2013 in print: The products that made maximum impact

2013 in print: The products that made maximum impact

Alliance Printech's Novaflex, a flexographic press, was launched by Alliance Printech in November 2012 at Labelexpo India. Novaflex is capable of printing labels, wrappers, foil products, tags, sachets, shrink labels. Seven Novaflex have been installed since its launch in November 2012.

Apsom Infotech's ColorJet Neptune was launched in 2008. The 3.2 meter roll-to-roll solvent printer combines high-quality printing and high-production speeds, and is based on industrial drop-on-demand print heads from Konica Minolta, Japan. The installations have been over 2,000.

Grafica Flextronica's Nano-prinTag was launched in August, 2013. Grafica claims that it’s the world’s first automatic all electrical-mechanical high-speed direct-to-garment tagless label screen printing machine. Around 10 Nano-printTag would be exported to Turkey.

Canon’s first ever commercial inkjet photo printer, DreamLabo 5000, uses its new Full-photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering (FINE) high-density print head technology to significantly expand the potential of photo print quality. India's first installation has been at G K Vale in Bengaluru.

Accucraft S150 3-D printer was launched at the recently concluded Plastivision 2013 exhibition in Mumbai. It can take digital 3-D design and convert it into actual physical objects in plastic. The USP of the printers is that it can make hollow designs resulting in less running cost and time consumption.

Labelexpo India 2008 was the launchpad for Multitec’s Ecoflex narrow web flexo press and the upgraded version of the press was released at Labelexpo India 2012. The press has four salient features: durable construction, superior print quality, versatile design and ease of operation.

Edale's Gamma narrow-web flexo press was first launched in 2007, the press was rechristened as the FL 5 in September 2013 at the Labelexpo. The press is designed with an unique print head geometry to ensure consistent print quality irrespective of format size.

Duplo's DIJ 200 was launched by TechNova at Pamex in November, 2013 in India. Duplo DIJ 200 is a two-colour digital sheetfed press based on inkjet technology. It uses oil-based pigment inks and can print red, green, black, brown, blue and grey colours although two at a time.

The Vutek GS3250LX was launched in 2011. The EFI Vutek GS3250LX Pro hybrid printer expands the capabilities and product range gained with EFI’s LED and grayscale print technology. There have been 500+ installations worldwide of GS series and two in India at Bengaluru’s Printech and Macromedia.

Epson's Surepress L-4033AW has five reasons to be selected over other presses: ability to print on white ink, no-pre treatment, ability to produce Pantone colour and our short-run jobs for the label segment.

The Acuity 1600 got its India debut in September, 2012, at the Screen Print India show. It prints 20 sq/m per hour in production mode, 13 sq/m in standard, 7.2 sq/m and 4.2 sq/mt in high quality. With more than 250 installations worldwide, India boasts of one at Aura Digital in Mumbai.

The HP Indigo 7600 digital offset press was launched at Drupa 2012. Designed to meet the most demanding peak production deadlines and financial targets, the HP Indigo 7600 Digital Press is the only digital sheetfed press in the market that can print four million colour pages every month.

Goss Magnum Compact, a 2x1 web offset press is suitable for the production of newspapers, books and semi-commercial publications. The Magnum Compact press is ideal for printing run lengths from as low as 500 copies to 2,50,000 plus.

Vinsak VIS1200, modular wide-format printing system was launched in 2012. PDF workflow was added as a new feature in 2013. The USP of the system is that the user interface is easy to handle. It offers a good overview and with its Windows technology it is truly intuitive. There have been three installations in the country.

Lithrone A 37 was introduced at Drupa 2012 and can handle paper sized 25x37inch with thickness ranging from 0.04mm to 0.6mm, available in two, four and five-colour models, and can be run at the maximum speed of 13,000 impressions per hour.

Konica Minolta Bizhub Press C8000 was launched in 2011. The Bizhub Press C8000’s data processing outputs 1,200dpi x 8bit depth resolution offering printouts at 1,200x,1,200dpi resolution print. It prints up to 80 pages per minute and can handle up to 350 gsm paper stock.

Line O Matic Nova RB104, an automatic exercise book making machine was launched in 2008. The machine is bundled in such a way as to bring together all the operations required to produce a notebook from paper reel in an ergonomic manner. Line O Matic has seen more than 100 installations of Nova RB104 of which over 35 machines have been exported.

Manroland launched the Cromoman 4-1 in 2011 but increased the speed from 70,000cph to 75,000cph in 2013. There have been two installations, one at The Times of India plants in Pune and Kolkata.

Mark Andy's Performance Series was launched in 2009. Profitable for short-runs, the workhorse streamlines the entire process in a single machine, minimises wastage, and delivers faster turnarounds.

Naph Graphics' Koncept web offset was launched in PrintPack India 2009. It can produce 35,000 copies per hour. Of the 55 Koncepts installed worldwide, 40 are deployed to Indian majors like Dainik Jagran, Sanmarg, and Kerela Kaumudi among others.

Prakash Speedster was installed in January 2013. The web offset press is available in cut sizes of 508mm, 546mm, 560mm and 578mm. It has a maximum web width of 889mm and can print at a speed of 36,000 copies per hour. The web offset press is available in cut sizes of 508mm, 546mm, 560mm and 578mm. It has a maximum web width of 889mm and can print at a speed of 36,000 copies per hour.

Xflex X4 was launched at Labelexpo, Brussels in 2011. The press is available in a width of 370mm with printing technologies in flexo, UV, flexo water-based, UV silk-screen, cold foil, hot foil and inline lamination and can print on flexible packaging, paper, self-adhesive paper and folding carton and special products such as booklet labels. Out of the more than 50 installation worldwide, three are installed in India.

Launched in July 2013, the Ricoh Pro C5100S sits beneath the rest of Ricoh’s production colour machines – but only in one respect. The C5100S – and its sister machine, the Pro C5110S – offers the sophistication and quality of its bigger siblings.

Launched in January 2013, Vitrojet Tecglass, targeted for the glass and ceramic industry, has six-colour ceramic inkjet heads and can print at speeds ranging from 46 sq/m per hour to 88 sq/m per hour. The machine has been installed at two Indian print firms.

TechNova's SmartJet LP112 digital label press was launched in November 2013 at Pamex 2013. The press can print five process colour (CMYKK) in precise register at maximum speeds of six-inches per second. The installations are scheduled to commence in February 2014.

KBA's Rapida 106 was launched at Drupa 2008. In 2013 it has added lot of features specially, the new Rapida 106 can be offered even at speed of 20000 iph. There have been In excess of 400 installations of the machines worldwide.

Sakurai's MSDR60 was launch in 2013. It’s a fully automatic roll-to-roll cylinder screen printing press. It is equipped with numerical control by touch panel interface and delivers high accuracy alignment printing system using CCD registration system. It is capable of up to minimum 25-m thickness of substrate printing which was not possible earlier.

“The Kodak Prosper is a compact mono-chrome press offering perfecting with a print width of up to 24.5 inches at speeds up to 650 feet per minute. It is one of the cost-effective inkjet web presses available today for 8, 12 and 16 page signatures, with a duty cycle of 90 million A4 or US letter pages a month,” says Ramani Vishwanathan, vice president-digital print solutions, Commercial Imaging

Roland DG's VersaUV LEF-20 was launch in 2013. The LEF-20 uses Roland’s robust CMYK, white and clear ECO-UV ink. Clear varnish can be layered for embossing and varnishing effects, and white ink can be printed as a spot colour, or behind CMYK to deliver stand-out colours.

Xerox's Color C75 Press was launched and exhibited at PrintPack 2013. The press can print at the speeds of 76 A4 impressions per minute at a resolution of 2400x 2400dpi. The machine has Fogra certification, Pantone Goe and Pantone Plus and Low melt EA toner. Over 30 units of C75 have been sold in India.

Zhejiang Weigang Machinery's ZX-320 was launch in 2008. The intermittent UV offset label printing machine 63 metres/min using screens of 200-350lpi. Convention PS plates are used, which reduces cost and its flat printing, reduces consumption of ink and its straight-through web path allows register to be maintained, thereby reducing wastage. There are 350 + installations (around 80 in 2013 alone).