As for the Pantnagar plants, there may be some machine replacement in keeping with the company’s practice of maintaining a very high level of performance and productivity, informed Kejriwal.
— Mahan Hazarika
