Mumbai-headquartered carton packaging company Parksons Packaging recently commissioned its newly installed Rapida 76. This means there are now precisely 101 printing and finishing units from Koenig & Bauer in production for the Indian monocarton packaging leader.
The first Rapida sheetfed offset presses started arriving at the company in 2005. At the time, Parksons Packaging was looking for a press capable of UV cured printing and coating. The Rapida 105 with its facility to switch interdeck dryer modules between multiple installation points was the industry yardstick in those days, not only at Parksons but also for UV production throughout India.
Later, Rapida106 models joined the line-up at Parkson’s plants – 7 and 8-colour presses and others with double-coating configurations and one with an inline foiler. At the beginning of 2020, the company purchased its first Rapida76 – a 6-color press with coater and extended delivery.
Faced with changing market demands, Parksons Packaging decided that it needed a half-format press alongside its medium-format Rapidas. The combination of high production speeds and a small footprint tipped the scales in favor of the Rapida76. No less important were the short job changeover times – especially when using DriveTronic SPC – and an enlarged sheet format.
Fast job changeovers and high production speed
The capacity to disengage individual inking units, a feature unique to Rapida presses, also caught Parksons chairman Ramesh Kejriwal’s attention, “We can already prepare the unused printing units for the next job, while the press is still running the current production job. And as a bonus, that also reduces wear on the rollers.”
Kejriwal is equally impressed by the high productivity of Parkson’s other Rapida presses, “The DriveTronic SPC allows job changeover times to be shortened by 30 to 40%. And the number of jobs which we handle on the new presses has increased by 30 to 35%.” On average, it can be said that each new Rapida can replace two older presses. In addition to the high speeds, waste is also reduced. Parksons is very satisfied with the presses, the print quality, and the installation and commissioning process – a reflection of the fast and comprehensive service provided by the Koenig & Bauer sales partner, Indo-Polygraph Machinery.
Folding cartons in all dimensions
All Parksons Packaging plants place their focus on folding carton (monocarton) production. Each type of carton run can be assigned to 22 offset production lines, 13 of them from Koenig & Bauer, and one digital line. Nevertheless, there are differences between the individual plants and their specializations. In addition to offset, digital and screen printing are based in Daman, together with the production of pharmaceuticals packaging. Pantnagar is specialized in packaging with high-quality cold foil finishing. And Chakan produces beverage cartons. Additional production plants are located in Sri City and Guwahati.
This nationwide base allows Parksons Packaging to supply a wide range of packaging products to customers in all corners of the country. A global export business complements domestic production. The product portfolio includes, among other things, monocartons, litho-laminated cartons, liner cartons, transport and retail packaging, shelf-ready displays, promotional and gift packaging, a broad spectrum of custom packaging, beverage cartons, and blister packs. One of the company’s specialties is an ingenious slider pack design.
In 2019, Parksons Packaging recorded a turnover of around €150m ($167m) or approximately Rs. 1,200 crore. The company produces almost 18,000 different SKU’s, and approximately 100,000 tonnes of paper and board are processed every year.
