This year, the India Packaging Show 2007, India Converting Show 2007, India Flexo Show 2007 and India Corrugated Show 2007 came together to make the largest packaging event seen in the country. Spread over 10,000 square meters of exhibition space , the event was held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi between
the 21st and 24th of August 2007 . It featured 213 exhibitors from all over the world including several leading companies in the Packaging business from India. The show attracted 13,446 visitors from India and abroad.

Also featured alongside the main exhibition was PackAge 2007- the International Conference on Packaging on the 22nd and 23rd of August 2007 at Pragati Maidan itself. The conference showcased leading speakers from all over the world, each of whom was a well-known expert in various areas relating to the packaging business. The session 1 of day one of the conference with 'Converting' as its main topic saw industry leaders like Dr Charles Bishop and Dr Ed Cohen, both from AIMCAL, Stee Kon Boon Cheong of Rohm & Haas, Rakesh Shah of Windmoller & Holscher and Doron Averbuc from AVT speak extensively on the trends and opportunities in the field of converting. This session was chaired by Harveer S Sahni of Weldon Celloplast Limited Session 2 of day one featured Z.A. Lakdawala from Micro Huber Inks, Nilest Pinto of Bobst India K. Nagesh of HP Indigo and Kelvin Tan of Kodak Graphics focussing on 'Package Printing'. A panel discussion featuring all the speakers was the highlight of the session that was chaired by Deepak Manchanda of Autumn Design.

The first session of day two of the conference featured Amit Ray of Uflex Industries, Prateep Misra of TCS, Dr Anup Ghosh from IIT Delhi, K Ravi of Hassia Packaging, S Chidamber, Packaging South Asia and Dr D Sarma of Trident ITW. The session was devoted to general solutions useful for the packaging end users and was chaired by V. K, Soodan Industry Consultant .

The second session of day two on 'Corrugated Packaging' saw eminent industry stalwarts including H Madan of S n S Containers, Kenneth Fang of E.I. Dupont, Chen Jian Ping of Shanghai Chaochang Packaging, Ram Kumar Sunkara and B.K. Hari, both from FCBM sharing their experiences with the large number of corrugators and users present. This session was chaired by Barun Banarjee of Nestle India.

The Federation of Corrugated Box Manufacturers (FCBM) organised their Managing Committee meeting concurrently with the exhibition. Also organised alongside the exhibition was the Annual General Meeting of the India Flexographic Technical Association (IFTA) and the EGM of the Label Manufacturers Association (LMAI). AIMCAL organised its popular ' Summer School India 2007' at the exhibition venue. This was the first time that the Summer School was organized outside of the USA or Europe.

"When other events and industry meetings are planned around an exhibition it is a sign that the exhibition has attained the status of the Industry Event, ” said Veerendra Malik, a leading printer, Publisher and an opinion maker.

“Running equipment is the life of an exhibition and I have never seen so many machines working at one place in any other Indian packaging event,” said Kaku Kohli who was himself showing a high-speed slitter/ rewinder in operation. Other working equipment in the converting/ flexo segment included a narrow web label presses from Apex Rototech, Starflex and R.K. Machine; video based web print inspection systems from BST Sayona and Erhardt + Leimer; rotogravure press with servo technology and a differential shaft type slitter/rewinder with servo technology from Pelican Rotoflex; The star of this segment was, however, the 6-colour Rotatek Ecoflex line at the stand of Creed Engineers.

The Packaging section featured several running machines that included FFS equipment from Hassia Packaging, Nichrome, Rollatainers, Sanket Pack Seal, VS International, Hitech International and Technocrafts; automatic shrink tunnels from Shrink Packaging; integrated end-of-line packaging systems and consumables from Millennium Packaging Solutions; pouch making machine from PrimoPack, and Hassia Packaging; technology modules like intelligent in-feed and top-loading systems and optimised handling functions from Siemens ; Conveyors from Flexlink Systems, and AG Engineers; Automation systems from A B B , Caterpillar, B&R Industrial Automation, Rockwell, Electronic Systems Controls, Pepperl-Fuchs and Electronica Machine Tools. Also featured were maintenance-free high start stop cycle electromagnetic clutch and brake systems from modimaz, smart and intelligent feeding and distribution systems from Noida Fabcon Machines, paper bag making machines from Yenyeskay Machine Tools and testing equipment from Paptech Instruments, Unique Controls and Polytech Instruments were the other equipment seen in action.

The Corrugated Show featured chain-fed 2 colour printer, slotter, die cutter and stacker from Shanghai Chaochang Packing Machinery, Multicolour flexo printer, slotter and diecutter for corrugated packaging from IMG Dong Fang and corrugated box making machinery from Natraj, Five Star, Atlas Industrial, Sidhartha, Neelkanth Machinery and One World Inc.

Many new products were launched during the four days of the exhibition. These included the continuous motion VFFS machine from MICO Bosch, high speed servo driven FFS machine from Uflex Industries; Hugo Beck high-speed shrink wrapping machines from Shrink Packaging Systems; calendared food grade rigid PVC blister films and sheets from Morgan Industries; Compact logix controllers, motion controllers and safety products from Rockwell Automation; premium cosmetic jars and stock shampoo containers/caps from Regent Plast; polybag making machine from Rajoo Engineers; new-generation cantilevered slitter/rewinder from Print & Paper Sales; thermal laminating machines with auto cutter and fully automatic UV coating and curing machines with spot application facility from Abhishek Printline; Schlumpf V-type and O-type safety chucks from Erhardt + Leimer; high quality anilox rollers from Parmarco Global Graphic and Trodat self-ink stamps; Powerstamp pre-ink stamps and Imagepac the world's only pre-packed liquid polymer for stamps from Trodat/Gayatri Graphics.

There were a host of products on display and information being disseminated. These ranged from the printing presses from Nilpeter, Mark Andy, Windmoller & Holscher, Polygraph, Focus, MPS, Orthotec, Bang Sung, Etirama, Alca Gamut, Iwasaki, Taiyo, Zonten, Expert and Pelican; consumables like adhesives and coatings from HenkelCAC, Rohm & Haas, ASLV Polymers, Coim India, Morgan Industries and Upto Date Plastics; gravure cylinders from Uflex, Shilp Gravures, Shreeraj Roto, Krishna Gravures, Singla Gravures, Kannodia Technoplast, Yu Cheng Rotogravures and Pin Dot; doctor blades from Convertech, Astir and Mona Equipment; prepress equipment like GretagMacbeth and X-Rite densitometers, spectro-densitometers, plate readers, colour management systems and film readers from Advanced Graphic Systems; processed photopolymer plates from Pin Dot and plate-making equipment from Innovative. Artpro packaging software from Artwork Systems/Kohli Graphics, thermoflex range of platesetters, flexcel flexo plates and Kodak approval NX proofing solutions from Kodak were other popular featured products.

Autoprint also used the show to announce their appointment as exclusive selling agents for OMET, a leading international manufacturer of narrow web printing presses.

The exhibition was most impressively organised and laid out and all visitors and exhibitors expressed their satisfaction at the international quality of organisation and facilities. "When you see exhibitors putting in money to make their booths stand out, you know the exhibition has arrived," said Deepak Manchanda, Industry Consultant and a speaker at the conference, marvelling at the several custom designed stands vying for attention.

A lot of the equipment on display was sold, the most prominent being the 6-colour Rotatek Ecoflex line. This was bought by Update Prints, a leading Indian manufacturer of self-adhesive labels. All exhibitors commented that the quality of visitors was very high and focussed on genuine potential buyers. Many machine manufacturers and suppliers of materials also mentioned that the show had been very good for them in generating promising enquiries and leads for future business."It has been a very good show for us. We have received many new enquiries from serious potential buyers of equipment. The quality of visitors has been of a high order. We have already signed up for a much bigger stall for India Packaging Show 2008," said Sunil Jain, President, Rajoo Engineers. "We have had a very happy experience. We will definitely look at taking a bigger stall at India Packaging Show 2008," said C. Prasad, Marketing Manager, MICO Bosch.

Date: 09-Oct-2007

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