Industries that depend on effective packaging to store their products for enhanced shelf-life, to protect from moisture and oxygen, especially the food & beverage industry, have to rely on flexible packaging that comprises multiple layers of laminated plastics or laminated paper to protect the foodstuff from degrading.
The key drivers to flexible packaging are-
1. Sustainable, Eco-friendly
It’s reused and recycled. The manufacturing value chain is to a large extent free of hazardous emissions.
2. Customizable
The soft and flexible nature of the plastic in its different forms makes flexible packaging easy to customize. That plastic can be converted into any shape and size of varying strength desired by the clients, which makes for its popularity. Additionally, the aesthetics and overall design that can be easily created further lends credence to the reliability of flexible packaging, and this sometimes provides the seller with a competitive advantage.
3. Innovation and Branding
Flexible packaging offers versatility in the sense that it provides for endless possibilities in creating useful, cost-effective, and durable packaging solutions. Packaging has become an important and an integrated part of marketing, thus packaging designers continuously strive to create unique packaging concepts.
Graphic designers can create any type of artwork and can place them anywhere on the packaging materials to make the packaging eye-catching, beautiful, and communicative. Branding thus becomes very easy.
Thus innovation in packaging has two purposes-
1. Create technologically better and affordable packaging solutions, and
2. Enhance the product branding and image to create a positive perception in the mind of consumers.
4. User-friendly, Convenient, Safe
Today flexible packaging comes with features such as spouts, zip locks, and resealable seals. These provide the consumers with ease of storage and use, without having to bother about using a separate container. Multi-layer films provide for more secure and tamper-resistant packaging with enhanced barrier properties.
5. Cost-efficient
It’s cost-efficient because it provides a higher product-to-package ratio apart from a secure, and reliable one, at a cost that’s much lower than the traditional packaging. It also provides for safety in the supply chain and at the retail stores. Overall it is highly cost-efficient.
6. Lightweight, easy and safe to ship and distribute
It’s easy to transport and less space-consuming because of being lightweight. It is less likely to get damaged during shipping if stored properly. The airtight packaging that protects food from environmental elements such as heat, oxygen, and moisture, increases the shelf life of perishable products.
All these features and specifications for packaging are met by the technologically efficient and user-friendly Printing and Converting machines. These machines are truly the warhorses of the flexible packaging industry.
Printing technologies that get incorporated in today’s versatile rotogravure printing machines provide the industry with cutting-edge superiority in offering multi-color printed film materials at high speeds and with amazing repeatability. With the increasing demand from the food & beverage industry to produce a high quantity of packaging materials in a short time period, the printing and the other converting machines for down-the-line processes such as inspection of the printed rolls, solvent-base or solvent-less lamination to provide multi-layered films and laminates to impart barrier properties and enhanced freshness and shelf-life to the food products, slitting and rewinding of the laminated rolls in the desired size of the packaging, and then the pouch packaging and sealing machines, all have to be very robust and rugged, and user-friendly to work tirelessly with reduced down-time.
Converting machines such as solvent-less laminator, solvent-base laminator, slitter rewinder, and the inspection and doctoring machines are the major offerings today of Niswa Engg Solutions India Pvt. Ltd.
Niswa’s machines are characterized by-
- Advanced Automation and Electrics – IoT enabled automation and high performance asynchronous induction motors
- Robust, and precision CNC engineered mechanical parts – Highly stable and rugged structural dynamics of the mechanical frame and moving cylindrical parts, which is important for sustained reliability and high performance
- High quality components – all the components such as rollers, pneumatics, gearboxes, mixers, PLC and Electric Drives (VFD) are from globally reputed brands
Niswa Engg Solutions has effectively plugged the gap that existed in the flexible packaging industry of a technology-savvy and precision-engineered quality machinery manufacturer in North India. Within a short span of fewer than 2 years out of which more than 6 months have been marred with country-wide curbs and lockdowns due to Covid-19 pandemic, Niswa Engg Solutions has created a buzz in the market and is now positioned as a leading OEM for high quality Converting machines in India.
The food and beverage industry is growing at 22% and 15% respectively y-o-y basis, and this is creating demand for more and more flexible packaging materials, which would need more efficient machines at competitive prices. It is a very highly competitive market that has OEMs of all sizes and statuses, but having taken a tough call to only manufacture the high-end feature-packed machines, Niswa Engg Solutions has adopted a zero-tolerance policy of quality and engineering so that it could compete in global markets.
Having already executed the first part of prestigious export order from the African continent, and with orders from major Converting companies in India, the order book stands very healthy for 2021-22. Niswa Engg Solutions is well placed to grow sustainably in the coming years.