Allied Printers started offset printing in 1996 by installing a Dominant press. Earlier, the company operated as a letterpress and binding unit. With time, it started shifting its job profile to offset printing and installed its second offset press, a 4-color Akiyama refurbished press, in 2006 followed by a refurbished Heidelberg SM72V in 2010. Recently, Allied Printers installed the first new press in the area, a Komori Enthrone 429 sheetfed offset press in July 2019.
“The biggest challenge today is digital media, and we think the solution lies in the delivery time of our print work, improving the quality standards, reducing workforce, and enhancing production-related processes. This shall help to make offset more competitive economically and aesthetically,” says Abhishek Rajvanshi, proprietor of Allied Printers.
Increasing downtime on old presses propels new investment
The old and refurbished presses owned by the company had frequent breakdowns and had lower production because of which Rajvanshi decided to buy a brand new press. “As we’re located approximately 250 km from Delhi, arranging spare parts and personnel for work always meant a minimum of 3 days’ downtime.
“We’ve been outsourcing some of our printing work to printers in Delhi, who were printing on Komori presses. We were well aware of the quality and reliability of Komori as a brand. The print runs at our plant are less than 1000 impressions, and from our experience on the Enthrone, we found no other machine that offered lesser print-ready timing and wastage,” Rajvanshi adds. He also lauded the post-sales service support of the press, saying that the support is unparalleled and handy for a press owner. He even praised Komori India for providing extensive training support during the initial phase.
Allied targets packaging printing with new Enthrone
With its older, refurbished presses, Allied was printing and supplying government projects only, but with the new Komori, it plans to tap the private sector as well. With the new press, the company has also started printing on substrates as thick as 400 gsm for packaging purposes that cannot be printed on other presses.
The company is also printing commercial and book work on the new press. The press is equipped with CIP4 for ink control and reduced paper wastage. With the new press, the production will increase by at least 50%.
Apart from these machine in the pressroom, the company has a Stahl folding machine, perfect binding machines from Welbound and Auto Bind, and Polar cutting machines.
