60 ‘Swift’ years of making mini offset

Amidst a gathering of more than 100 clients, dealers and staff, Marathe family paid homage to Late Swati Marathe, the director of the company, who passed away late last year.   

 

The event also marked the entry of Om Marathe, son of Vasant Marathe and the family’s fourth generation, into the 60-year old business.

 

The father-son duo presented a pictorial journey of Swift’s milestones in past 60 years in a nifty presentation. Swifts was established in 1955 by Appasaheb Marathe for manufacturing industrial lamps. The company launched its first mini offset machine, Swifts 150, in 1972 and since then it has more than 10,000 installations worldwide.

 

These mini offset presses are considered as the foundation upon which the Indian print industry has built its future. With five decades of manufacturing expertise, Swifts has established itself as a key player in this segment.

 

It was honoured with the National Award for Import Substitution in 1978 for substituting the imported mini offset technology with its ‘Made in India’ product.

 

The star attraction of the event was the presence of a notable Sanskrit scholar Vasant Anant Gadgil, who is also a well-wisher of the Marathe family and was a close associate of Appasaheb Marathe. Gadgil delivered his speech in Sanskrit.

 

Digital venture

The high point of the function was the introduction of Swifts VDP series of machines, which, according to Om Marathe, will now form a formidable part of Swifts portfolio. “The VDP series will cater to a wide variety of applications requiring mass customisation. This means that the machines will be useful for voluminous jobs, which require individual sheets to be printed with different data,” said Marathe.

 

The Swifts VDP series is available in four variants, based on the paper size: VDP Mini, VDP Compact, VDP Surya and VDP Max.

 

On display at the event was VDP Mini machine. Swifts technical team offered a live demonstration of the variable data printing and showcased a variety of applications including tickets, university answer sheets, price tags, application forms etc.
 

This one of its kind kit uses offset machine construction with digital piezo electric printheads installed across the width of the roller. “The user is free to choose one printhead and adjust it along the width of the paper to decide the print area. Otherwise, there is an option of installing multiple printheads across the width of the paper to print anywhere on the sheet without adjusting the heads,” informed Marathe.

 

Swifts offers printheads with variable widths of 17mm, 53mm and 72mm.The company has tied up with Pune-based Macart Equipments for the supply of digital printheads. According to Atul Gandhi of Macart, the life of these printheads is eight years.

 

The salient feature of this series, which sets it apart from the rest, is its bulk ink system instead of cartridge-based kit. The bulk ink system deploys oil-based inks. “Therefore, the printing cost is much lesser as compared to the existing machines on the market,” says Marathe.

 

The event was attended by renowned names in the industry like Welbound’s KC Sanjeev, JP Vasandani of Zeta Marketing and colour expert Kiran Prayagi.


Yeshwant Marathe (l) with Welbound's KC Sanjeev. Sanjeev started his career as a service engineer with Swifts