These include a medium speed-quick change over binder that can be connected inline; plus a soft cover book production line, an in-line three knife trimmer, innovating solutions for hard cover book production. The All India Federation Master Printers’ (AIFMP) flagship show will have demos of these star products at the Impel-Welbound stall.

P Sajith, the managing director of the group said, "These new products will be compliant to new automation and safety standards with a prefix of Bindwel. We will be showcasing these solutions to the global market during Drupa 2020 to make an impression."

After breaking away from their erstwhile partners in Kerala, Impel-Welbound has established a technology centre in Bangalore which is led by Viswaprasad Nair who has 25 years plus experience in design and engineering of bookbinding machines. Nair is supported by Suresh Nair who is probably the best known book production technologist in the country. Sajith said, "The new products will address the demands of the Indian market, be it flexibility in the process of gluing, inline connectivity, IOT ability, and above all affordability."

During Pamex 2020, which is a precursor to their Drupa participation, the Impel–Welbound group will also display solutions from their global partners. These include the pharma and commercial folding machines from Guk-Vijuk of Germany. Sajith explained the rationale, "Hard cover and bookblock processing lines have not been part of our portfolio. We felt there are affordable indigenous solutions plus the option of pre-owned Eruopean machines that are addressing the needs. However, to our surprise we found that most of such equipment are not meeting the demands requirements in India. Customer pain points have been: speed, turnaround or ability to handle difficult substrates. That put us on a journey to identify the requirements and address them through partnerships as well as in-house efforts." Six months ago, Rohin Kumar, the managing partner of a Indian hard cover line manufacturer has joined the board of the Impel-Welbound group to helm the operations.

Bookbinding is witnessing growth in the Indian market in spite of all the economic headwinds; and Impel-Welbound hopes to provide products that will help our customers in 2020, concluded Sajith.