MicroPrints forays into digital printing with Ricoh

New Delhi-based MicroPrints has diversified into digital print production with the installation of two Ricoh digital cut-sheet printing engines – a Ricoh Pro C7200x Graphic Arts Edition and a Ricoh Pro 8310s. Both machines were supplied and installed by Ricoh’s Indian representative Monotech Systems.

The Ricoh Pro C7200X Series Graphic Arts Edition fifth colour station digital print production press delivers all the benefits of digital printing. It prints up to 85-ppm up to 360-g/m2 banner sheet duplex printing and enables the fifth colour printing — gold, silver, white, clear, neon pink, neon yellow, and invisible red toner. The production press is equipped with EFI Fiery colour controller E-46A server, which works on NX Pro platform.

While, the Ricoh Pro 8310S is a high-volume black and white multifunction printer for production environments. The press produces up to 111-ppm.

Varun Johar, managing director, MicroPrints, said, “As books are around 80% of our total production, we were looking for a mono digital printing engine to cater to the short-run demands. We were facing demands for short runs before the pandemic too, but after the pandemic, the demand has gone up. By adding the Ricoh engine, we are now capable of delivering short-run books.”

The remaining 20% of the company’s production includes packaging and commercial printing – 15% packaging and 5% commercial.

“In packaging, most of our clients are from the alco-bev segment. We do promotional packaging for them. As the Ricoh Pro C7200x is an eleven-colour press, it has enabled us to offer innovations and extended colour gamut, and ultimately more business for our clients. Though we are not using all the features at the moment, we added additional features like CMYK+ to our customers. We are ready to explore the possibilities with the press,” Johar added.

He added that the company went for the Ricoh because of its extended colour gamut, robustness of the engine, colour reproduction and consistency and its partnership with Monotech. “I was impressed with the Monotech team and their demo centre,” he said.

Established in 1979 by Rakesh Johar as Varun Offset Printers, the company was renamed MicroPrints by Varun Johar in 2004. A complete offset print production set up, from design to delivery of final products. The company also produces premium stationery under the brand “The Mood Twisters”, run by Johar’s wife Ashima Johar.

Akash Kumar, marketing lead, Monotech Systems, said, “We are happy and thankful to the industry for their positive responses. MicroPrints is one of our key customers who has bought two Ricoh machines in one go. This shows the company’s confidence in us and the machine manufacturers. It is an example of how digital printing is growing and is expanding its spectrum from books and commercial to packaging. Diversification of MicroPrints from offset to digital is another positive sign for the technology and the industry.”