The UFlex stand at the PlastFocus exhibition in Dwarka in West Delhi, although not far from the company’s engineering division in Noida, is still a daunting distance considering the traffic. Thus UFlex integrated virtual demonstrations of its machines at its stand with a tour of its production facility for interested business visitors.
The live feed of the running machines from its facility, made its stand a central point where it could connect with its customers and take them to the factory to experience the machine in real-time production, Sanjay Malik Sabharwal, joint president and COO of the UFlex Engineering business, told Packaging South Asia.
Explaining that it is not feasible for customers to understand the various features of the machines in depth at exhibitions, he said, “The touch and feel of the machine can only be given when it is in a real production scenario. We wanted to utilize this opportunity at PlastFocus and give this experience to our customers and potential buyers,” he said.
The CI Flexo press is a star product of UFlex, according to Sabharwal, since it is part of its various sustainability initiatives on an international level, along with its Combi Laminators and big slitter-rewinders – all were highlighted at the event. “When the customers visit the factory, we make sure that we have the entire range of our machines available for their active viewing,” Sabharwal said.
The company’s CI Flexo has several USPs, including printing stretchable materials, he said. With people and markets moving towards single-family polymer and PE-based products, there cannot be a better decorating solution than a CI Flexo press, which comes with less manpower, less consumption of ink, short runs, and less wastage, according to him.
He added that the features of the CI flexo press providing an economy of scale in production are included in the equipment at an Indian cost of manufacturing. He pointed to opportunities for the packaging industry provided by the allocations for the food and infrastructure sectors in the recent interim budget.
“The more people are on the move, the more will be the consumption. Hence, it is a win-win situation for the packaging industry,” he added.
“The machine manufacturing industry has gone through several phases, from its infancy and to its current stage of sophistication and automation. Gone are the days when people used to dream that I should have an imported machine. Today, machines made in India are no inferior to their international counterparts, be it feature-wise or life-wise,” he said.
He also revealed that UFlex intends to launch a new series of rotogravure printing machines with a targeted speed of 500 meters a minute, rubbing shoulders with the best world-class machines.
