Promoting offset-on-demand

Komori organises H UV seminar in New Delhi and ‘offset-on-demand open house’ at their Tsukuba Plant to help attendees in planning future equipment investment. To educate Indian printer community about their revolutionary technologies, Komori organised an H UV seminar on the sidelines of Printpack India 2011in New Delhi. On the occasion, it was highlighted that the Komori printing machines combined with the H UV and the KHS AI technology may make the offset printing comparable to the digital printing with better print quality and value added printing and dissolving the niche of digital print. This combination scores on: speed of total print, time, quality of print, short run, value added print, print on just about varied substrates, use of any pantone shades, and cost of production.

In his welcome address, emphasising on the new technologies spearheading the graphic industry around the world witnessing ever reducing print margins in the offset printing segment, T Kubotera, general manager of Komori Corporation, responsible for global sale, reaffirmed Komori’s commitment to provide new and cost effective ways to provide printers to survive in the ever changing world. He also asserted that Komori has always been an innovator in new cost cutting technologies and most of them have become industry standards now like the high speed production, blanket wash, automatic make ready and the double diameter cylinder. Komori has made it easy for most of its customers and the heatset web have already benefitted after the launch of the KHS AI and now the sheetfed customers globally have started to feel the difference after the use of the KHS AI.

“The Komori H UV and the KHS AI advantage give printers a cutting edge above their competition defining offset-on-demand by benchmarking the higher value added quality standards.” Neil Wigglesworth, general manager, Komori Graphic Centre, presented the cost saving methods by using the KHS AI system. Every printer can save 30 tons of paper and over 500 litres of alcohol, cost of ink saving 30 to 35 percent and 40 percent cost of electricity every year. As per the presentation by Sangam Khanna of Insight Communications, printers have been forced to reduce their customers cost in the range of 5 to 10 percent every year to survive. The industry has been witnessing an upward trend in the cost of inputs and the margin of profits is reducing drastically. With the application of the KHS AI, printers can use the benefits for reducing their cost of production by substantial number which help by and large to retain profitability.

Later giving presentation on the H UV (Komori Patent), the new innovation from Komori, which has taken the world by a storm, Neil highlighted how Komori H UV could print UV without heat, Ozone and at only less than 25 percent electricity cost. This is also a green UV system. He showed that there was no need for printers, who wanted to print on UV, to purchase expensive configuration of machine. The same results could be achieved while printing on the plastic & foil, PP, PVC, and other special substrates. This is easy to use technology and easy to adapt for printers as ‘it is a wet on wet print’ and there is no need for any kind of interduct system between units.

Neil did put up the point that the same or similar kind of technology has presently not been offered by any of the competitor and Komori is working to take up this technology to higher levels for their customers to benefit.

On the occasion, Murti, general manager from Toyo Inks also emphasised on the commitment of Toyo with Komori and the development of H UV Inks around the world.

This was followed by a Komori Award Ceremony, presented by Masaru Tsukamoto, director and operating officer overseas.

Meanwhile, the two-day ‘new product release / offset-on-demand open house’ was held (Feb 03-04, 2011) at the Komori Graphic Technology Center (KGC) in Komori’s Tsukuba Plant, featuring demonstrations for extremely short runs with tight delivery deadlines on two Komori presses: the Lithrone G40 (GL-440), making its worldwide debut as the new upgraded model in the Lithrone series, and a Lithrone S26 (LS-426). Both machines were equipped with the H UV system and the KHS AI integrated control system. Offset-on-demand, the ideal mode of printing for the next generation, supports completely new fields of business, establishing a printing environment with greater scope and shortens working time.

In each demonstration, two jobs were run. In the first demonstration on the Lithrone S26 (LS-426), Job 1 used coated paper, and four-colour printing on the front side of the sheets was produced after registration adjustment and colour matching. In production printing, 200 sheets were printed. In Job 2, four-colour printing was done on the back side of the sheets used in Job 1. After measuring and confirming the colour on the 20th sheet of initial printing, 200 sheets were printed and then guillotined and folded.

The event then moved on to the demonstration of the new Lithrone G40 (GL-440), a newly developed high performance machine that concentrates the essence of Komori technologies on the theme of concern for the environment and ecology. On this, Job 1 used paper with a rough gloss finish, and four-colour printing on the front side of the sheets was performed after registration adjustment and colour matching. Then four-colour work-and-turn printing (printing the same image on the front and back sides) was performed without changing the plates. After checking the front-back registration, 200 sheets were printed in production printing. Then job changeover was performed and Job 2 was performed on thick (0.5 mm) sheets. After initial printing, register adjustment and colour matching, 200 sheets were printed in production printing.

A total of 188 customers attended the open house, making the gathering a great success.