Printing rediscovered at RICOH stand at PAMEX ’13!

Ricoh offered an array of machines in six different zones – Digital Offset, Speciality Media, Jumbo Prints, Quick Print, Finishing and Software Solution and showcased their applications in four major business verticals. The inauguration…

Ricoh’s stand at PAMEX ’13 was formally inaugurated by Subhasis Ganguli, vice president, production and content management, Pearson Group. He was joined by Avijit Mukherjee, chief operating officer, production printing business group – Ricoh India; Anjana Saha, national business marketing manager, Ricoh India; Vinod Rajpal, a long time user of Ricoh machines and SK Khurana, editor, Print & Publishing.

Speaking after the inauguration Subhasis Ganguli said that the revolution of digital printing has changed the printing industry and they are seeing a great future. While, SK Khurana congratulated Ricoh for being the catalyst in changing the concept of copyshops to digital printing organisations. He further said that it is the print buyers who have most benefited through this development. While, Vinod Rajpal, shared that it has been a lovely experience working with Ricoh and their next digital machine to adopt would definitely be from Ricoh.

Six zones…

RICOH India unveiled a complete array of its new digital machines, software solutions and business portal in a very customised and value-added way. With five zones dedicated specially to the printing segments and one to software, the Ricoh stand at PAMEX ’13

experienced a flurry of activities. Wisely named after the various colloquial terms used by printers, each zone featured specific machines with live demonstrations. In all, over ten machines were running live at the show.

Coming to the printing zones, the Digital Offset Zone was dedicated to digital continuous feed press for book printing while Speciality Media Zone focused for printing on various textured media. Keeping in mind the need for large format prints, the Jumbo Prints Zone was catering to wide-format printing, like maps, etc. Finishing Zone focused on the post press options. Last but not the least, Quick Print Zone focused on PFP and jobbing segment. The sixth zone was the Software Solution Zone, which offered software to streamline the production workflow in all areas of operations.

Segments targeted….

Digital printing machines have made inroads into almost all segments and Ricoh India has reiterated the fact by displaying quality samples in four major verticals – healthcare, education, BFSI (Banking, Finance, Security and Insurance) and Manufacturing.

The workhorses…

For the book printing industry, InfoPrint 4100 CF press formed one of the major showcases, besides colour book covers printed on RICOH Pro 901 Graphic Art + in the Digital Offset Zone as well as binding activities.

“Worldwide, the volumes in the black-and-white digital printing are merely growing by 8-10 percent while the colour market is at the rate of 25-30 percent per annum,” told Anjana Saha, national business marketing manager, RICOH India. “And this is also because some of the jobs earlier printed by offset are now printed by digital printing, more so in the publication segment,” she added.

Ricoh offers both cut-sheet as well as continuous feed models in the colour digital printing segment. In the cut-sheet segment, these include the entry-level 5100S/5110S models, the mid-segment PRO C651ex/751/751ex models and the higher-end PRO 901GA+ models, with the speeds ranging between 65-90 ppm.

“Coming to the continuous feed, inkjet drop-on-demand technology, Ricoh offers IP 5000 GP/VP/MP models,” told Anjana. “And inkjet is the future and the market is catching up with the IP5000 technology. It works on robust IBM platform. We have already installed one CF IP5000 inkjet colour at Seshasayee Business Forms,” she added further.

Also, in the publishing segment, lot of self publishing authors are coming up, who are not looking for huge volumes for their titles. “For such jobs, digital printing becomes only the viable option,” told Anjana.

Talking about the cut-sheet vs. continuous feed printers, Anjana shared, “Customers can actually save on huge ink costs, using continuous models.” “Another interesting solution offered included Ink-Savvy which can save upto 25 percent ink cost as well as productivity goes up while the quality is almost 99 percent same,” she added.

Anjana is optimistic that they will be able to install another colour continuous feed machine very soon. It is worthy to note that Ricoh is investing a lot in research & development towards inkjet technology. “To sum it, inkjet is the future. Both cut-sheet and continuous feed technology will continue to co-exist as they cater to different applications,” concluded Anjana.

Ricoh InfoPrint 4100 CF goes to Datacon

Bangalore-based Datacon Technologies ordered Ricoh InfoPrint 4100 CF at PAMEX. J Dileep Kumar of Datacon, immensely impressed with this machine, is seen here with Ricoh team during PAMEX ’13.

“Ricoh is focused on Indian market and expanding the horizon for colour”

says Ben BW Chong, general manager, strategic marketing division & production printing business group, Ricoh Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, Singapore.

Since PAMEX 2011, we have been focusing and investing substantially in the Indian market. We have launched new products and our service coverage area has increased tremendously, told Ben BW Chong, general manager, strategic marketing division & production printing business group, Ricoh Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, Singapore.

More recently, the company unveiled Ricoh Pro C 5100S/5110S series, that are set to take the printing solutions offering in Indian market to a new dimension through high product quality equipped with Ricoh’s best after sales service. “The SME/SMB segment is set to benefit from this entry level product with competitive price and low cost of operation. Ricoh Pro C 5100S/5110S have print speed of 65 A4 pages per minute and 80 A4 pages per minute, with the duty cycle of 3,00,000 A4 pages per month,” he added. “The response has been overwhelming and we even have a few back orders for the same.”

Ricoh is also strengthening its supremacy in the mid segment colour production printing segment by adding Ricoh Pro C901/901S GA+, which has the capability to print up to 350 GSM media.

Coming to the continuous feed segment, Ben shared that their IP4100 and IP5100 printers are doing very well since their launch. “We were targeting these printers for the publishing segment and it gives immense pleasure to share that we have been able to achieve our targets for the publishing segment. For short-run and advance copies in publishing, publishers are shifting towards these machines,” added Avijit Mukherjee, chief operating officer, production printing business group – Ricoh India.

For the outdoor signage and poster applications, Ricoh is set to launch a wide format colour printer soon. “We are preparing our team and creating market for the same,” informed Ben. These machines are manufactured in China while the high-end cut-sheet machines are manufactured in Japan and the continuous feed machines are shipped from US, with mainframes from Japan.

“During the next three years, we would be focusing on expanding our market share in India by offering more products. We also need to educate the customers to maximise on technology and a wide format colour printer from Ricoh will be unveiled in this direction soon,” concluded Ben on a positive note.

‘Printlab’ to bring buyers & sellers on one platform…

On the sidelines of PAMEX ’13 at a glittering ceremony ‘RICOH Night’ at The Stellar Gymkhana, Greater Noida, Ricoh India launched Printlab – a common platform for buyers and sellers to search, connect and get the best service and standardised quality across the country. Amidst more than 100 delegates, the Printlab website (www.printlab.ricoh.co.in) from Ricoh was formally launched among much fanfare. On the website, digital printing service providers can register themselves and showcase their facilities and capabilities. While, the digital printing customers can browse through these service providers’ offerings and choose the one that suits their needs. Besides, they have also initiated a blog wherein the customers/digital service providers can share their experiences. This would serve as a testimonial for a job well done as well as possibilities for improvement.