Even with market disruptions, India’s 7% GDP growth and strong consumer spending continues to drive the food, nonfood, pharma and cosmetics packaging markets. As in the metal, glass, plastic, and flexible markets (regularly covered by our monthly Packaging South Asia), the Indian carton market continues to expand capacities led by the multi-locational printer converters.
KBA’s Indian distributor Indo Polygraph Machinery has a strong pipeline for highly configured multicolor presses for the 2017- 18 financial year. These come on the back of a strong FY 16-17 with multiple press installations and repeat orders by Parksons Packaging, TCPL, ITC P&SPPD and York Printers. A significant number of these carton presses came to East and North-East India in what must be seen as long-awaited economic development in the region, if not as an industrial upsurge as yet.
The past financial year also saw an installation of a KBA Rapida 75 PRO, which represents a positive activity for KBA and Indo Polygraph, hitherto considered competitive only in the 105-106 format and especially in the 7-color coater full UV press high configurations with full automation options. Another Rapida 75 PRO is already scheduled for installation at York Printers in East India in the current financial year, together with five Rapida 105 and 106 presses ordered. A significant development is that pharma carton converters have also started looking at and buying full-UV curing offset presses, and Award Offset in Western India has ordered a Rapida 105 7-color plus coater full UV press.
The 2017-18 year’s KBA pipeline for India already has five presses in the 105 and 106 format and one Rapida 75 PRO that are currently under installation or shipping. One can expect at least seven or eight highly configured presses to be installed before 31 March 2018.
The Rapida 75 PRO, which seems to have made KBA competitive in the Indian half-format sheetfed offset market, is a new press with the company’s user-friendly TouchTronic operation wherein all operating functions can be accessed with a maximum of two taps on the corresponding screen buttons. ‘Onebutton job changes’ helps reduce make-ready time by up to 50%. All preselected functions are activated in time-optimised order at the press of a button. Fast changeovers and make-readies on KBA presses have been noticed by Indian customers, although there is still room for improvement given what the technology allows and encourages.
DriveTronic SIS feeder
The productivity of the Rapida 75 PRO has been raised with standard printing speeds of up to 15,000 sheets an hour and an optional high-speed package for 16,000 sheets an hour. KBA, which has always had strong feeders including DriveTronic with four servo motors, is now providing an optional Sensoric Infeed System (SIS) with electronically controlled lateral sheet alignment for its Rapida series.
The entire feeder and feed table till the first print unit include automation features using new optics and pneumatics for aligning and delivering sheets with accurate positioning and gentleness that make for precise and timely sheet movement and consequently for the best opportunity for ink transfer. Apart from the pile side alignment with the SIS sensor, the sheet monitoring uses an ultrasonic double-sheet detector and a multiple sheet detector suitable for a variety of substrates.
In addition to the skew-sheet correction at the feeder head, optical skewed sheet sensors aid in alignment. New optical front lay sensors activate electro-pneumatics that prevent sheets from overshooting the front lays. Apart from automated format and other substrate settings, KBA new feeders are key to the concept of nonstop feeding and printing and for this reason they are ready for integration in logistics systems.
