Afflatus – a flexible packaging prepress house committed to sustainability

Arun Pandey, vice president Afflatus in front of the DuPont 3000 modular automated processing line for flexo plates Photo PSA

We first met Noida-headquartered Afflatus several years agone when it was a prepress business firm supplying high-quality gravure cylinders for the flexible packaging of the country'southward leading brand owners. The company is the largest cylinder maker in India with plants in Noida, Chennai, Vapi, and Kolkata. It'due south an organization that has always been in a growth mode while at the same time it seeks to accomplish global standards in color direction, automation, and sustainability.

When we wrote once more about Afflatus in 2022 it was subsequently information technology had installed the Think Labs robotic cylinder preparation and engraving system. The Think Labs FX2 is not only productive with its automation but a very loftier-quality engraving organization for legible text in small sizes and loftier contrast in halftone images. At the same time, since it is capable of reducing cell depths to as little every bit 5 to 7 microns. It has achieved excellent results at cell depths of 12 microns with the do good that the same color densities tin can exist achieved using much less ink on the modernistic gravure presses running at 300 and 450 meters a minute and fifty-fifty higher. The sustainability of flexible packaging improves with the reduction of the ink layer by 20% and parallel reductions in the employ of solvents and volatile organic compounds, while the curing or drying process requires less rut further lowering the carbon footprint of the unabridged procedure.

Afflatus enters flexo prepress

After our story about the FX2 robotic system, nosotros wrote near Afflatus investing in its first flexo prepress organization, the Esko CDI Crystal 5080 XPS imager simply before the LabelExpo India upshot that took place in Greater Noida in 2018. This was purchased and installed not only with the full suite of Esko software simply also with the fully automated DuPont Cyrel 3000 modular processing line. Just recently were we able to visit the Afflatus found in Sector 68 in Noida where nosotros saw what we tin can only describe equally the most magnificent flexo prepress installation that we take ever seen.

The second Think Labs FX2 robotics cylinder preparation and engraving and plating system at the Afflatus constitute in Noida Photo Packaging South asia

Every aspect of the flexo prepress and plate making system is automated with cameras mounted within the DuPont 3000 processing line for visual monitoring on a giant monitor. The system with its highly automated Kongsberg table for cut flexo plates is extremely productive and produces more than 120 photopolymer flexo plates daily.

Our conversations with Afflatus vice-president Arun Pandey are generally wide-ranging across technologies and manufacture concerns from sustainability to human resources and even the overly competitive pricing that has now come to the flexo plate market likewise. While he says that flexo plate pricing could exist better structured by the industry, it is clear that Pandey is looking quite far ahead in terms of global quality and sustainability issues for both gravure and flexo.

Automation, digital ERP, an app and AI are being put to apply

Discussing the supply of cylinders and plates during the pandemic lockdowns and after, Pandey described in considerable detail the systems and infrastructure the visitor was able to put in place to combine work from home for skilled technicians in prepress with that of the strictly organized hands-on technicians who had to homo or simply monitor the output devices and processing equipment. "The installation of the 2nd Remember Labs automated robotic system at the Noida plant, for cylinder prep and engraving and finishing certainly helped, as did the automated Esko and DuPont systems for flexo, as did many of our meaning precautions and arrangements over the past 19 months. We were likewise fortunate to take a highly skilled and compact workforce," he said.

Another achievement in the by couple of years is the integration of Afflatus' product floor across its plants country-wide. Through its digital interface with all the production units there is ameliorate control on the consistency of the output and timely commitments to customers. This has been recently been taken a footstep further, with the company having its own app to keep clients and the management and production teams updated on every SKU'due south status. The company has incorporated several innovations including chips embedded to place and track and trace each cylinder. At our meeting, Pande explained his vision to have the automation concepts further by adding artificial intelligence to make the current system more productive and efficient.

This commodity is published in the Nov printed issue of Packaging South Asia to be mailed on 4 and 5 November 2021.

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Source: https://packagingsouthasia.com/type-of-packaging/flexible-packaging/afflatus-flexible-packaging/

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