A double event at The Printing Technologists Forum

The 30th annual general meeting of The Printing Technologists Forum was held recently in Chennai. Subsequent to AGM, the Silver Jubilee of their official journal Print Forum was held celebrated, and the publishers, editors, type-setters and printers who made the Print Forum were honoured. The present Committee of the Forum will continue till June 2012.

On the occasion, the chief guest at the function NR Kumar, managing director, MWN Press gave an interesting presentation on challenges faced by the printers. Tracing the history of automobile giants General Motors, Chrysler and Ford, he explained how they were revered for their products and for their management. Printing is one area which is essential for any type of acquiring knowledge for any chosen field. With growing importance of printing, challenges have been faced by the printers for customer satisfaction with speed, quality and pricing, and no printer can ignore these challenges. However, the printing technology has been improving its methods. Management techniques like Kaizen and 5S help the printers. The Moore’s Law describes a long term trend in capabilities of digital electronics linked to processing speed, memory capacity, sensors, number and size of pixels.

“There is no or low wastage as we have to produce to exact ordered quantity. The education paradigm has changed from acquiring knowledge to applying knowledge. This process of transformation has brought in a DRAMA (Denial, Resistance, Agitation, Mellowing and Acceptance). Let us accept the facts. Just keep in mind the technology leap. In 2002, it was 11 plates per hour with an investment of Rs 70 lakh for a CtP and in 2011, it is 20 plates per hour with an investment of Rs 45 lakh. With the Moore’s Law the cost is about halved. With all these, we have to protect the ecology apart from complying with companies Act, following RBI guidelines on statement of accounts, and satisfying the Collector of Customs. A printer has to face these challenges, come out of it and survive or perish. Face the challenge is the underlying theme,” he concluded.

Reprographic Systems to reckon within Chennai

Working alongside pressrooms, technical and managerial staff, of Reprographic Systems & Supplies ensure that new products are developed to meet exact needs, and help customers realize maximum benefit from existing products, and are working hard to march with the printing industry. Three decades into supplying consumables and equipments for printers and print finishers, Reprographic Systems & Supplies – a friendly, professional, family-run organization established in 1979, providing a varied product line of prepress and press supplies to the printing industry have established themselves for service and reliability. When someone was complaining to a noted print personality in Chennai about non-availability of 10x eyeglass, they chipped in, “Contact Paul of Reprographic, he will supply you 100x eyeglass”. Such is the reputation of KJ Paul, managing partner, Reprographic Systems & Supplies.

Primarily dealing in specialised offset consumable products like graphic art films, process chemicals, presensitised plates, blankets, anti set off powder, inks, cutting sticks, PVC coated paper, etc. Paul has emerged now as digital/offset print finishing equipments supplier for paper and glue coating machine, table top binding equipments and spare parts supplier for Heidelberg, manroland, Komori and Mitsubishi machines.

Also into distributorship for 20+ brands like Memory, Conti-Air, Kodak, Boettcher, Micro Inks, Sakata Inx, etc. Reprographic Systems & Supplies with its dealers’ network in a dozen cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, etc has anchored its name for reliability in everything it is dealing with. In Print Expo 2011 recently in Chennai, Paul and his son Sumit were very much busy with their team.

South Asia’s first simulated press training facility launched in Chennai

The first ‘simulated press training facility’ in South Asia for training web offset printing personnel was inaugurated on July 07, 2011 at the Research Institute for Newspaper Development – Press Institute of India premises by Kasturi Balaji, managing director, Kasturi & Sons Ltd and WAN-IFRA board member. This training facility will start functioning from August this year at WAN-IFRA Research and Material Training Centre (RMTC).

Launching the facility, Balaji said that this facility could fill the gap in an educational system lacking in this line of skill development, and would help the initiation of trainees before their entry into the profession. As of now, most of the training is done during the job. Peter Herman, president, Sinapse Print, France – the provider of the Simulator – said that the training programme was currently being run on the simulator software Version 5. For the next ten years, WAN-IFRA would be receiving annual upgrades for the software. The simulated training ensemble comprises three monitors – console, copy desk and folder – connected to a software-loaded computer. Through a set of exercises, trainees are taken through different scenarios of production hitches and learn the art of trouble shooting. The system also helps them choose the course of correction that will involve the lowest possible production cost. It was pointed out that the ensemble could not only train as per the exercises but also would be in a position to solve the on-the-job problems brought to them. The simulator can simulate three configurations of press – 2×1, 4×1 and 4×2, both broadsheet and tabloid. It includes library of more than 100 exercises to simulate different press situations.

Apart from Peter Herman, Anand Srinivasan, research engineer and Thierry Mack, trainer, WAN-IFRA handled the lively Q&A session. Magdoom Mohamed, managing director, WAN-IFRA, South Asia welcomed the gathering and thanked them for their presence. The inauguration was attended by around fifty prominent invitees, majority of them were potential users from shop floors of The Hindu, The Times of India, New Indian Express, Dinamalar, Dinakaran, etc.

–D Ramalingam