Open house at the new Osho Flexibles plant in Bhagwanpur

A brand new flexo printing unit

At a recently conducted open house at Osho Flexibles‘ new 12,000 square meter state-of-the-art flexible packaging plant, the company invited dignitaries from the packaging industry including convertors and brand owners. The plant, housing two new CI flexo presses, has been in production for the last three months. Along with the two new CI flexo presses, the flexible packaging unit has a Nordmeccanica Simplex SL solvent-less laminator, center-seal pouch making machine from XL Plastics, print inspection systems and two blown film lines from Rajoo Engineers. A third blown film line from Rajoo Engineers is currently underway at the Osho factory located in Bhagwanpur, a few kilometers from Roorkee.

Among the two blown film lines installed at the Osho Flexibles unit by Rajoo Engineers, one is a 3-layer and the second one a 7-layer blown film line. The 7-layer blown film line produces UVOH and nylon-based barrier films as well as PE-based non-barrier films while the 3-layer blown film line is for all kinds of PE/PP-based non-barrier films. The output of the 7-layer blown film line is in the range of 350 kilograms an hour of barrier films and 450 kilograms an hour of non-barrier films. It can produce films up to a width of 1500 mm. The blown film line is also equipped with an HMI controller to monitor the inputs. The 3-layer blown film line is capable of producing non-barrier films at a speed of 600 kilograms an hour with a maximum web width of 2100 mm. Both the plants are equipped with Internal Bubble Cooling (IBC) system and complete automation from Germany – material conveying, blending and dosing, GSM control and integrated process control through a touch screen. Another 3-layer non-IBC blown film line is currently under insallation and will soon be up and running according to a spokesperson from Rajoo Engineers at the Osho Flexibles factory.

The company also houses a CI flexo press from the Italian manufacturer Carraro. This is the first CI flexo press from Carraro in India and has been sold by Manugraph. The 8-color press can print on surface as well as reverse. The maximum speed of the machine is 350 meters per minute and if offers a maximum web width of 1300 mm. The machine is equipped with a turret system for unwind and rewind and also has an Ink Viscosity Controlling system. Materials such as LDPE, HDPE, polyester, paper, BOPP, PVC and aluminum foil can run on this machine with ease. The visitors at the open house appreciated the print quality and were of the opinion that it is better than most European manufacturers that they have seen thus far.

Manugraph will be having a live demo of Manuflex – CI Flexo Press from Manugraph in collaboration with Carraro, Italy at Indiaplast exhibition in Greater Noida from 28 February to 4 March 2019, at Hall 14 Stand B-3. The press is indigenously built at Manugraph's facility in Kolhapur.

Osho Flexibles has also invested in a brand new MIRAFLEX II A from Windmöller & Hölscher. The 8-color CI flexo press having a maximum printing width of 1270 mm runs at a maximum speed of 400 mpm. The press is intelligent with advanced automation system and the entire press can be controlled from a single panel. The MIRAFLEX is equipped with advanced inspection and defect detection system from Windmöller & Hölscher, which is integrated and future ready for packaging 4.0. The inspection system installed in the press is called VISION. The system is capable of detecting even a minute spot, as small as 0.001 mm. The turboclean inking and washup system guarantees good inking and cleaning results. If one wishes to flush all the colors in the tank and clear the ink pipeline, including individual pipeline, one can do so with just a push of a button. MIRAFLEX is capable of printing even on very thin and sensitive substrates with max production speed.

"MIRAFLEX is being widely accepted by convertors across the globe. As of now, W&H has sold more than 600 MIRAFLEX presses throughout the world. The press is designed on a modular concept and is equipped with future-ready features such as EASY-SET HD for superior impression setting, EASY-REG D — a one-touch register setting system — and EASY-COL for color-matching and ink preparation. W&H also offers the flexographic printing press with speeds up to 800 mpm," says Karan Sud, assistant manager of Sales at Windmöller & Hölscher India.

Scanvik Pacakging has also provided equipment to the new flexographic printing unit of Osho Flexibles. Osho, after careful evaluation of its requirements and available options in the market, opted for Scanvik. At Osho, a number of equipment have been installed through Scanvik such as Flexo Wash FW992 XL fully automatic Anilox Cleaner and PW82 WR automatic Plate Washer for washing printing plates with eco-friendly reusable liquid. Scanvik has also installed a new generation BIEFFEBI plate mounter model UNICA VM with its patented VDS system, which apart from registering micro dots also registers the image.

Osho has further invested in a Hudson Sharp high speed wicketing line (Model 5750 W) with production speed up to 400 cpm for making bread bags, fem-care and diaper bags. The machine has just been shipped and will be installed by mid-April. Apart from this, the company has opted for plate printing sleeves from Rossini for both its newly purchased flexographic presses and SIMEC sleeves for its Cyber Flex CI flexo press.

At its Quality Analysis laboratory in the new plant, Osho has added testing instruments to examine various parameters in the packaging produced at the factory. The lab has a Dart Impact Tester for examining the strength of the packaging. It also has a Universal Testing Machine for finding certain values pertaining to the tensile strength, elongation, seal strength and bond strength of the packaging. A core collapsing tester is used to measure the strength of the core. Other equipment at the lab include a heat sealer, a bursting strength examiner for corrugated boxes, a hot air oven and an ink rub tester for measuring scuffing or ink rub resistance and a coefficient of friction tester to evaluate the friction between films and between films and the surface.

"The requirement of packaging in India is huge and the resources are too few. We have an experience in the packaging field and because of that we got to know that the opportunities in this segment are huge. Keeping this in mind, we decided to set up a new plant. Osho Flexibles has another plant, half a kilometer away from the existing one, where printing on flexible packaging is done on rotogravure presses. The newly commisioned plant houses only flexographic printing machines. The old flexible packaging unit of Osho can produce flexible packaging worth Rs. 6 crores a month while the new plant is capable of producing packaging worth Rs. 30 crores a month," says Pradeep Gupta of Osho Flexibles.

Osho has also set up a solvent recycling plant at its new packaging unit from Orfu wherein the waste solvent is passed through an extruder which dumps all the waste into a bin and sends the purified solvent to a different container. A kilometer away from the new packaging plant is Osho's plastic recycling plant. At this plant, the company converts nearly 1 ton of plastic waste to pellets or granules every day.

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