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Print Pack India
PRINTPACK India was a 6-day event held from 1st – 6th February 2019 at the India Expo Centre and Mart in Greater Noida, India. This event allows the industrialists to showcase products falling under the category of in-press, post-press, finishing, converting, and digital & signage and packaging machines, all under solutions under one roof, which caters to the Packaging Materials, Printing & Publishing, Paper, and Paper Products, Logistics & Transportation industries.
Bobst Open House
BOBST India happened to conduct a two-day open house at its Competence Centre, located at BOBST’s headquarters in Pune, on 22nd & 23rd February 2018. This two-day seminar was attended by more than 120 packaging converters and we felt extremely proud of ourselves to be a part of this Open House.
India Corr
BOBST India happened to conduct a two-day open house at its Competence Centre, located at BOBST’s headquarters in Pune, on 22nd & 23rd February 2018. This two-day seminar was attended by more than 120 packaging converters and we felt extremely proud of ourselves to be a part of this Open House.
With 5,750 visitors, IndiaCorr 2017 footfall rises by 34%
For the show, Artize Die Makers came up with a new product, Steel Counter Plate, with the tagline Steel is the New Way to Crease. According to Mukul Luthra of Artize Die Makers, the product offers best quality creasing channel with perfect dimensional accuracy; customised milled cutting plate as per the job requirement; best choice for long run jobs and no bends and marks on the carton.
“IndiaCorr has always been a successful event for us,” Luthra said. “With the increase of auto cartonator machine, the structural accuracy of corrugated box has a lot of importance due to which our precise dies are required by the converters.”
He added that the corrugation industry in India has huge vacuum of improvement and there is always a scope for printed cartons in Indian market. “As the demand is increasing for packed products, the demand for corrugation will rise,” he said.
By Rahul Kumar, 10 November 2017, ( Printweek Magazine )
Artize, Bobst and Magnesium elektron conduct seminar on How to Improve Production efficiency
On the sidelines of PrintPack India 2017, Artize Die Makers, Bobst and Magnesium Elecktron joined hands to conduct a knowledge sharing seminar which focussed on post-press efficiency. The seminar titled ‘Improve your production efficiency’ was conducted on 6 February 2017.
This seminar was designed for owners, production managers and decision makers of packaging companies. New Delhi-based die manufacturer Artize Die Makers covered topics ranging from basics of die-making and general issues related to die-cutting among others.
During the presentation, Mukul Luthra of Artize explained the importance of re–knifing and the best practices in die making. In addition to this, he explained the role of nicks and how the nicks can be enlarged using special piercers by Artize. He said, “To make a good nick always use a grinder to make a nick before placing the rubber and never grind over rubbers.”
Abhijit Kavathekar and Sachin Patil from Bobst covered key aspects of die-cutters and importance of blanking plus the troubleshooting associated with it. The session laid emphasis on the do’s and don'ts related to them in the interest of improved productivity of the machines. During the presentation, the various benefits of blanking plus its viability in packaging was stressed upon.
Whereas Sunil Khodke and Sachin Mahajan from Bobst highlighted the operator training programme conducted by Bobst which trains operators to provide a skilled workforce to the packaging industry.
James Farrell from Magnesium Elecktron spoke on the application of embossing and hot foil stamping blocks with properties of different raw materials. He spoke about the effective embossing with die-cutting and highlighted the various foiling process and challenges.
The seminar saw around 25 delegates attending the conference and concluded with a round of Q&A session.
1.2-million impressions from every Artize die
A story of Delhi's Luthra family who entered a business they had never heard of, discovered a market and ran with it. The Luthras of Artize Die narrate the turn of events to Rahul Kumar.Established in 2011, Artize Die Makers is perhaps one of the youngest manufacturers of flatbed dies that has already reached the big league. So much so that recently the company inaugurated a brand-new facility in Kundli Industrial Area in Haryana. Understandably, the new facility is much bigger in terms of size, capacity and technology, and is more technical equipped. The company’s earlier plant is in Naraina Industrial Area in the heart of Delhi. With both the plants, Artize now has a capacity and technology to produce 200 dies per day, with the help of a team of 40 people.
The company, run in partnership with Tilak Raj Luthra and his two sons Rahul and Mukul, manufactures all conceivable dies – embossing dies, cutting dies, sticker dies, label dies, stripping dies, Pertinex counter, steel counter, rubberised dies, among others. “We also manufacture special dies, which remove waste part of the sheet automatically,” says Rahul Luthra, adding, “We are the only die manufacturer in North India to offer pre-rubberised dies.”
And to think that Artize almost did not exist! The Luthras are a traditional family of traders with business in Sadar Bazaar, one of the largest wholesale markets of household items in Delhi. When the discussion about expansion and diversification came up a few years back, one of Mukul Luthra’s school friends, who also happens to be printer, suggested that Luthra could start a die-making business.
Until then, the Luthras had no connection with printing, except perhaps placing orders for wedding cards. And they had no clues about manufacturing. Why manufacturing? This is the first question the senior Luthra asked. According to him, trading was the ideal business, no investment and less risk.
“It was certainly not an easy decision for a trader to shift into manufacturing and especially invest such huge sums of money,” says Luthra, “But we did it. Since then, we have been investing continuously and growing too.”
Besides dies, Artize also produces Pertinex counter plates for fine creasing, especially for flexible substrates. “It is a new concept for the Indian market, but it provides fantastic results. Yes, it is slightly expensive, but the quality that it offers is worth it.”
Luthra says Artize is one of the few die-makers in India to use Russian wood, and a combination of European and Japanese rules for dies manufacturing. These tiny details are important for the company and they are what set it apart from others. “Die-making is not just about filling steel in wood,” Luthra argues, “It is no less than an engraving process.”
Learning fast
What propelled this growth spurt for Artize? Luthra’s answer is simple: Be on the forefront of change. “In the last five years, we have learned that new equipment with latest technology is the game-changer, and we opted for those,” says Luthra. For example, only recently, the company installed a 2000-w laser machine. “This has increased our capacity by around four times, as this is the fastest machine in India,” he adds. And thus, Artize is prepared to such an extent that you ask for any die job and it can do it. “We can manufacture all kinds of flatbed dies,” Luthra says.
This is a sound business strategy. The company has found a gap in the Indian market and is now going all out to bridge it. Luthra explains, “We have found that rotary dies for narrow-web flexography presses is a big market, and the market entirely depends on imported dies. We see an opportunity in India, and soon we will invest in both technology and equipment in rotary die manufacturing. Being a domestic manufacturer, we will have advantages like faster and economical delivery.”
19th November, 2016, ( Printweek Magazine )
Artize is one of the few die-makers in India to use Russian wood
Delivery, of course, is an important issue. “We can deliver dies to any part of the country,” says Luthra. “We are working on same day or next day delivery system. After all, timely, or rather before-time delivery is the way to impress your customers.”
Another futuristic technology, Luthra swears by is steel counter plates, and he soon wants to add a facility for manufacturing steel counter plates for better creasing, especially in flexible media.
“Steel counter plates are futuristic and we are keen have these,” he says, adding, “My only concern is that the Indian market is still not aware of it. For a start, we will have to spread the awareness”
Now that the Luthras have tried their hands in manufacturing and tasted success, they cannot wait to begin something new. Luthra has the plans ready.
“Five years from now, once our die making business set-up is under control, we want to diversify into plastic moulding,” he says.
From the days of ‘zero investment, lowrisk’, the Luthra family, which maintains a traditional business approach, has come a long way, especially the next generation, as Luthra concludes, “Investment has to be a continuous process. The goal is that we want to give the market the best product possible.”
By Rahul Kumar, 19 November 2016 ( Printweek Magazine )
Artize invests in capital equipment
When we last visited Artize Die Makers’ Kundli plant in November 2015, it was undergoing construction. And even though several parts of the facility
were still being fixed, the first machine was already installed—a laser-cut- ter from Cutlite Penta of Italy. Moving on to the present, the factory is now com- plete with production going on in full swing and 35 workers already on the job.
Die-making is a specialized job and it requires special tools and a skilled work- force. However, what’s crucial is to possess a certain know-how and far-sighted- ness from the printer who plans to invest in quality dies, which would ultimately
pay off in terms of overall quality and the presentation of the cartons produced. Rahul Luthra, managing director of Artize Die Makers, says the company needs to focus on supplying high-quality dies as there is high demand in the market for quality products. He says, “When we were doing initial market research before venturing into the business of making dies, we found out two essential truths in India—cheap products sell well but quality products sell even better. Cheap can be produced by most and is not exclusive so we decided to stick to quality.” Customer satisfaction is the top priority for the company at the moment with on-time deliveries of dies with no delays. “Our customers should get their dies delivered on time with proper quality checks and assurance. When dies are not delivered on time, the entire printing process gets delayed, which may result in low productivity for a printer and certain loss at the end of a day. Our objective is to help our customers cut down on their make-ready times, reduce downtimes and to work as fast as possible. If our on-time delivery of dies helps reducing overtime or extra shifts for our customers, we would consider it as our reward.” Nevertheless, on-time delivery is easier said than done. This is a specialized business which requires heavy investment and skills to run along. To attend to the growing needs of its customers, Artize has invested in a Delta machine from Italy, which cuts rubbers, pertinex and steel counter plates as precisely as pos- sible. Artize has also decided to invest in software from UK-based Impact. “In our constant endeavor to improve quality and reduce time, we have decided to implement software solutions from Impact Group of UK. Once implemented, this software will help us reduce die-making time from about 4 hours to about 2 hours, which should help us double our productivity.” That’s not all. To take its productivity and quality parameters to the next level, the company plans to invest in another laser die-cutting machine and one more Delta machine. Luthra says, “The current production schedules are not a problem for our existing range of equipment. However, if we do want to multiply our productiv- ity as per market demand, then the situation may not be ideal. So we need to invest in more machines to help scale our business in the imminent future.” All these specialized capital equipment will once again be supplied to Artize by AS Print Aids of Delhi. According to Luthra, “We consider Arun Gandhi of AS Print Aids to be a figure of great support to us. With the untimely and unfortunate demise of one of them, it has been a tremendous loss to the industry as they have helped shape the industry. We would remain associated with them in the long term.” Artize Die Makers recently participated in two exhibitions—IndiaCorr Expo in Mumbai and Eastern Printpack in Kolkata. “We received tremendous response at both these exhibitions and this shows the latent possibilities in these markets for quality dies. We are already supplying dies to not only customers in India but also to our neighboring countries such as Bangladesh, Mauritius and Eastern Euro- pean countries and the Middle East. As of now, according to our estimates, only 5% of the market is based on laser dies. By 2022, this figure may go up to 50%. We are determined to attend to the growing needs of our industry and satisfy our customers with our service and performance,” Luthra concludes.
Krishanu Dutta, 11 th November 2016, Packaging South Aisa.
Top brands launch products at IndiaCorr Part I
Artize Die-Makers is introducing its male female stripping dies and pertinex counter plate and steel counter plate at the IndiaCorr Expo platform.
Established in 2011, Artize Die Makers is perhaps one of the youngest manufacturers of flatbed dies that has already reached the big league. So much so that recently the company inaugurated a brand-new facility in Kundli Industrial Area in Haryana. Understandably, the new facility is much bigger in terms of size, capacity and technology, and is more technical equipped. The company’s earlier plant is in Naraina Industrial Area in the heart of Delhi. With both the plants, Artize now has a capacity and technology to produce 200 dies per day, with the help of a team of 40 people.
According to a company spokesman, the male female stripping dies are manufactured by utilising high-grade raw materials and cutting edge techniques, which are used for eliminating residual waste of cartons in packaging industries. Pertinex counter plate is extensively used to cut and engrave different designs to cater the diverse needs of commercial and residential sectors.
Artize displays a range of solutions in die
Presentation is the means by which brands make their products stand out from competition. Since there is no way by which consumers can assess the quality of what lies inside the box, as a natural in- stinct they add to the cart anything that strikes the eye first. Many brands still miss the vital role on figuring out how the pack will be portrayed at the shelf. This might be due to lack of good ideas, or simply because of time constraints. Whatever may be the issue, finishing of a product is best left to experts in that domain.
Subsequently, postpress finishing is no longer a means to simply cut the carton out of a substrate. Rath- er, it is increasingly seen as a source of better business opportunities in the growing market of packaging and product embellishment. Exemplifying this view is Rahul Luthra, owner at Artize Die Makers, a Delhi-based com- pany that supplies wooden die cut to leading convertors in North India. He says, “The role of postpress finishing and converting has improved in recent years, thanks to automated technology. It has brought new approaches to reducing set-up times, minimizing waste, and increas- ing throughput without sacrificing the quality. Changing market demands and high volumes has encouraged the convertors to see the postpress equipment and tools as an opportunity to add value in the same old packs.”
According to him, presentation and good quality are the most important parameters for mono cartons to give off a good first impression. We at Artize help print ser- vice providers by supplying a comprehensive range of laser dies. Our plant is equipped with laser, benders and CNC router that help us continue our study on new solu- tions, which are not only practical in terms of productiv- ity but also aesthetically attractive.
At IndiaCorr Expo, Artize displayed a range of prod- ucts from its portfolio, such as male-female dies, Braille embossing dies, pre-rubberized dies, and a few others. Pertinex with Penta Creasing die cut and textured leaf- ing blocks were the main products displayed at the stall. Pertinex is a counter plate to have a premium quality on mono cartons while textured leafing blocks give a spe- cial effect and add texture to the surface of packs. “Apart from business, IndiaCorr Expo serves as a common plat- form to meet professionals from the postpress industry and showcase our products to the visitors,” Luthra concludes.
By Kashish Singh, 10 th October 2016, ( Packaging South Asia Magazine )
A fast, efficient and quality-oriented die-maker in North India
Having started with a small laser and rule bending machines, Artize Die Mak- ers commenced its business in the year 2011 in New Delhi for producing laser dies, paper cutting dies, wooden dies, bakelite dies and screen guard dies. It also made flat-bed dies for labels, cartons and blister packs; male and female stripping dies and online embossing dies.
In mid-November 2015, Artize finished installing a laser cutting machine from Cutlite Penta of Italy supplied by Delhi-based AS Print Aids. Mukul Luthra, man- aging director of Artize Die Makers says, “We invested in a laser cutting system since we believe this is the fastest and best way to grow. In terms of our cus- tomer’s needs this is a machine that will provide the best and most consistent quality dies which should help them in their business.”
This new machine is part of a bigger plan to expand the company’s operations and volumes. Artize recently bought a semi-ready 13,000 square feet space in the Kundli industrial area. Luthra explains, “Initially, we had not decided to get this space so soon but this new laser cutting machine arrived earlier than expected and we had to rush and get this space. Although still partially under construction the new laser diemaker is the first machine to be installed. It is nevertheless in full production and with built up space of 18,000 square feet, we are one of the bigger die-makers in the country.”
The machine is performing to expectation, says Luthra. He says, “I have been to the factories of the top diemaking machines and performed the same tests at all of them. Although all the machines more or less performed well, I decided on this machine because of its power, accuracy and lower gas consumption. There wash the cost element as always but the clinching factor was the association of AS Print Aids with whom I have been associ- ated for several years and they have been a great help. Fur- ther, this machine was readily available which reduced my waiting period by a huge margin. This machine has a bed size of 1.5 metre x 2.5 metre and the latest third generation 2 KW Rofin generator. With a stable beam and an engraver that can write even text, this is one of a kind of machine. I would claim this machine to be the finest and fastest in pre- paring die boards for the insertion of cutting, creasing and perforation rules in its class in India at the moment.”
Mukul Luthra is an enthusiastic first generation die-maker still keen to learn more about the craft and technology of his trade. Arun Gandhi of AS Print Aids says, “Mukul has shown a lot of passion and energy in his business. He has travelled to Italy and the US to learn more about diemaking and to hone his skills. In fact, he has attended the Interna- tional Association of Diecutting & Diemaking (IADD) shows in the US to enhance his technical knowledge about the die- making business.”
Luthra adds, “Automation in die manufacturing is a new thing for the Indian market so awareness is less. Earlier printers or converters had to rubberize the dies themselves but we are the first and only die manufacturer in India who are providing pre-rubberized dies for our customers. This reduces a lot of time and effort of our customers and in- creases the life span of a die.” Gandhi adds, “This is more like having good tyres in your car. Unless the tyres are good, the car will not be able to perform to its best.” At the moment, Artize is supplying to converters with au- toplaten diecutters as well as the traditional clam-shell con- verters. Carton manufacturers as well as label printers are its customers. With the plant in Kundli, Artize will be able to supply high quality dies to all of Northern India. “With this machine and facility in place we expect to expand our vol- umes – at least to double in a year. The amount of business that laser diemaking can generate is beyond calculation at the moment as the technology is new and there are only a few suppliers at the moment. The cost increase for high quality precision dies is marginal and would hardly trouble quality carton converters. I am confident that this new tech- nology will help me to meet the demands and needs of my customers in the most qualitative and efficient way,” Luthra concludes.
12 th December, 2015, Packaging South Asia