“Inkjet is the future”
Shares Akshat Pardiwala, COO, Nippon Color, in conversation with Print & Publishing.
From modest beginnings as suppliers of photography goods, pre-press printing equipment and its consumables, the Nippon Group has grown as pioneers and leaders in imaging technology. Here, Akshat Pardiwala, Nippon Color shares their views on the future of printing and their showcase at PAMEX.
On Pamex 2023…
“Pamex takes place after a few years of gap. In these years, we identified our key loyal customers and focused on strengthening our services to them. During Covid, we saw a reduction in new business enquiries, and it was critical for us to priorities our existing business and service. During the first few months of lockdown, we created an “emergency task force” for delivery of CTP plates in our personal cars for our customers who were printing for “essential goods”. We had to adjust our terms and guarantee supply to our customers who were also going through a tough time. Hence, we acted with urgency and made sure to our full capacity so that our customers do not lose business,” shares Akshat Pardiwala, COO, Nippon Color.
Digital showcase…
“Looking forward, we have multiple star products which we will be showcasing at Pamex. For commercial sheet-fed segment, Offset and Digital Printing press users will be highly interested in our Digital Embellishment solutions to produce Spot UV Varnish and Foiling digitally without the use of plates or dies. We are partners of Konica Minolta’s MGI range of solutions that focus on adding 2D and 3D gloss effects at a reasonable cost without the complicated steps of conventional systems. AccurioShine 3600 will be on display at Konica Minolta’s stall in Hall 2 Booth H-22 at PAMEX. Fully digital, featuring industry-leading artificial intelligence registration technology and eco-friendly LED curing system, all at an impressively compact size, the Accurioshine 3600 allows users to offer their customers a full range of high-impact finishing effects, while raising profit margins,” he adds.
AccurioShine 3600 provides cost-effective access to wide range JETvarnish 3D digital embellishment technologies, which feature both sheet and roll-fed solutions for every business model. One single varnish formula allows both flat 2D Spot UV and tactile 3D special effects on a wide range of substrate stocks and media such as paper, plastic and carton. While, special substrate management processes allow these eye-catching, tactile sensory print treatments to be produced on substrate stocks from 135 to 450gsm and on a wide range of printed materials, from offset and digital inks to lamination films and aqueous coatings. “The AccurioShine 3600 creates opportunities for enhanced brand identity, more powerful printed communications, and highly profitable digital special effects on all printing applications, such as booklets, brochures, business cards, mail pieces, book & magazine covers, sheet-fed labels, small folding cartons and more!,” adds Akshat.
Pre-press showcase…
“For Flexo printers and plate trade shops, we have an exciting sustainable platemaking solution from Fujifilm. Flenex FW plates are water-wash Flexo plates that provide the highest print quality at the fastest production times, while significantly lowering cost-in-use compared to thermal, solvent or other water-wash technology. We will be displaying the plate samples along with C-Touch, which is a European build water-wash processor on our Booth D-40 in Hall 1.Fujifilm Flenex water-wash Flexo plates reduces your platemaking processing times to less than 40 minutes and delivers longer runs while producing a consistent 200 lpi at 4,000 dpi. “The rubber-based compound means a 1% flat top dot can be achieved without complex systems to eliminate oxygen, and results in lower dot gain while better ink transfer produces noticeably cleaner and brighter print results,” adds Akshat.
Outlook for future…
“Our outlook for the coming years include a shift in technology towards digital printing aimed at sustainability. Going green has always been important for print producers, but this approach is stronger than ever. Predominantly, our industry has focused on printing fast in great volumes. After Covid, this scenario is likely to shift in the near future as customers demand value-driven products more efficiently while reducing the impact on environment,” he shares.
“For me, Inkjet is the future. Going digital means eliminating processes and reducing material wastes. But with Electrophotography (toner-based technology), we are still consuming a lot of consumables such as drums, rollers, toner cartridges, which need to be replaced multiple times. This also creates waste and impacts the environment. In Inkjet your main consumables are the inkjet heads and ink, which last longer,” he adds.
“To support this trend, we at Nippon Color, are focusing on digital inkjet technologies. For commercial & packaging segment we have Konica Minolta’s MGI for digital embellishment, for label converters we have Screen Truepress Jet which is a UV Inkjet label press, and we are also offering an inkjet printing solution for publication. All printed samples will be on display at PAMEX where we aim to give a hand-holding to our customers during this technology transfer,” concludes Akshat.
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