Installation Diary - Passage To India
By David Broadbent
(Anilox Metering Technology Marketing Manager)
As I write this I am sat outside, the 35 degree sun is beating down upon my back, I have a cold bottle of water by my side and if I close my eyes I could almost be on a Mediterranean beach in Mid August. However this is not the case, I am actually a 2 hour drive outside Mumbai, India at Oriental Containers, Murbad on my first Anilox Conversion Installation and it is the middle of December, a million miles away from the freezing temperatures and the Christmas Trees of home.
I flew out with Technical Director Peter Gallagher on Wednesday afternoon, we hopped on a flight from Manchester to Heathrow and after the between terminal trek at Heathrow we boarded our Virgin Atlantic overnight flight bound for Mumbai. The flight was very comfortable, for a change the food was very nice and I even managed 4 hours of sleep. As I awoke I looked out of the window to see us flying high over the mountains of Iran and within another couple of hours we touched down in India.
The first thing that hits you as you step off the plane is the heat, it was just after Midday and was some 30 degrees hotter than England. The driver was there to pick us up and he drove us the 2 and a half hours eastbound to Murbad. It was a massive culture shock compared to England. The driving styles for one, our driver used his horn more in our one journey than I have done all year, however this was the normal occurrence. We pulled into the guest house that was to be our home for the next 6 days and were introduced to Bhua, our chef and housekeeper. We were driven the few hundred yards to the factory, the potential threat of snakes was enough persuasion for me to hop into the jeep for the short trip and proceeded to unpack the equipment we had shipped over in the previous weeks. It was early evening by this time so we went back to the guesthouse to be greeted with a cold lager and a lovely Indian meal. The only downside to life in India for us was the power cuts, 4 hours every day with no electricity, it happened when we got back to the guesthouse and rendered the shower unavailable so me and Peter shared a candlelit dinner, I can assure you there was no romance involved at all.
The morning after we went into the factory as the OC machine operators stripped down their existing system. This takes about 2 hours and gave us the chance to set the framework for the machine ready to go on once strip down had been completed. We were given a constant supply of bottled, ice cold, water, which was much needed given the heat. The side frames were fitted and the necessary adjustments connected. Once this was done we were able to slot in the Lightweight Roller and set it to the Rubber Roller. The staff at Oriental Containers were exceptionally helpful, despite the language barrier, and did all they could to help us out.
The next task was to set the Quick Release Anilox Chamber to the Anilox Roller. As it is quick release this took only a matter of seconds and once a position had been established the Chamber frame could go off to the Machine Shop for pinning. This is not a big job and whilst it was being pinned Peter showed me how the gears are set up to drive the Anilox System. By the time we had set these up the pinned Chamber Frame appeared to which we attached the Chamber and the Tray. The pump was connected to enable the lacquer to get into the back of the Chamber and we were all set to go.
The Anilox System was loaded with a test Gold lacquer and some sample sheets were printed. The System let out a satisfying purr as the sheets were sent through and examined by the Print Manager and other senior staff at the Company. Everyone, not least Peter and myself, was delighted with the results of the Conversion and the Golden coating of the test sheets. The Anilox System was then turned off to resume a previous print job and Peter and I went back to the guesthouse with the satisfaction of a good days work.
As Oriental Containers operate a 24 hour shift pattern the Anilox Unit was put into it’s first real use overnight. We arrived at the Factory and started to run Filmweight tests and inspect the quality of the sheet. Filmweights came back as spot on, which was nice, and sheet quality was greatly improved from the Coaters Pre-Anilox days. The day was spent with myself and Peter training the operators on the machine although as this was the second line we have installed in Murbad the operators already had some Anilox experience.
Oriental Containers were so pleased with the results given from their first conversion 4 months ago that another of our tasks on this visit was to measure up two more Coaters to be fitted with an Anilox Metering Conversion in the New Year. One of the Units will be a first for the Metal Decorating World as is will be the first machine of it’s kind to be fitted with an Anilox Conversion.
The 5 nights we spent in Murbad seemed to fly by and in no time at all it was time for our driver to take us on the perilous drive back into Mumbai. I am delighted to say that my snake count was zero although I was a touch naïve on my first night and managed to accumulate a mosquito bite for each of my 25 years, needless to say I am still very much taking the Malaria tablets. By way of an added bonus, our Virgin Atlantic flight back to London was not even half full so we were both able to stretch out and enjoy the journey back to a cold December England.