The seventh Eastern Print Pack 2023, organised by the West Bengal Master Printers’ Association and co-organised by DBS International, took place on 23-25 December 2023 in Kolkata. Held at Biswa Bangla Mela Prangan, the exhibition offered extensive exhibition spaces and dedicated air-conditioned halls equipped with all the necessary facilities. 

These amenities ensure that the exhibition meets global standards, providing an optimal setting for the Eastern India printing community and neighbouring countries. 

Amit Sharma, technical director, Jayita Cad Cam Systems (Mehta), showcased its new machine, Presto, a single-pass high-speed printer, which can print 35-m/min. The company’s other machines included flatbed cutting plotter (which can cut any flat surface), flatbed printing machine (for board printing), solvent printing machine (for banner printing). Apart from printing machines, the company also has packaging machines. Sharma said the company introduced Presto to meet today’s trend of high and best-quality printing.

Padmakara Reddy R, general manager, sales, Megabound, talked about binding and rigid box-making machines, case-maker machines, joint forming machines, and case-binding machines, which are manufactured in Bengaluru. He also talked about the company’s five punching machines and three machines for rigid boxes (regrowing for creasing, top growling machines for wrapper pasting, wrapping and folding machines), which were displayed at the exhibition. In his opinion, this exhibition was important for the company as it offered a platform to showcase its machines to visitors from the Eastern region.

Sandip Bhowmik, area manager, Monotech shared about the company’s digital and finishing products, especially UV-based. In his views, through this exhibition, the company can grow its market segment, and demonstrate its machines to the visitors easily, and this will help the company to develop its company portfolio in a better way. He said, “This exhibition is beneficial for students because they can get information about so many job opportunities and also for the customers as they can develop their market with our innovative technologies.”

Dipayan Adhikary, senior engineer, LMI India, said the company’s expertise is in batch coding on PVC pipes, wrappers, pouches and steel. In the exhibition, the company showcased its machines, such as inkjet printers and laser printers which have three variants, CO2, fibre optics and UV. Their applications depend upon the surface to be printed. Adhikary said the company attended the exhibition to introduce its new advanced technology to the Eastern industry, as it is new in this Eastern market. 

Ajay Pal, branch manager, Orient, gave information about the machines, such as Orient X-Press Fold ( for regular & corrugated cartons), Orient X-Press Cut, three-ply semi/ auto, fully servo auto flute laminator, Orient auto film lamination machine, Orient X-Press Flex (mainly caters to label printers and is capable of printing on label stock, foil, paper, films and shrink sleeves. These presses come in roll-to-sheet and roll-to-roll format), Orient web offset (suitable for printing newspapers, books and periodicals with speeds ranging from 16,000 to 50,000-cph). He also talked about OrientJet L&P Series 330 (for label printing and finishing on a single pass), OrientJet C-Series 330/450 (mono and 4C inkjet press for commercial applications and it can do duplex printing) under Digital Jet Series.  

Sourov Aown, assistant manager of large-format division, Epson, introduced the company’s paper printing machines (for jumbo printing), bookbinding machines, and small-size photo printers. Aown said, “This is a platform where we can get a maximum number of customers from different backgrounds. They can see our products and they can think about the development of their business and accordingly, we can get business from them. There are many competitors today but they don’t have all the categories, which Epson offers. So a single customer can get a maximum number of applications.”

Chandan Das, proprietor, Machine World said that his company is a manufacturer of biodegradable and compostable carry bag-making machines. The company has been manufacturing sealing and cutting machines for the last six years. The company also leads in manufacturing a wide range of paper plate-making machines, fully automatic paper cup-making machines, paper bowl and dona-making machines, incense sticks and cone-making machines, etc. He outlined that the primary elements essential for the production of carry bags involve fillers and granules derived from corn seeds. The workers conducted a demonstration of the machine to showcase the manufacturing process.

Amitabh Luthra, managing director, Printers Supply, introduced HPM programmatic paper-cutting machines as the company tied up with Dayaker Reddy for the sales and service support of those heavy-duty paper-cutting machines for the entire Eastern Indian market. As part of his business development perspective, he said, “We are very happy to announce that we received multiple bookings for colour digital printers and finishing machines, which were our focus area at the show.” As the company has been based out of Kolkata for the last 75 years, this exhibition was a great platform to meet different industry members and to introduce its technologies.

Akshat Pardiwala, COO, Nippon Color, said the company has been a leading supplier of pre-press equipment, CTP plates, digital printing and finishing solutions in India since 1972 and are constantly upgrading its product portfolio to meet the trends and needs of the industry. At the exhibition, the company launched its upgraded CTP plates which allow the customers to print longer run lengths on the press. He said, “The exhibition is a spectacular opportunity for networking with our customers in East India. We are committed to providing excellent service to them. At the show, we met new customers and closed orders for over 25,000-sqm of CTP plates.” 

Apratim Mukerji, general secretary, RIPTAA, RIPTAA, talked about its motto, which is to bridge the gap between the industry and the institute. RIPTAA participated in the exhibition as a knowledge-sharing platform to aware the students as well as visitors about the new industry trends and printing technologies. It also showcased its annual magazines Print Out and RIPTAA Summit 2023.

As students attending the seventh Eastern Print Pack Exhibition 2023, we were pleased and overwhelmed to see the latest advancements and trends in the printing industry. We witnessed live demonstrations and interacted with the professionals. Overall, the seventh Eastern Print Pack Exhibition 2023 was a valuable opportunity to bridge academic knowledge with real-world industry.