Colours add excitement to life and have since time immemorial been used to express better. Apart from art, and history, colours also play a major role in marketing and business. They dictate how a particular brand is perceived by the consumer. In the textile industry colours form one of the most basic components of the fibres that are manufactured. They help the consumer differentiate from brand to brand and the fibre also. Answering all these needs is a company called Advanced Graphic Systems (AGS).
AGS was founded in 1992 by Mr. Ravi Goyal, its proprietor, and just four other members. Initially it provided colour solutions in the field of computerized textile design. It later added colour matching solutions to textiles, paints, plastics, automotive, printing & packaging, cosmetic, detergents, foods, etc., covering virtually all industries where colour is very critical.
Currently, AGS has a pan-India presence catering not only to large and elite clientele but also to medium and small colour industries serving various segments such as print & packaging, textile, paint, automobile, ceramic, plastic, food and cosmetics. In 2018, the company witnessed a growth of more than 15% where there was a major breakthrough in the denim industry. The company installed the Inline Measurement System manufactured by one of its principals, X-Rite of the US, at one of the largest denim manufacturing companies in India. The system is aimed at providing sustainable production. The continuous production monitor ensures that the smallest of deviations are detected so that corrections can be made before the product gets mismatched.
This innovative system was introduced for the first time, and the results were so encouraging that AGS received two more repeat orders. Another breakthrough achieved was that the company was able to cover major corporates in the market such as Shahi Exports and Vardhman Textile. The company was not affected by the slump in the market since its main concentration is on innovation and product quality. With growing awareness in the market about the importance of innovation, the company is also trying to reach various other small and mid-size companies.
In an exclusive interview, Mr. Vilas Gupte, Head Colour Business, AGS, gave an insight into the global leaders which it represents in the market and the products that they offer. The success story of AGS, as it is recognized in the industry, is that there are experienced professionals in the company handling each segment of the colour industries, like textiles technologists, paint technologists, printing & packaging, automotive engineers, and so on.
Mr. Gupte himself is an internationally reputed colour technologist with several publications, including three books on colour technology to his credit. He is visiting faculty & research guide at many reputed technological institutes. The other strong USP of AGS is its aftersales service. AGS service is the backbone of AGS colour business. The main plank of AGS is to represent the global leaders in the respective field. X-Rite is one of the major principals that provide end-to-end colour matching and colour management solutions for most colour industries. Let us take a closer look at the major principals of AGS.
There are two Taiwanese principals, Hang Jie Xing Ye Co. Ltd. and Copower Technologies Ltd. Hang Jie provides laboratory yarn dyeing machine. The technology is based on the magnetic levitating technique. This machine ensures the lab recipe can be straightaway extended to the production or bulk dyeing. It saves the dyer from adjusting the lab recipe manually or even instrument correction. It ensures ‘Right-First-Time’. With these advantages, this lab dyeing machine has been accepted by most major textile corporates. Multiple orders have been placed with the company because of this advantage.
Copower Technology, Taiwan, manufactures lab dispensing system eliminating dependency on person and also eliminates manual error. Both Copower and Hang Jie lab systems together meet all the needs of its customers. providing high efficiency by making the machine functional without human interference. Usage of such products makes AGS a reliable and efficient company whose majority focus is on quality and innovation.
The other principal, CST GmbH, Germany, and Nova Inter Tech, Thailand, provide solutions in textile printing. CST offers engravers based on advanced technology of Digital Light Engraver (DLE) for rotary and flat-bed screen printing. The coated screen is directly exposed with UV light without masking it with wax, ink or film. It does not need any consumables. Faster exposing and imaging of screens provides very high resolution from 500 to 1800 dpi. It does not require any dark room or UV exposure station.
Nova Inter Tech provides the Rotary Screen Stripping cleaning system. It is just based on high pressure water jet to remove the photo emulsion and uses very little quantity of water. There is no application of hazardous and carcinogenic chemicals. Hence, it is an environment-friendly system. It is very fast and allows the screen to be used multiple times, thereby offering substantial saving.
AGS also offers production automation systems from Arel, Israel, and Kuans Micro-Auto Co. Ltd., Taiwan. Arel offers complete auto dye-kitchen-dye dissolver and transfer system. The central monitoring system allows precise dye & chemical weighing and dissolving and then transferring at stipulated times. It eliminates human intervention as well as human errors. The system can be customized.
The most important aspect of Arel is it can work with old dyeing machines by installing Arel controllers. Kuans provides the semi-auto powder weighing and dye dispensing system which is quite economical.
In addition to the above principals, AGS represents many other global leaders for providing colour solutions to the printing & packaging, automobile, cosmetic, ceramic and food industries.
According to Mr. Gupte, AGS has chosen all its principals very carefully to give the best solutions to the Indian customers. It has partnered up with companies all over the globe that are the finest in their respective fields. The criteria through which the company chooses its partners are very crucial.
The other most important criteria are that the partner should provide the AGS sales & service team continuous advance training so that AGS can provide the best-in-class service and application support to its customers. The company checks the systems and processes and assists the customer to have discipline in working. AGS does this so that the standard maintained is not hampered as it provides the complete colour solution. The excellent service ensures that the user is completely satisfied. The company not only installs the machine but also provides full training application training. After sales support service is a crucial component of the services provided by AGS.
With rising environmental concerns, sustainability is the buzzword right now in the textile industry. Mr. Gupte rightly said: “Sustainability comes from application and processes which is provided by AGS”. This is started at the production stage itself. It ensures that there are a minimum number of trials which will lead to less wastage and avoids cost escalation due to the right-first-time approach and further timely deliveries. It’s in the process to use a particular combination of colours to get the correct one in order to reduce trials, and in the bargain save energy and other resources.
The company saw a major breakthrough in the denim segment. For apparels, a very innovative system – ‘Total Appearance Capture’ (TAC) from X-rite is introduced recently. It was launched in India for the textile industry at an International Textile Conference on ‘Textile 4.0’ organized by the Textile Association of India in February last. TAC fits very well and conforms to Textile 4.0. The presentation by X-rite was very well received by the 500 delegates present.
Mr. Gupte said: “The textile industry will have growth of 10-12% in 2019 as people might not wait for the election results as they used to wait earlier”. As for the vision of the company in 2024, he believes that it will definitely grow in double digits.
Advanced Graphic Systems has been offering colour solutions to the Indian Colour Industries for over 25 years not only through their products but also by continuous research. Providing sustainable and quality products is the motto.