Ashok Neelkanth of Intel Trade Fairs & Expositions (ITFE) said, "PrintExpo has always been a satisfying experience for us. And with the third edition, we have grown. This year, the response has exceeded the expectations." He added: "The print market in south India is growing and PrintExpo serves as catalyst which enables exhibitors and print firms realise their fullest potential."
The dominant group in the exhibition included digital manufacturers like Canon and Xerox who had busy stalls. The same traction was discernible with Konica Minolta who were represented by three companies’ viz., HCL, KMI business technologies and Monotech Systems.
In tandem with the digital theme, the exhibition had a range of equipment which complemented the press operations. This included: Autoprint, Grafica, Redlands and others.
Looking at the success of PrintExpo 2011, the dates for PrintExpo 2012 have been announced towards the end of June. Neelkanth felt, Drupa in May 2012 will not impact the show, since "the target group is different."
In the past two decades, ITFE has organised 11 editions of Intelpack, editions editions of Foodtek, five editions of SouthPack, four editions of PharmaPack, three editions of Labeltech and three editions of PrintExpo.
Monotech targets increased market share in pre-press with Screen
Screen platesetter showcased at the Monotach stall
Chennai-based Monotech Systems has capitalised on its recent partnership with Dainippon Screen to increase its market share in the pre-press segment. The company displayed a variety of products including the Screen 8600 M thermal CTP machine at their stall during Printexpo 2011.
According to Monotech’s managing director, T P Jain "Screen’s worldwide reputation and Monotech’s pan-India network have worked really well with the customers. The nascent partnership has translated well in terms of business, with us bagging four orders in a matter of months."
The Screen E series and S series thermal CTPs are high performing machines with outputs of 13pph and 22pph respectively. Monotech’s existing CTP offerings include products from BasysPrint for UV, and Highwater and Xante for violet platesetters.
"We are excited about the year ahead with a number of new products being launched by our partners, especially the BasysPrint X series to be launched in November with its cross application feature," said Jain.
Monotech also specialises in the dealership of digital printing machines from Xeikon, Konica Minolta, Nipson, Oce, Screen and Xante along with the wide-format range from GCC, Screen, Canon and its company’s flagship product Pixeljet.
Speaking about the financial year 2011, Jain focused on a target of "hundred CTP machines and more than 125 digital printing machines". He added: "As we speak this exhibition has brought its first order for a digital printing machine from Konica Minolta."
Proteck introduces Unibind’s digital foil printer
Proteck team displaying its latest cutting machine XC 116
Chennai-based Proteck Machinery has introduced a digital foil printer called Foil Xpress from Unibind, a Belgium-based post-press machine manufacturing company.
"We strongly believe personalised foil printing cannot get easier than this," explained Omprakash R, general manager at Proteck. "The Foil Xpress has evoked tremendous response from the target audience and we have in fact had our first order since the tie-up in April 2011."
According to the company, the Foil Xpress can print at a resolution of 300x600 dpi on a variety of substrates. "You just have to connect the machine to a computer and it is ready to print even one copy/piece at the same cost as higher runs," stated Omprakash.
Proteck also displayed its own latest cutting machine XC 116 at the exhibition along with Horizon product lines consisting of signature collators. "The XC 116 is our latest offering in our cutting machines which works at an ideal size of 30x40inches," said Omprakash.
Xerox to launch Espresso book machines in India
Kalra : printing out-of-print books with Espresso book machines
The revolutionary concept of Espresso book machines is expected to hit the Indian shores in the near future. Speaking in the backdrop of one of the prominent stalls at Printexpo 2011, Pankaj Kalra of Xerox India shared the concepts of this much awaited concept in Print On Demand solutions.
"The machine combines four key elements: Xerox 4112 copier/printer which prints the book block, an Espresso Book Machine, which trims and binds the book, a colour inkjet printer which prints the book cover and Espress Net SM Software, which drives the solution and links to an online library of available titles," explained Kalra.
Espresso book machine was made available in the USA since February 2011 with a software that connects an individual to online libraries like Google Books, Lightning Source, Inc, and Open Content Alliance – allowing to choose from over 3.3 million titles, in multiple languages.
"A retail book store equipped with the Espresso book machine will never disappoint a customer with the ability to print out-of-print books anytime they want," said Kalra.
Xerox also promoted and displayed some of their refurbished machines as part of the CEV (Certified Economic Value) programme. "The CEV programme has been well received with its many advantages," said Kalra.
"This way first-time entrepreneurs can associate with Xerox in a cost effective manner besides its greater environmental benefit of reducing indisposable e-waste," he added. Under this programme, customers looking for an affordable digital press can choose from a range of pre-owned Xerox production presses certified on a 29 point health check and offering post-sale service guarantee.
Grafica makes a grand debut at Printexpo 2011
Team Grafica
Mumbai-based Grafica Flextronica recorded its first time presence at a South India exhibition and was amongt the busiest stalls. The stall saw live demos of Grafica’s swing cylinder press with inline UV, Nano-Print Plus with UV, Nano-Print with UV, Nano-Screen Maker 5-in-1 and squeegee sharpener.
"One of our primary objectives to participate was to serve as an eye-opener to the enormous capabilities of screen printing and the wide range of domains its applications can be extended to," said Bhargav Mistry, managing director, Grafica Flextronica.
"Our strategy was not only to demonstrate technological capabilities of our product line but also to give glimpses of advanced screen printing process through our Dhirubhai Mistry Institute’s creative sample gallery."
The Grafica stall was filled with curious visitors who had come to see DMI’s 100% screen printed sample gallery. The gallery displayed a wide range of special application jobs in multitude of domains including packaging.
"Hundreds of printers were quite surprised to see the live job printing of creative products with UV special effects/varnishes on Grafica’s cylinder press, Nano-Print and Nano-Print plus with UV," said Mistry.
"That’s because many of them were not aware of UV technology and special effects used for value addition with screen printing technology. The possibility of innovation in screen technology is unbelievable and I am sure this effort of ours would have sparked a new avenue of business in our visitors," he added.
