Shilp Gravures opts for India’s first Kodak Flexcel NX Wide 5080

The new Kodak line will be up and running in November 2017, informed Vidhu Gautam, sales director of flexographic packaging division for Asia Pacific Region at Kodak.

Gautam said, “One of the focus areas of Kodak is to up the quality of flexography to an extent that it is perceived to be a reliable printing technology to convert a gravure design to flexography and the same level of quality, colour and fidelity. It’s a proud moment for Kodak for the reason that the system is in the right hands with Shilp Gravures, which will be instrumental in driving this conversion.”

The Kodak Flexcel NX Wide 5080 platesetter can handle a maximum plate size of 50x80-inch and features a maximum imaging rate of 12.5 sq/m per hour making it an ideal choice to tap the burgeoning flexible packaging market for Shilp Gravures.  

Gautam added, “One of the key requirements of the brand owners is environmentally sustainable solutions. They are demanding ways to lower the costs. Plus they are looking for freedom to work on multiple SKUs with shorter runs. With flexography, flexible packaging converters can tick all the right boxes against gravure on technical as well as economic parameters.”

In 2009, Shilp acquired a flexo trade shop to venture into the flexography segment and since then has assembled a slew of kit including Esko CDI 4260 digital flexo imager and a Degraf 405 DW plate processor. The latest investment in Kodak will be the second flexo platemaking line for Shilp.