Kohli Industries, a leading printing and converting machinery manufacturer for the flexible packaging industry, help their In-person Open House after two years. The Open House allowed the company to meet its customers, partners, vendors and peers to personally introduce its recent innovations to them. The official date for the event was 20-24 July, which took place in Mumbai.
At the Open House, the company demonstrated four machines for the flexible packaging production. They were Thea-9one8 gravure printing press, Gaia solventless laminator, Zeus slitter rewinder, and Eos inspection winder.
In demonstration was 10 colour Thea-9one8 printing at a speed of 400 meters per/minute. It was displayed for the very first time to customers after being introduced virtually by online open houses in 2020 & 2021. Gaia was laminating at a speed of 400 meters per/minute, whereas Zeus and Eos ran at speeds of 600 meters per/minute. The company will also introduce a new multi process and multi technology laminator at the K 2022 show.
Kaku Kohli, CEO of Kohli Industries, speaking about his response from the visitors at the open house and the experience during the challenging Covid period, said, “Due to outstanding response from the customers we had to extend the dates of our Open House. Initially, it was planned for five days. But to accommodate high customer visits, we started the open house from 18th July onwards. Covid gave us an opportunity to streamline our production and introduce new range of printing and lamination machines. The first five months of lockdown were difficult for us, but 2021 was much better, and 2022 has been fantastic.”
“Covid-19 made people realize that packaging is very essential for food safety. Secondly, there was a sudden change in demand from small to large packs during Covid, so most companies went for large packs, but after the pandemic, they are now back to small packs. Now that the market has opened, the volume has increased, creating a demand for new machines. Customers today want better technology machines where they can save on power, wastage and labour cost, a machine that can give more production and low cost and add more profit to their business. We have developed our new range of machines with the latest technology and automation to reduce wastages and eventually bestow higher returns for our customers.”
In the ongoing conversation, he also explained the difference between gravure and flexo, for which many people still have some misconceptions. He said, “that gravure and flexo are two different techniques that cater to different customer segments; they will never be competing with each other. Flexo is mainly preferred for medium-run and short-run jobs, whereas gravure is essential for medium to long-run jobs. The demand for all the three, i.e. flexo, gravure, and digital mediums will grow gradually. Many companies are installing all three technologies in their plant to maintain better efficiency.”
Kohli industries have made many installations all over the world. Soon they also plan to introduce gravure presses specially designed for short and ultra-short runs. All four machines in display during the Open house will be Kohli’s first installation in Bangladesh.
Kaku Kohli also told us about his company’s relationship with Rajoo Engineers and said that these past four years of partnership with Rajoo have been great. They are already working on their 14th Extrusion Laminator within a very short span of time. Kohli takes care of the web handling part, and Rajoo takes care of the extrusion, heating, electronics and automation part.
Concluding the conversation with his views about the market, he said, “I have never expected anything from the market. I believe in improving ourselves in delivering the best quality and services to our customers. Right now, we are looking forward to the K Show and are also developing some new technologies which will be very interesting to share with the market at the right time.”
“I really appreciate the work that all converters did during the lockdown. Inspite of covid restrictions, increasing raw material prices and logistics nightmare, they have kept the supply chain going.”
