Packed to please

SMART AND attractive packaging lures the buyer. The Indian industry is fast picking up in this aspect of advertising and marketing. The use-n-throw disposable culture has caught on in India too, and most products, especially food products, are packaged in tetra packs or durable plastic sachets.

It is in this area that flexographic printing has made its presence felt, being used largely for multi-colour film printing on shopping bags, food packs and labels.

The printing process can be executed speedily, and can print the thinnest film of poly and the thickest of corrugated boards. It has become a popular procedure as against the offset printing mode.

The most convenient feature of this mode of printing is that the ink used in flexographic printing can be easily interchanged from alcohol based to water based to UV, according to the requirement of the job. Swift design changes can also be accommodated easily which makes this technique compatible for short-run work.

Although flexographic printing was introduced in India nearly a decade ago, the usage was largely based on trial and error methods. It is, therefore, quite remarkable that two companies engaged in this genre of printing thought of a novel way to celebrate their decennial year in the business.

Colour Dot (Madras) Pvt. Ltd., and Colour Coats in collaboration with Coates of India Ltd., India's premier printing ink company, organised a conference on "Flexographic Printing - Today & Tomorrow".

Held at Hotel Connemara recently, the Conference, according to R. S. Bakshi, Managing Director, Colour Dot (Madras), was the first technical one on Flexography in India.

Ashok Virmani, director, Colour Dot (Madras), which is the foremost supplier of printing plates for flexography in India, while elaborating on this special printing procedure remarked, "It is the food packaging industry which is best served with flexographic printing because the ink dries fast and it also does not penetrate into the packaging material, so that the food does not get contaminated.

It is also a cost-effective procedure, and therefore does not eat into a large chunk of the manufacturing cost of goods. Moreover, it is environment and user-friendly (130 m. per minute), hence a safe and popular printing technique."

The conference had big names in the industry participating and some of the aspects discussed by the delegates were Halftone Printing, use of Anilox Rolls, Inks, Digital Plate-Making and Photo Polymer Plates Processing and Quality Control.

Lalitha Jayarama, Head, Department of Printing Engineering, Anna University, was highly appreciative of the gesture of the sponsors of the conference.

Dr. P. K. Dutt, Managing Director, Coates of India Ltd., remarked that the indigenous food processing industry, in order to compete effectively with imported food items, will need to pep up its packaging, and the Government must ensure support by withholding the taxes which are levied at several points, thereby hiking up manufacturing costs.

This new printing technology has dug its heels in the printing scene in the U.S.A., and is steadily making inroads into Europe where the earlier gravure method is gradually being shrugged off. The Indian market can boom too by ingesting the latest advances in technology.

PERVIZ BHOTE

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