Few, but big Indian investments at China Print 2017

China Print 2017 drew a large contingent of visitors, mostly from Asia. Some were there to buy and others were there to browse the latest technology introduced at the show. The ninth edition of the show, held in New China International Exhibition Center in Beijing, was filled with 1,300 exhibitors and by the end of the fifth day, saw 2,05,039 visitor footfalls. The Indian contingent though was conspicuously small compared to the last edition. The figure put by those in the know was around 150. However, there were quite a few sales bookings made by Indian print companies, which were announced at the show

Si Ming Luo, regional marketing manager – Asia Pacific, DuPont Advanced Printing, highlighted DuPont’s new addition to the Cyrel Easy platform – the ESM and EFM. DuPont has developed the built-in flat top dot digital plates for the paper printing applications. The plates are for using in solvent and Cyrel Fast thermal processing. With this single plate offering, DuPont has simplified operations in both the plate room and press room

Rene Ludvigsen, chief executive officer, region Asia, for Heidelberg Graphics (Thailand), with the Heidelberg press – the CX-75. The new kit, which sits between the SX 74 and XL 75, received a China Print launch and is available from four to six-colour, with option for coating unit and also full options on UV drying. The press is capable of printing on substrates as thick as 0.03mm to 0,06mm and uses the double circumference impression cylinder configuration of the XL 75 and the feeder from the SX 74. Ludvigsen said the press is targeted for those who are looking for an attractive price performance ratio

Peter Rego, general manager for sales at Heidelberg India announced the sale of three SX 74 four-colour press one of which will go to Surat; one CX 102 seven-colour plus coater with Multicolor technology to Sai Swaram, Vadodara; and an XL 106 with Multicolor and a host of other features to Temple Packaging

Venugopal Menon (l), business director for sheetfed and Sachin Patil, regional sales manager for Bobst India, next to Bobst’s at the stand which displayed the CartonPack 4 running in line with Bobst Meilong III, which in India is called the ExpertFold. There’s one CartonPack machine in India, installed at the ITC. Any high-speed packaging finishing line is of no use if the end product cannot be efficiently packed. Unfortunately, in India, converted cartons are packed in small packs, manually, which defeats the purpose of automation of all previous finishing processes. The CartonPack 4 can pack more than two lakh carton boxes per hour and can run for 30 minutes without an operator

(l-r) Abhijit Kolhatkar, Vinay Kaushal and Arun Kumar Mondal of Provin Technos. RMGT’s representative Provin Technos announced the sale of RMGT 920, a four-colour plus coater to a printer in Western India

Paolo Mesturini, managing director for Rossini’s plant in China highlighted the Italian manufacturer’s range of rubber rollers, sleeve and mandrels for flexography and gravure presses. Besides its plant and offices in Italy, Rossini has five more plants, including the 8,000 sq/m plant in Chakan, Pune, which was opened in September 2014

(r) Munish Katyal of Anupama Printing Solutions, Noida; Vidhu Gautam, director for APAC region for Kodak; Shiv Mohan of Anupama; Ajeet Parekh of Monotech and a representative of Kodak India discussed plans of strengthening Anupama’s offset and flexo plate business

TP Jain of Monotech at the Scodix stand, one of the few companies which it represents in India. The other companies Monotech represents and present at China Print were Hans Gronhi, Labelman and Cron. Jain said most of the companies have displayed kit they had shown at Drupa. However, Hans Gronhi has introduced a new laser cutting machine at China Print

(l-r) Gao Yingxin, Zhang Guo of Lucky Huaguang Graphics; Kaushil Shah of Nulith and Wang Zhi, general manager of Lucky. Nulith represents Lucky flexo plates in India. Lucky introduced its newly developed flat dot digital flexo plates at China Print, which will soon be commercialised. Presently, these plates are being tested. The plates will compete with similar plates produced by Kodak and DuPont. Lucky also manufactures commercial offset plates and films, and export its pre-press products to 150 countries across the globe. Lucky has a capacity to produce 3.5-lakh sq/mts flexo plates per annum, of which 10,000 sq/mts is distributed in India by Nulith

Puneet Chadha, director, market development, graphics solutions business, HP Asia Pacific and Japan, with the samples printed on HP Indigo presses. HP was present with the largest stand – 3,500 sq/mts in size and created something unique here – it carried samples from its customers and displayed them at the show. HP has 120 tonnes of kit, mostly shown at Drupa. At PrintPack India show, HP showed the florescent pink ink. Here at China Print, it added three more – florescent yellow, green and orange. The heroes of this booth are “brands”, said Chadha. “We have showcased what the customers have produced with our machines. The booth reflects three things: innovation; power, and speed of the machine.”

Steven Gao, general manager, production printing business group and direct sales department, Ricoh, said that the company launched yellow ink as a fifth station and fluorescent colours at China Print 2017

Team Ample, Tiancen and Bhandari Offset. Ample Graphics, the Indian representative of Shanghai Tiancen Machinery Manufacture, signed a deal of two lamination machines at China Print 2017, one of which is booked by Bhandari Offset. Rohit Bhandari of Bhandari Offset said after spending three days evaluating various options, the company selected Tiancen Chain Knife Laminating Machine. “This machine has all the features we required to supply MetPET film sheets for our new five-colour UV-enabled printing machine,” he said. With this, Ample has now total seven installations

Italy-based Novurania, the manufacturer of printing blankets and flexo plates and other materials, highlighted DE Flexo plates at the show. The plates are high in quality, less chemical is involved in the process and are capable for direct engraving. Noida-based Uflex and another customer in Western India are using the plates

(l-r) Donal Ng of Shanghai Yoco Printing Machinery with its Indian representative Rajesh Agarwal of SRK Technology. Yoco has global partnership with Nikko, Mabeg Machinery Shanghai, Tanabe, Steinmann, Vega, Yawa and Kohmann. The company had 10 products on display, including flute lamination, PUR lamination machine, cold lamination machine, window patching machine, double side taping machine for stripping, and others

Andreas Sommer from sales department of Garant Maschinen, member of W&H Group, with solutions for paper and big bag manufacturing. He said the quality of the bags is at par and machines are also competitively priced

Li Xiaoling of KBA. The KBA stall had the motto, ‘Origin & Future – 200 Years Koenig & Bauer’. Visitors to the 1,000 sq/mts stand were treated to a raft of offset, flexo, screen printing and digital solutions for commercial, publication and packaging markets. KBA Rapida 106 and KBA Rapida 75 Pro were also on display. Xiaoling said the company’s revenue increased by 10% last year, because it placed a clear focus on the growing packaging segment

(l-r) Sanjeev Chaddha of Memory and Nathon Liu of Beijing Sino-MV Technologies. Beijing Sino-MV Technologies launched online bar code printing and inspection for the Chinese market at China Print 2017. Sanjeev Chaddha of Memory Repro Systems, Indian representative of the Chinese manufacturer, said the inspection system is in initial stages. So it will be tried and tested before it is launched globally. Beijing Sino-MV Technologies displayed its entire range of inspection systems, including sheet proofing machine, special applications for tags and labels, full sheet inspection both side in one go and others

(l-r) Kunal Gandhi of CGS/AS Print Aids, Roman Kaschitz of Cito and Arun Gandhi of CGS/AS Print Aids. Cito Systems focused on its Drupa launches, including Automatic Cutter 3, Cito Cushion Crease, Cito Ultimate, Cito Laserinspektor and Cito EasyFix

On the inaugural day, China Print hosted the Asia Pacific Day, which was attended by 150 printers from the associations belonging to 15 countries in the region. Speaking on the occasion, AIFMP president Kamal Chopra applauded China Print organisers for putting up a great show. “We should be proud to be printers,” he said

(l-4) Rohit Khanna of Creative Offset, Kevin Wu of Zhengrun and Rakesh Sodhi of Sodhisons, the Indian representative of Zhengrun. Zhengrun launched RB 185, a new machine with robotic arm for more precision in rigid box manufacturing. Noida-based Creative Offset Printers booked the machine at the show

Line O Matic’s focus at China Print show was to enter the China’s exercise and notebook making market, said Nirav Parekh (l), general manager for marketing at Line O Matic. This is Line O Matic’s second participation. The first participation was groundwork, gauging the market, and this one is penetrating the market based on the experience of the first outing. “We received good enquiries, and the customers have desired to visit India and see the machines being manufactured and running,” said Parekh. Line O Matic showcased the Bolt RB 104 and Compo B 104, which offers two options of being, pinning as well as sewing

QuadTech demonstrated live ColorTrack latest colour workflow solution for packaging printers, launched at Drupa 2016. Along with ColorTrack, QuadTech presented its extensive range of colour management, register control, and defect management solutions—designed to ensure consistently high colour quality, significantly lower production times, reduced waste and increased profits for printers

Hongming has an installation base of seven automatic rigid box making machines in India. Established in 1999, the Chinese manufacturer of rigid box machines is represented by NBG Printographic Machinery in India. Nitin Garg said innovation and reliability are strengths of Hongming. “At China Print, we displayed camera and robot control for precision,” he said. Hongming has more than 3,000 installations globally

Team Insight with Yoshiharu Komori, chairman and CEO of Komori Corporation. Insight Communication, the Indian representative of Komori, announced a deal of Komori GL 40 seven-colour coater press with Award Offset at the show. Komori Lithrone GX 40 RP’s two-sided printing (4x4) in one go was the highlight of the stall

Afra Asianray Printing Equipment Trading launched Komfi Spotmatic 54, 3D UV varnishing machine. Ashlyn Antony of AFRA said the machine has the world’s best 3D resolution. Along with the new launch, the company displayed multiple products at the exhibition, including envelope machine, automatic case-making machine, automatic stitching machine, box forming machine, high speed laminator, paper cup manufacturing machine and others. AFRA has around 1,000 installations in India

Fuchu Siko, one of the pioneers in rigid box manufacturing machines displayed a smaller size rigid box machine. Ricky Chan of Fuchu Siko said the machine on display is just smaller in format, without any new technology innovation. Fuchu Siko is represented by SLKGC in India and has more than six installations

Team Zhongke with the rigid box making machine ZK-660CN displayed at the show. Zhongke India is one of the leading rigid box making machine suppliers in India

Pranav Dagli of Mumbai-based Bahubali Printers with son Jatin. Dagli was at China Print to look at small post-press equipment. “Some of the equipments are very useful, and are priced at 25% to 30% less than similar ones manufactured by the European manufacturers,” he said. During our conversation, Dagli shared a very emotional connect he had with the late Abhijit Pandit. “Until I met him, I was used to print because I was a printer. He instilled the importance of dots and halftones. His line – Print is not an art, it’s ultimately a science, still rings in my ears.”

Konica Minolta showcased 11 products at the show, including JetVarnish Evolution, JetVarnish 3Ds, Konica Minolta Bizhub Press C1060, 1070, 1085, 1250, 1100 and C71hc; EFI UV LED 1625 wide-format printer, Accurio Jet KM 1 and others, with partners like finisher from Brotech

Prasad Kora, managing director at Label Kingdom with Subu Solutions’ new COO for folding carton division, V Ramji, at the Brausse Machinery stand. Suba represents Brausse in India. Kora is one of the biggest rigid box manufacturers in India, producing around 5mn wallet boxes per year for Walmart. It has a capacity to produce 1.2mn mobile boxes per month. Label Kingdom has 10 rigid box making machines, five multi-colour presses and a raft of packaging finishing machines. The company recently installed the Scodix Ultra, which was finalised at Drupa. Soon, the company will be moving to a 1,40,000 sq/ft site in Andhra Pradesh