Madurai-based Sree Vinayaga Screens has recently added a Heidelberg Speedmaster SM52 Anicolor press with coater to its print infrastructure. The move is a part of the print house’s constant reinvention and evolution process. The latest Heidelberg will complement a present suite of press and finishing equipment.
“Quality excellence is an unspoken promise to the customer. To stay true to that commitment, we need the best equipment we can trust. Heidelberg’s Speedmaster SM 52 Anicolor is our latest profitable investment in that direction,” states Ramanathan, managing director of Sree Vinayaga Screens. Ramanathan is an alumnus of the Pune’s Vidyarthi Griha Printing Institute and started his career as a prepress application specialist with a leading print-house at Mumbai, before joining his father’s business.
Sree Vinayaga has come a long way since 1977 when it started with screen printing operations. Founded by Lakshmi Narayanan, the print house ventured into offset business in the 1990s. Today, it has emerged as a complete, commercial offset print house with the infrastructure necessary to produce a job in-house.
“Our initial choice was a regular Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 52 to cater to short-run jobs. But, Heidelberg’s Anicolor demo at Prakash Offset, Mangalore, altered the equation dramatically, swaying our decision in favour of the SM 52 with Anicolor technology and coater. With minimum wastage and reduced setup times, Anicolor is the perfect solution for jobs. Moreover, it allows us to use conventional printing plates,” Ramanathan says.
The Speedmaster SM 52 Anicolor press is suitable also for short-run print jobs starting from a low of 200 sheets and can print up to a maximum of 5,000 sheets, with an average run of 1,000 sheets. The press, which is capable of producing 15,000 impressions an hour, can handle an array of substrates ranging from 0.03 millimeters to 0.6 millimeters or 0.0012 inches to 0.024 inches.
“We always believe in changing technology, in fact we introduced the first 4-color offset press in late 80s in Madurai, when most offset jobs were done with single and 2-color presses. And being a screen printing specialist, I have tried with various medium, and in turn we have adapted to various technologies available today,” Lakshmi Narayanan says.
The Anicolor press delivers stable inking, thanks to a zoneless shortinking unit with a dampening system that ensures exceptional consistency during production runs and uses a chamber doctor blade instead of a conventional roller train. The system applies a metered amount of ink on every revolution to maintain the same ink consistency and top-notch printing quality for any run length of the job. The temperature of the roller can be regulated in order to make any minor changes in ink densities.
Anicolor operates on a 90:50:50 philosophy. Compared to machines with conventional inking units, Anicolor reduces paper wastage by 90%, implying 90% less makeready sheets. The smart inking system eliminates the need to adjust ink keys to match colors, resulting in 50% shorter makeready times. The two features combined, serve to enhance productivity by 50% or simply, five jobs printed within 35 minutes.
Sree Vinayaga Screens meets the demands of a large chunk of walkin customers, in addition to leading corporate customers such as Aurolab, Titan, Bajaj, Big Bazaar, Ola Cabs and top advertising agencies in South Tamil Nadu. Also, more than 25 periodicals and journals are printed at Vinayaka every month.
“The online coating unit also facilitates quick printing and speedy delivery of POS posters, danglers, and flyers to customers. Although we are still in the early innings of adoption, new business is flooding in. Buying the Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 52 with Anicolor and coating unit has been one of our best business decisions ever,” Ramanathan concludes.
