BMPA's Drupa Impressions 2012 - Nanography @ Drupa Impressions
The session on Nanography was chaired by Naresh Khanna, editor of IPP and two panellists – Prof Dr Rajendra Anayath of Print Media Academy HIN and R R Subbu of Supressa.
02 Jul 2012 | By PrintWeek India
Benny Landa challenged offset with his Nanography digital printing technology and turning it into a new industry standard. As well as licensing Nanagraphy deals with Komori, Manroland Sheetfed and Heidelberg in days running up to the show, the manufacturer showcased B3, B2 and B1 sheetfed perfecting presses that operate at up to 11,000 sheets per hour.
According to Khanna, India is a great place to understand the tomorrow. “We can break down science and we need to break down science. We have plenty of time, plenty of brains and minds to break down the future,” said Khanna before inviting Prof Dr Anayath to make his presentation on Landa’s technology.
Demystifying the technology, Dr Anayath raised a few questions, which according to him “he could not ignore having learnt the science of print”. Besides Landa Nanography presses, there were HP presses, Xerox’s new machine, Xeikon and Nipson, which had new bells and whistles to offer. “But have you ever thought what is common in all this,” asked Dr Anayath.
“There are two things in common. All these machines need ink and blanket,” said Dr Anayath, and went on to explain the definition of offset printing. “The image is transferred from the image carrier to the blanket or set-off to the blanket and the set off image is offset. Hence according to me, all these machines are offset machines.”
According to Dr Anayath, Landa was showcasing strategy rather than technology. “Benny Landa brought a kind of flair to the fair, which was not seen before and his name was a mantra used throughout the show. What wasn’t impressive was he wasn’t showing technology at work, but was busy marketing the technology, because I think he was not very sure of his technology at this point of time. [In fact] he has agreed that it needs a lot of fine-tuning,” said Dr Anayath.
He went on to dissect the Landa Nanography ink technology, saying, although Landa claims that his inks are only tens of nanometers in size, my basic knowledge of science does not allow me to accept that the particles used to produce the inks are that small as stated. Anayath explained the use of pigments rather the limitation of the pigments, which according to Dr Anayath is a major scientific blockage. “The ink can be any, the pigment is the same. Take any colour print, which can be fifty years old, you can see the rub offs. It has been the problem with pigments,” he said.
Though the technology will not be available at least for the next 14-18 months, it is claimed that advance cash deposits for “hundreds’ of Nanographic presses were taken by the close of the show. “This is an amazing achievement and comes in spite of the revelation of that the machine will not be delivered anytime soon,” said Dr Anayath. This explains Landa's acumen.
Defending Landa Nanograpy, R R Subbu said that nanotechnology is not a new phenomena and that it was caused by the convergence of experimental advances. “I am of the opinion that the nanotechnology will be available in four-years time,” he said. “What is significant is there is no post-drying. Adding to this cost benefit is the fact that in nanographic images are half the thickness of offset images - enabling the inks to produce pages at a lower cost,” he said.
Khanna said that he knew of at least one Indian print firm, who has invested in the Landa technology.
There was a support for Landa which came from Fred Poonawala, director at Comart, in the audience. He was of the opinion that Landa technology will be a force to reckon with. “After all, Landa is the founder of Indigo and it’s been one of the major successes in digital print,” he said. Later, he continued, “major offset players like Komori, Manroland Sheetfed and Heidelberg have aligned with Landa. I am sure, he know exactly what Landa is doing and hence the decision.”
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