Three days to MMS’ Roundtable conference in Alibaug

The conference is titled Digital Print Unplugged – Digital 2022 – Thinking Sensibly About Print In An Uncertain World.

“We are at a stage where we are experiencing a phenomenon where commercial printing is facing unprecedented levels of disruption. The question as a print community we need to ask is: do we embrace and drive that distuption,” asks Tushar Dhote, the key coordinator of the MMS Round Table event.

During the MMS Round Table conference, there will be eight tables with 9-10 members on each of the tables, sharing their insights and thoughts on different topics. The eight topics, which resonate with the theme, Digital Print Unplugged, are: Digital for Packaging,  Digital Mailers and Promos, Textile and Fabrics with Digital, Digital Labels and Decorative Packaging, Digital Retail and Shop-In-Shop, Work Flow Solutions, and Digital Print for Books.

Print experts like Manoj Mehta of UT Pack Industries, Saifee Makasarwala of Silverpoint, S Sudhish Rao of Manipal, Anil Namugade of Trigon, Amit Shah of Spectrum, Himanshu Pandey of Avantika Printers, Shailesh Sharma of Inndus and Amit Kanodia of Pioneer Digital will lead the Round Tables.

Manoj Mehta, said, “Packaging has been transforming, and digital, though, in the early stages of adoption, offers significant potential,” said Manoj Mehta, director of Utility PrintPack, which is now a global player, with operations in Dubai. Mehta’s company now offers packaging using both offset and digital technology using different substrates. “Augmented reality, artificial intelligence and virtual reality has become a way of life.,” said Mehta, giving the example of Sugar Art, a dessert shop in Canada that makes custom-designed meringues. “What is interesting about these meringues is that they can be printed with hundreds of patterns using edible ink and sugar transfer sheets,” he said.

Amit Shah of Spectrum Scan, said, “2020/21 was the toughest year for Spectrum. The first thing to happen was our clients curtailing POP/POSM budgets… This kind of difficult time we have never seen in past. We are still coming out of the woods. However, we did innovate a few things, which I will be presenting at this conference.”

Recently, Shah’s Spectrum Scan produced a digital solution for Surf Excel where two stages of LED are used in a single print wherein first light the stain will come on the shirt and on the second light the stain disappears and Surf Excel print appears. “This was done on a single surface with a layered printing process. “The most important in large format digital to print high-quality one has to have correct resolution. Proper colour calibration and suitable substrate for high-quality prints. Machine maintenance and head quality is extremely important too,” said Shah.

For Silverpoint too, 2020 and 2021 were the toughest years and its ripples will be felt in near future, said Saifee Makasarwala of Silverpoint.

However, one of the important projects that it did during the last 12 months was producing a gifting box for a large corporate house. “The quantity was very large and the challenge was to fabricate the entire box using a cloth with offset and screen printing, the challenges were to get the fabric manufactured treat it so that it is offset printable and then the various process of punching, box forming with many partitions and compartments. After all the efforts the product was very appreciated by the client and was also well received by their high-profile mailing list,” said Makasarwala.

Himanshu Pandey has been busy setting up a different vertical in labels and packaging in the Greater Noida Area. “The setup is taking shape and a new team will be stationed at that unit. We will be ready to work by the end of this year.”

Avantika Printers is a digital print specialist and is now looking at diversifying. While planning the diversification, Pandey has also worked on a digital print where he thinks he has "maxed the process". “I tried out the Fiery’s new feature of EDGE Profiling for a photobook. I tried the options to match Canon’s digital print with an HP Indigo print in terms of smoothness of dots and grey balance.”

S Sudhish Rao of Manipal Technologies will be presenting Future trends and business opportunities in the digital book printing segment” during the conference. “The 3M’s- right material, right machine and right manpower – is our mantra for quality,” says Rao.

One project that Manipal worked on recently was – Book of One Module, digitally printed. It required addressing the needs of publishers as well as consumers. “Adopting from a traditional process to complete automation was the major challenge,” said Rao, for whom the next big thing is: Strategic business diversification to further expand our market presence with value-added services or by launching/acquiring new products/verticals.