Special applications beckoned at manroland seminars

Verses from Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken marked the opening of manroland’s UV and Special Applications Seminars held recently in Ahemdabad and subsequently in Mumbai on the very next day. The words of wisdom from the poem encouraged the attendees to get on manroland’s revolutionary Roland InlineCoater Smart and Roland InlineFoiler Prindor machines for a new business down the road that had never been taken in the Indian sheetfed market. Jyaneswar Laishram of Print & Publishing reports on the constructive meet conducted by Anil Bhatia, managing director, manroland India along with Ronny Muller, managing director, Eltosch (UV partner of manroland) and Leo Zeiger-Schaad, product manager, manroland AG, Germany. Special effect prints Success in business is defined by the capability to make differences in quality benchmarks. This was what manroland conveyed to the attendees from the commercial and packaging segments of the Indian sheetfed market during the UV and Special Applications Seminars where showcased incredible samples of coated and metallic prints. In view of the growth and demands for value-added applications in the post-recession period in India, Anil Bhatia ascertained onset of a radical progression in coating, embossing and UV printing technologies in presses around the cities like Ahemdabad and others across India.

Sneaking into the commitment of manroland India – a 100 percent subsidiary of manroland AG, Germany – towards the development of the Indian printing industry and betterment of its customers, Anil in his opening speech at the seminars announced, “We don’t just sell presses, we would like be your partner to enhance business with the introduction of groundbreaking machines and technologies.”

Technical specifications

Second session of the seminar unfolded with a presentation of technical advantages of Roland InlineCoater Smart and Roland InlineFoiler Prindor. “Roland InlineCoater Smart is a retractable coating device that can be fitted in the last printing unit as a swing-in arm in both Roland 700 HiPrint and Roland 500 presses,” explained Natasha Tandon of manroland India. She further elaborated the varnishing process of the InlineCoater delivering the flexibility of utilising 5th printing unit.

(L-R) Anil Bhatia, Ronny Muller and Leo Zeiger-Schaad (Top) Attendees observe the print gallery (Bottom) Roland InlineCoater Smart is designed to deliver a range of coatings, such as protective coating, additional effects with matt-gloss coating (TwinEffect and Spot coatings) and special coating, which are specified as iriodin coating, scented coating, soft touch coating and blister coating respectively. “TwinEffect coatings are produced with Roland InlineCoater Smart from 6-colour configuration with print varnish and dispersion coating processes,” explicated Natasha. Depending on machine configuration and application, materials combined in the process can be adhesive, foil, inks and coating.

Roland InlineFoiler Prindor on other hand is another latest innovation of manroland in cold foiling technology producing added effects in metallic printing. “No opaque white is required in the cold foiling process of Roland InlineFoiler Prindor,” demonstrated Natasha reckoning advantages of this technology which guarantees no deformation of substrate since there is no influence of temperature and pressure. Value additions in these revolutionary technologies determine production efficiency with cost-effectiveness, faster service, better quality and unique applications.

UV advantages

Counting on all advantages of UV prints on sealed/special substrates like foils, metalized or laminated papers with higher surface resistances from scratching, marking and others, Ronny Muller stressed on the competence of the UV technology that could proceed printing without heating and ozone at lesser power consumption. “In the commercial segment, advanced UV printing process has unique advantages like there would be no drying time, no storage of semi-finished sheets as printed materials become finished products immediately,” he explained.

Similarly in the packaging segment, Eltosch’s advanced UV technology has exceptional advantages against the conventional UV printing. “The company provides UV technology with a single lamp UV system, which saves energy as well as investment cost,” admitted Ronny. When it comes to energy saving, Eltosch’s UV technology is recognised for high-energy efficiency, longer life of UV lamps and reduced standby power. The company is certified for energy minimised UV printing by BG-Profzert, a German government safety organization working with all its main European partners.

Ultimate commitments

After all advancements in the technology front, manroland is now set to deliver the UV machine solution upon the request of is customers. “In our supplies of any machines or technologies, we restrict that there would be no supply of highly reactive inks on the part of manroland,” affirmed Leo Zeiger-Schaad adding that for use and handling of such inks, the company suggests to keep in touch with the corresponding ink supplier.

Announced in a big way during the seminar included imperative products and policies of manroland India. “We are planning to open a Print Technology Institute in India,” revealed Anil. He also announced that the current local stock of spares (web and sheetfed) will be enhanced and expanded to a volume worth more than Rs two million soon in the country. CROMOMAN 4-1 web offset (newspapers), R704 (commercial sheetfed) and Roland 700 with customised features designed for Indian commercial printers are going to be manroland India’s next mega launches to shudder the market of the subcontinent in near future.