Uflex Industries Pvt. Ltd.

is engaged in the business of Packaging and Converting

Machines. Established in Noida (adjacent to the national capital, New Delhi, India) in
1984, it is one of the leading corporate houses in the Asia Pacific Region offering,
among the other things, a single window Total Packaging Solutions.
Uflex has the following business divisions:

Films Division
Engineering Division
Holography Division
Converting Division
Cylinder Division
Chemical Division

My orientation covered the Films Division, Converting Division and Cylinder Division.

FILMS DIVISION

The following are the products made in the films division. These films are then
supplied to the converting division for printing, lamination, pouching.

1. BOPET FILMS - BIAXIALLY ORIENTED POLYETHYLENE

TERAPTHALATE FILMS
FLEXPET - Flex Films produce over 1,60,000 MT/Annum (350 Million Lbs) of
BOPET Films on its seven state-of-the-art plants.
RANGE 8 - 75 MICRONS AVAILABLE IN :
PLAIN, ON-LINE CORONA TREATED, CHEMICALLY PRIMED, MATT, HEAT SEALABLE,
METALLIZABLE, ENVIRONMENT FRIENDLY, CLEAR, EXTRA CLEAR VARIETIES
FLEXPET Performing Properties
1. Superior mechanical properties
2. Improved resistance to chemicals
3. Good barrier against oxygen
4. Dimensional stability at elevated temperatures
5. Good optical clarity
6. Excellent surface treatment & primer coatings
7. Excellent surface smoothness
8. Resistance to abrasion
APPLICATIONS
1. Printing & Lamination
2. Metallizing
3. Industrial Coating
4. Thermal Lamination
5. Encapsulation
6. Hot Stamping
7. Cable Wrapping
8. Metallic Yarn
9. Electrical & Thermal Insulation
10.Pressure Sensitive Tapes
11.Heat sealable films
12.Lidding (Dairy products)
13.Release Film
14.Retort Applications
15.Silicon Coating
16.Extra clear film for Embossing & Holograms and many more

2. BOPP Films - BIAXIALLY ORIENTED POLYPROPYLENE FILMS

FLEXOPP- Flex Films produce over 72,000 MT/Annum (160 Million Lbs) of
FLEXOPP on three state-of-the-art PLC controlled lines.

FLEXOPP
RANGE 8 - 75 MICRONS AVAILABLE IN:
PLAIN, HEAT-SEALABLE, METALLIZABLE, MATT, PEARLISED, CAVITATED, OVERWRAP,
WHITE OPAQUE, SPECIALTY FILM GRADES
FLEXOPP Performing Properties:
1. Good mechanical strength
2. Good chemical resistance
3. Good dimensional stability
4. Excellent barrier against water
5. Superior optical clarity
6. One or both side heat sealable
7. Good stiffness
8. Resistance to tear and abrasion
Applications
1. Packaging & Conversion
2. Metallizing
3. Industrial Coating
4. Printing and Lamination
5. Photo Albums
6. Encapsulation
7. Overwraps (CDs, Cigarettes)
8. Synthetic Papers
9. Holography
10.Adhesive Tapes
11.Textile Bags
12.Hot & Cold Antifog
13.Cables over wrap
14.Reams/Sheets wrapping
15.Confectionery packaging
16.Biscuit/Sandwich over wrap
17.Inner wrap
18.Embossing
19.Anti-fog (Food products)
20.Thermal Lamination
21.Shrink wrap and many more

3. CPP FILMS -Cast Polypropylene Films

FLEXCPP - FLEXCPP is a highly dynamic and versatile film with exceptional gloss,
excellent transparency, heat sealability, good twisting property and excellent tear
strength. Flex Films Cast Polypropylene film line has a capacity of 16,000 MT /

Annum (35 Million Lbs) and can be supplied in widths upto 3000 mm, thickness
range of 18-200 microns. The film can be offered with corona treatment on either
one or both sides.
FLEXCPP RANGE 18 - 200 MICRONS
AVAILABLE IN :
PLAIN, HEAT-SEALABLE, METALLIZABLE, POLISHED, MIRROR, EMBOSSED SURFACE,
GLOSS / MATTE FINISH, STIFF, FLEXIBLE, CLEAR, OPAQUE VARIETIES
FLEXCPP Performing Properties:
1. New aesthetic possibilities for enhanced shelf appeal
2. Good gloss, transparency and heat sealability
3. Versatile structural properties
4. Good oxygen and moisture barrier
5. Customisable for special applications
Applications
1. Packaging & Conversion
2. Food Wraps
3. Lamination
4. Anti-fog
5. Candy/confectionery Wrap
6. Garment Bags
7. Retort Packaging
8. Stationery Packaging
9. Vacuum Metallization
10.Deep Freeze Application
11.Over Wrap
12.Floral Wraps, and many more

4. Metallized Films -BOPP, BOPET & CPP Films

FLEXMETPROTECT
FLEXMETPROTECT high barrier metallized films is the ultimate solution for
packaging a wide variety of products that require extended shelf life apart from host
of applications in the textile and capacitor industries. Armed with seven state-ofthe-art metallizers, with Plasma treatment facilities for better metal to film
adhesion, Flex Films is producing over 45,000 MT (100 Million Lbs) of Barrier
Metallized films per annum with optical density ranging from 0.4 to 3.5 upto a width
of 2,850 mm.
FLEXMETPROTECT
8-75 microns for BOPET 8-75 microns for BOPP 18-200 microns for CPP
APPLICATIONS
1. Converting and Laminating

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Synthetic Zari & Metallic Yarn

Electronic Goods Packaging
Insulation Ducting
Decorative Applications
Lidding Applications
Embossing & Holograms
Sandwitch Lamination
Twist Wrap & Confectionery, and many more

5. AlOx Coated Films

AlOx coating is the application of a thin and highly transparent coating of aluminium
oxide on packaging films that gives the materials extremely high moisture and gas
barrier properties that rival those of aluminium foils and metallised films. It is the
only truly high-barrier flexible packaging material available that is transparent and
allows the packaged product to be clearly visible. This not only provides a big
marketing plus but also facilitates operations like optical scanning/inspection and
metal detection during and after the packaging process, something that is not
possible with aluminium foils or metallised films. The levels of barrier available from
AlOx coated films are far superior to those provided by other transparent flexible
packaging materials like PVDC-based structures and EVOH coextrusions.
Furthermore, moisture and gas permeabilities are not affected by high levels of
temperature or relative humidity and are independent of the base film thickness
thus enabling maximum downgauging of packaging materials. An important feature
of AlOx coated films is that they are microwavable, which aluminium foils and
metallised films are not. As they can be retorted as well, this makes them ideally
suited for the packaging of processed foods that can be microwave heated or
cooked in the pack itself before consumption.
AlOx coating is cutting edge technology and only a very select handful of film
manufacturers are equipped with AlOx coating capabilities.

CONVERTING DIVISION
The converting division consists of:

Printing

Lamination
Slitting
Pouching
W.P.P.
Lab

Printing
Printing is used to create a visible identifiable image consistently, for a large
no. of impressions.
In Uflex, there are 2 types of Printing processes:

Roto-Gravure Printing
Flexography

Roto-Gravure Printing
It is a type of intaglio printing process; that is,
it involves engraving the image onto an image
carrier. In gravure printing, the image is
engraved onto a cylinder because, like offset
printing and flexography, it uses a rotary
printing press.
In direct image carriers such as gravure
cylinders, the ink is applied directly to the
cylinder and from the cylinder it is transferred
to the substrate
While the press is in operation, the engraved
cylinder is partially immersed in the ink
fountain, filling the recessed cells. As the cylinder rotates, it draws ink out of
the fountain with it. The doctor blade scrapes the cylinder before it makes
contact with the paper, removing excess ink from the non-printing (nonrecessed) areas and leaving in the cells the right amount of ink required: this
tool is located quite close to the paper so that the ink left in the cells does
not have enough time to dry. Next, the paper gets sandwiched between the
impression roller and the gravure cylinder: this is where the ink gets
transferred from the recessed cells to the paper. The purpose of the
impression roller is to apply force, pressing the paper onto the gravure
cylinder, ensuring even and maximum coverage of the ink. The capillary
action of the substrate and the pressure from impression rollers force the ink

out of the cell cavity and transfer it to the substrate (Figure 1). Then the
paper goes through a dryer because it must be completely dry before going
through the next color unit and absorbing another coat of ink.
Because gravure is capable of transferring more ink to the paper than other
printing processes, it is noted for its remarkable density range (light to
shadow) and hence is a process of choice for fine art and photography
reproduction, though not typically as clean an image as that of offset
lithography. Gravure's major quality shortcoming is that all images, including
type and "solids," are actually printed as dots, and the screen pattern of
these dots is readily visible to the naked eye.
Gravure is an industrial printing process capable of consistent high quality
printing. Since the Gravure printing process requires the creation of one
cylinder for each colour of the final image, it is very expensive and best
suited for high volume printing.
A wide range of substrates such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester,
BOPP, etc. can be printed in the gravure press. Gravure printing is one of the
common processes used in the converting industry.
Advantages
The rotogravure printing process is the most popular printing process used in
flexible-packaging manufacturing, because of its ability to print on thin film
such as polyester, OPP, nylon, and PE, which come in thicknesses of 10 to 30
micrometers.
Other appreciated features include:

printing cylinders that can last through large-volume runs without

getting worn out

good quality image reproduction

low per-unit costs running high volume production

Disadvantages
Shortcomings of the gravure printing process include:

high start-up costs: hundreds of thousands of copies needed to make it

profitable

rasterized lines and texts

use of chemicals in the ink.

In Uflex, there are 8 gravure machines among which 7 have 8 colour

stations, and 1 has 10 colour stations in which the last section does printing
in reverse direction.

S.n
o.

Machine
Name

No.
of
Colo
urs

Made
in

Max.
speed
(m/min
)

Cylind
er
size(m
m)

Rotomec(ol
d)

250

Sungan

Italy
S.
Korea

3
4
5

8
10
8

Italy
Italy
Flex

450
300
200

Italy

400

Italy

400

Cerutti
Schiavi
Rotoflex
Rotomec(n
ew)
Rotomec(n
ew)
Rotomec(n
ew)

400

Ebeam

Italy
Germa
ny

1060
1200,
1060
1280,
1370
1280
690
1280,
1370
1280,
1371
1280,
1372

500

6
7

300

1 and 2 are Main Line Shaft machines, while 3 to 8 are Electronic

Line Shaft

CYLINDER DIVISION
The cylinder division consists of the following departments :
1. Art department
2. Pre Press Department
3. Production
a. Machine/Tool/Lath Section
b. Plating Section(Nickle/Copper/Chrome)
c. Polish Master Section
d. Engraving Section
e. Proofing Section

The first step of Gravure is to create the cylinder with the engraved
images that need to be printed: the engraving process will create on the
cylinder surface the cells that will contain the ink in order to transfer it to
the paper. Since the amount of ink contained in the cells corresponds to
different colour intensities on the paper, the dimensions of the cells must
be carefully set: deeper cells will produce more intensive colours whereas
less deep cells will produce less intensive ones. There are three methods

of photoengraving that have been used for engraving of gravure

cylinders, where the cell open size or the depth of cells can be uniform or
variable.
Gravure cylinders are usually made of steel and plated with copper and a
light-sensitive coating. Previously machined to remove imperfections in
the copper, most cylinders are now laser engraved. In the past, they were
either engraved using a diamond stylus or chemically etched using ferric
chloride, which creates pollution. If the cylinder was chemically etched, a
resist (in the form of a negative image) was transferred to the cylinder
before etching. The resist protects the non-image areas of the cylinder
from the etchant. After etching, the resist was stripped off. The operation
is analogous to the manufacture of printed circuit boards. Following
engraving, the cylinder is proofed and tested, reworked if necessary, and
then chrome plated.
A rotogravure printing press has one printing unit for each color, typically
CMYK or cyan, magenta, yellow and key (printing terminology for black),
but the number of units varies depending on what colors are required to
produce the final image. There are five basic components in each color
unit: an engraved cylinder (AKA "Gravure cylinder") whose circumference
can differ according to the layout of the job; an ink fountain; a doctor
blade; an impression roller; a dryer.