Siegwerk India in association with Parakh Agro announced the setting up of India’s comprehensive, first of its kind INK LAB in Printing Engineering Department at PVG’s College of Engineering and Technology, Pune (PVG’s COET). The initiative aims to educate and engage with the students of the Printing Engineering Department as well as the future workforce of the industry.
The lab is the initiative of the college’s 32-year old printing engineering department and the first lab that Siegwerk, a 180-year-old leading manufacturer of printing inks, has helped set up in an Indian College. Setting up of the Ink Lab will enable the Printing Engineering Department in being equipped with Kyowa Surface Tensiometer DY300 which will help in understanding the interaction between substrate and ink. The role of Siegwerk India to this project will be the contribution of the equipment, industry best practices and knowledge transfer by its experts through sessions for the students. The Ink lab will help facilitate and benefit students to get a hands-on experience of dealing with Ink Technology.
The constant challenge of flexographic printing is not only to match rotogravure in terms of graphic quality and resolution but also to meet commercial expectations of printers and brand owners. This printing lab will help Siegwerk, Parakh Agro and the institute to jointly work on this aspect and evolve a scientific and practical solution to this conundrum.
PVG’s COET is the driving force behind graduating 60 print specialists every year. So far, the college has produced more than 1600 print specialists over the last 27 years.
This initiative will set to be a two-pronged enabler that will look at training students on live projects, understand substrate-ink interaction for problem solving and reach out to the current existing workforce from the industry to enhance and improve their existing skills by inviting them to use the Ink Lab.
Commenting on the project, Mr. Ashish Pradhan, CEO, Siegwerk India said “This project is a very significant development for the college and the industry as a whole, as we are attempting to create knowledge sharing through best resources from the industry. The collaboration between an ink manufacturer, a printer and the academia to bring in cutting edge technology to the Indian printing industry is unique. Globally, the flexographic printing ink market is projected to hit $11 Billion by 2024 (Global Market Insights Inc) - Our partnership today, therefore, is extremely significant as it is paving the way for the Indian printing ink industry to be a part of the global growth story.”
Dr. Akshay V. Joshi, Professor, Printing Engineering Department, P. V. G’s College of Engineering and Technology, Pune, India “We are extremely glad to be able to partner with Siegwerk and upgrade our existing infrastructure as well as bring in relevant additions to our existing syllabus. With this development we are confident of equipping our students with the latest ongoing in the industry and hence prepare them as ready-made resources for on ground requirements”
The India operations of Siegwerk is now into its 11th year with a factory in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan and offices spread across India. With a growth of 20% per annum, Siegwerk India, employs over 450 people and is deemed as one of its best performing entities worldwide.
