C Sukumaran, Senior Director,Products & Communication, Canon India, shares his views on the trends in digital printing market and their showcase at the upcoming PAMEX 2023.
What all newer applications can printers expect from digital printing equipment?
Sukumaran: Digital printing has evolved over the years and has been adopted in different sectors including healthcare and electronic content managementfor better efficiency and productivity. With the market evolving, newer expectations start to increase like never before. The market is vast and offers a variety of innovative equipment.A lot of innovations have been happening in the sector, especially in label printing or packaging. As far as India is concerned, the concept is there, and looking at the future trends, we can denote it as the growth driver of the segment in the future. Several industries like government, healthcare, ECM – which are critical to the functioning of the economy, have started adopting digital printing to enhance productivity. For instance, new or improved press capabilities are allowing the use of more media types, such as substrates that are thinner or thicker, heat-sensitive, metallized, stretchable, transparent, and more. Along with this, cloud-powered analytics enable increased press utilization and serviceability.
Digital printing can indeed support customers with high-quality customized printing, in a short period of time and is also cost-effective to the printer. At Canon, our focus has been to support our customers in their digital transformation journey and offer them access to products and solutions that are developed with the help of new-age technologies.
Packaging is fast adopting digital printing. Your comments and the growth in India?
Sukumaran: The printing industry has evolved over time to compete with the new digital age by embracing digital printing services. According to a report by Reportlinker,the Packaging Printing Market is expected to reach USD 507.10 billion by 2027, witnessing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7. 61%backed by the rapid rise of digital print technology.
The innovations in digital printing space have helped the consumers with solutions to attain a seamless customer experience, thereby, increasing production speed, and reducing months to days.Moreover, digital printing has impacted printing industry massively by improving production efficiencies and opening new business opportunities and thereby helping printing companies adjust to the consumer shift from large bulk orders to smaller orders.
What about commercial printing applications?
Sukumaran: Commercial Print applications have always been a driving force contributing to offset & digital print in India. While the pandemic paced down the print volumes and revenue value streams of various applications covered under this category, however, the growth forecast post Covid for next 5 years is highly encouraging in Digital Printing category for applications like Photobooks, Brochures & Pamphlets, Coupons, Collaterals, Calendars, Cards & Labels etc. This growth in print volume is expected to be double digits as per industry forecast. Decentralization of Digital Prints & its expansion in Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities is another key factor to drive new applications.
What are the plans for Pamex, which all equipment will be there and what will be new from Canon?
Sukumaran: We will be launching an array of New imagePRESS Series Production Printers at Pamex to help commercial and in-house print service providers (PSPs) enhance work efficiency with task automation. Empowering PSPs to explore new business opportunities in the production printing market, the new versatile imagePRESS Series will support a wide variety of media and will produce an extensive range of applications – from business cards and direct mails to booklets, posters, and other creative marketing collaterals. Additionally, the new series will deliver maximum productivity, consistent quality and reliability to boost production capabilities, establishing it to mark a new generation in the imagePRESS generation lineup.
We will also be displaying our upgraded wide format printers like iPFTM, TZ & GP Color Series, along with therecently launched iPF TC series at Stall No B10, Hall No 1 (180 Square Meter).