Chenga Reddy of Citrus Packaging Solutions recently visited the Spande factory in Shanghai together with Provin’s team to familiarize himself with Spande’s flexo technology, and there he signed for a press that will be delivered to the company’s plant in the last quarter of 2025. The press that he has purchased will be on display and demonstrated live at Labelexpo Europe in Barcelona in September – followed by shipment to India and installation at Citrus in Hyderabad. Provin Technos has been working to bring Spande’s flexo label presses and its digital presses to its Indian customer base for the past year, and especially since drupa. It will also be present at the Spande stand at the upcoming China Print exhibition.
Chenga Reddy is a well-trained and experienced technical hand, coming from Hyderabad’s best industrial culture of excellence. He started Citrus in 2017 and now has several flexo and offset presses, including those from Lombardi and Miyakoshi at his plant. The company specializes in security tamper-proof labels, multilayer and pharma, ophthalmological applications, and medical hangar labels. The entire operation, including the infrastructure and training of resources, is highly technical and professional. Citrus now has a plant in Bengaluru as well.
The Spande S7 model press
The S7 8-color press coming to Citrus contains two die-cutting stations and a lamination unit, apart from the flexo units. It will have a sheeter for carton production. Each print unit has 8 servo motors and an Intelligent Vision closed-loop color registration system. Mostly labels will be produced on the press, and some cartons by using a sheeter and conveyor to be attached at the end of the press when needed. For carton production, the press can handle and print on 450 gsm board, while it can handle labelstock and unsupported films and paper and board substrates in thicknesses between 12 and 450 microns.
Spande S7 flexo label pressThe S7 8-color flexo press will contain chilled impression cylinders for printing on thin and extensible materials. Each unit has multiple servo motors and its iPressure feature automatically adjusts the pressure between the anilox and the printing sleeve and between the printing sleeve and the anvil (impression) roller. The iVision feature is an intelligent autoregister system that matches changes in production speeds without any manual intervention. The press has a hybrid curing system using a combination of LED-UV, UV, and hot air cassettes.
Chenga Reddy tells us that the beauty of this press is that its automation features enable ease of use never before seen on a flexo label press. He says, “Even a layman can operate this press. All he or she has to do is feed in the substrate thickness, drop in the flexo plate cylinders, and then press the start button.”
Reddy adds that Citrus will soon implement its RFID labels, tags, and solutions. These will be aimed at emerging segments such as retail garments, high-value luxury products, and the pharma and medical device industry segments.
Naresh Khanna is again a judge for The Sustainability Awards
