“For us, the most important benefit of working with Miraclon and FLEXCEL NX Technology is taking advantage of their steady drumbeat of innovation,” says Splash Graphics co-owner Dhiren Sanghani. “The Miraclon technical team is constantly making improvements, coming up with new technological differences every few years.”
That steady drumbeat of innovation is also why the Chicago-based pre-media provider recently expanded its flexographic platemaking operations by adding a second FLEXCEL NX System – this time a 50” x 80” format. According to Dhiren, this investment “boosts platemaking capacity, increases flexibility, and helps us produce and ship a greater variety of plate sizes to printers and converters nationwide faster.”
Built on more than 30 years of bold strategic moves and technology partnerships, Splash Graphics’ latest investment continues its pattern of thinking bigger at pivotal moments in the company’s history.
Thinking Big – Innovation Milestones
The company’s growth story began in 1992, when Co-owner Valji Patel started the business in partnership with Bhavesh Vanani and Dhiren. Initially providing prepress services to Chicagoland printers, they made the first major pivot in 1995 by adding multi-color presses and finishing systems, transforming into a full-service printing company.
Splash Graphics’ next big move occurred in 1999 with computer-to-plate (CTP) technology. Though it was a new technology at the time, they jumped into the deep end by investing in the largest Creo CTP available – a 58” x 78” unit – and a Creo digital proofing system. Valji Patel notes: “Besides feeding our own presses, we were shipping large-size plates all over the country. We were early adopters of this game-changing technology.”
In 2006, Splash changed the game decisively once again by selling its printing operations and returning to a focus on prepress and platemaking services. Valji explains: “Instead of prepress diminishing – as we had feared in 1995 – our prepress was flourishing, so this became our 100% focus. Two years later, in 2008, we expanded into flexo prepress with FLEXCEL NX Technology.”
Today, the company is focused on brand support, flexo, and offset prepress services. Prepress for food packaging is the company’s largest market at 60%, followed by medical, healthcare, and shrink-sleeve labels. Additional services include packaging mock-ups and large-format display and signage.
‘Always looking for differentiation’
Dhiren describes the 2008 move into FLEXCEL NX Technology as “a deliberate effort to differentiate ourselves from the competition.” Valji and Bhavesh took on the task of evaluating the flexo platemaking options. FLEXCEL NX Technology had only just come on the market, but their verdict was that it was the “something different” they were looking for. “Flat-top dot technology was genuinely revolutionary, unlike anything else around, and delivered unmatched image quality and consistent print results on customers’ presses,” adds Bhavesh.
A partnership that keeps evolving
Dhiren credits continuous advances in FLEXCEL NX Technology with sharpening the company’s competitive edge: “The Miraclon technical team is constantly making improvements. PureFlexo™ Printing is a classic example – we were a beta site for the triple-form patterning and now use it whenever the work suits it.”
“Miraclon’s commitment to innovation fits perfectly with our own philosophy of constantly offering customers new solutions through pressroom problem solving and press optimization. After all, we’ve been there – our journey from prepress to printer and back to prepress makes Splash Graphics uniquely qualified to help customers improve quality, productivity, and repeatability.”
