KEM Cards invests in Esko CDI Spark 2350

The printer of self-adhesive and wet-glue labels uses five narrow web flexo presses at its Navi Mumbai plant, and was previously outsourcing the plate imaging part of the pre-press operation to third party vendors. It had a platemaking department in-house that was used to process digitally imaged plates as well as to produce conventional film-based analog plates.

Haresh Rajani, founder of KEM Cards, said: ‘There was a push from our clients to have an imager so that the complete digital flexo platemaking process comes in-house. Also, the market for analog technology was shrinking. The decision to invest in an Esko CDI was very easy for us as we already had a high-quality plate making unit at our plant. The whole set up was a breeze.’

Rajani further said KEM Cards, which produces labels mainly for beer brands and pharmaceutical companies, had enjoyed a marked improvement in quality and the ability to take on short notice jobs since acquiring the technology from Esko.

With the whole platemaking process now in-house, the company is independent of third^-party operators. ‘If a customer wants labels produced at very short notice, we can do it now. I now realize we should have gone for the Esko plate imager much earlier,’ he said.

In addition to making the flexo platemaking process 'seamless', the Esko CDI has also enhanced the quality of flexo printing at KEM Cards. ‘In the case of half-tone jobs, there has been a marked improvement in quality. For 4-color photorealistic images the output is much better than that of the analog process,’ Rajani added.

Murad Kalal, channel sales manager of Esko in South Asia, attributes the reproduction quality improvement to the smaller half-tone dots of digital flexo plates that lead to smaller dot gain on press and an extended tonal range. ‘The benefits are a higher dot definition, more open reverses and fine print details,’ said Kalal.

‘The use of digital plates helps in shortening press set-up time due to the high and consistent plate quality. Digital plates result in less spoilage and longer cleaning intervals, which in turn leads to higher press utilization – and savings in the printing department,’ concluded Kalal.