-poised to add another Ricoh printer after having excellent production with the existing one

One of the leading book printers in Delhi NCR, Syndicate Binders who installed a Ricoh Pro 1357EX black and white production printer with EFI Fiery controller around two years ago, continues enhancing profitability with excellent production efficiency of Ricoh technology.

"With our Ricoh printer, we print around 30-40 titles of books every month, generally with 300-400 pages in size of 9x6 inch. For each title, average 300-400 copies are printed for both domestic and overseas publishers. Experiencing outstanding performance of this Ricoh printer and supportive approach of Ricoh, we are soon to purchase one more such printer from Ricoh," conveyed Vinod Rajpal of Syndicate Binders, in a conversation with P&P.

The RICOH Pro 1357EX digital imaging system enables to deliver the speed, flexibility and failsafe reliability to maximize productivity in production-grade environments. This powerful system provides precise black & white output at speeds up to 135 pages-per-minute with versatile inline finishing. With it, one can turn jobs faster, increase efficiency and consistently exceed customers' expectations in terms of short-run book production capacity.

Established in the year 1972 with investment of just Rs 3,000, Syndicate Binders has now reached to the annual turnover of around Rs four crore. Presently, they have been producing books for more than ten publishers, including three from overseas market. "The quality being provided by Ricoh printer is efficiently helping us to export books significantly, and we are expecting greater growth, leveraging advantages of our state-of-the-art printing equipment."

-with inauguration of National Laser Color Lab new facility in Kozhikode, and Print Hub's new facility in Coimbatore

Kozhikode based photo giant, National Laser Color Lab, one of the oldest photo labs in Kerala, recently installed the Kodak NexPress SX 3300 photo press at their new printing facility - Leader Color Graphics in Space Mall. By capitalising on the unique features of the much awarded Kodak NexPress press, Leader Color Graphics has plans to increase their foot-print in both photo and commercial printing space.

The Kodak NexPress SX 3300 photo press along with the Kodak NexPress glossing unit and 36" sheet feeder – second of its kind in Asia at the facility was inaugurated by PK Ahmed, chairman of PK Group of Companies in the presence of Kamarudheen and Assanul Bannas of National Laser Color Lab (National Studio), Ramani Viswanathan, vice-president, digital print systems, Kodak India and Suresh Babu, national sales manager of Kodak India.

National Laser Color Lab is a name known for its high quality photo print products with one of its kind designing & printing facility in Kozhikode. Kamarudheen, along with his younger brother Assanul Bannas, have taken National's Leader Color Graphics Group to new heights with their zest for innovative thinking and new ideas, and always being one of the firsts to invest in the new technologies. Being in the Photo Business for over 73 years now, National Laser Color Lab (National Studio) has grown tremendously with its base across Kerala and Middle East with their sheer hard work and vision to become a Photobook brand by itself.

Meanwhile, Coimbatore based PRINT HUB Dee, a unit of Spy Printers also inaugurated their new Color Digital printing facility at Gandhipuram Second Street, Coimbatore. The inauguration was performed by Oscar Planas, managing director - India-South East Asia of Kodak along with Ramani Viswanathan, vice president, digital printing solutions, Kodak India. Started as a Colour Digital Printing Unit in Coimbatore in 2007, Print Hub has grown tremendously and expanded their base with their latest digital printing facility in Coimbatore by installing the latest KODAK NexPress SX Photo 3300.

Always being one of the firsts to invest in new technology, Sathish along with Sathiya Ramanan has taken Print Hub upwards with their zest for innovative thinking. Print Hub installed the latest Kodak NexPress SX 3300 with the NexGlosser and 36" sheet feeder and plans to have a bigger foot-print in south Tamil Nadu and parts of Kerala in both digital printing and also the photo space by capitalising on the unique features of the much awarded Kodak NexPress platform.

The Kodak NexPress also enables the printing of the greatest variety of output like dimensional printing, watermarking, protection coating, glossing, gold, light black, red fluorescent inks, matte printing, long sheet applications upto 36" etc. The SX3300 press is capable of printing both four- and five-colour prints, making it an outstanding press for high-end, short-run brochures, photo products, calendars, post cards, and other marketing collateral. This along with the strong service offering from Kodak and the fact that the NexPress platform is upgradeable to take up new features launched in the future, is the reason for National Laser Color Lab and Print Hub to select the NexPress for their future growth.

The NexPress SX3300 can also run all of the 5th imaging unit solutions like dimensional, clear coat / glossing, Lite Black for photo applications gold, pearl, neon pink (in future) for value addition and print differentiation. There are more than thirty different attributes to image quality: colour consistency, differential gloss, fades resistance, smoothness of solids, line quality, transparency, etc. The NexPress image quality has improved steadily since the launch of the platform, with the latest SX model image quality now better or equal to all competition. The ability for the NexPress press to produce smooth flat fields has become top in class with recent innovations in materials, hardware & software.

NexPress is certified with Gray Resolution Enhancement Technology (GRET) which allows Print Hub to print superb halftone reproduction with smooth tonal transitions. The NexPress comes with six different screening technologies like Classic, Supra, Line, Optimum, Staccato & Classic HD Optimal screen choices for different imaging needs.

Ably handling short run jobs with Ricoh printer, generating more revenues to enhance profitability

Book printing is major area of operations at St Francis Press, and with annual growth rate of around twelve percent, they have reached to the turnover of rupees six crore. "Presently we produce books for more than twenty publishers from India and overseas. Around fifteen percent books produced by us are exported. By installing Ricoh printer, we can now handle short run jobs effectively, generating more revenues to enhance profitability," conveys Rajan PS of St Francis Press in a brief conversation with P&P.

Established in the year 1926 to specially print religious books, Cochin (Kerala) based St Francis Press is now living up to the emerging market trends, opting state-of-the-art technologies. Recently they established another milestone by installing Ricoh Pro 907EX printer to offer on-demand book printing services to a number of publishers.

Enabling to speed up the production while meeting and exceeding the customers' varied demands, the Ricoh Pro 907EX is a complete, modular powerhouse designed to handle high-volume print orders efficiently. Highly reliable and customisable with a unique range of finishing functions, this system can make a difference offering speed up to 90 sheets per minute simplex and duplex productivity (A4), with optimum reliability and durability.

To strengthen their leadership in production colour printing, Xerox has recently acquired Impika, a leader in the design, production and sale of production inkjet printing solutions used for industrial, commercial, security, label and package printing.

Impika's proprietary aqueous inkjet systems complement Xerox's broad portfolio of colour printing technology for graphic communications marketplace. Impika product lines include iPrint, a range of continuous feed production printers that print at speeds as fast as 375 metres per minute, and iPress, a range of graphic communications digital presses with resolutions of up to 2400 x 1200 dpi. Impika, based in Aubagne, France, has been selling its products to print providers through its direct sales force and through a global network of channel partners, including Xerox, which has been reselling the Impika brand in Europe since 2011, and recently expanded to several developing markets.

In addition to Xerox's existing xerographic production presses, the company developed and markets the world's only high-speed waterless inkjet presses, the Xerox CiPress production inkjet systems. By adding Impika technology to its offerings, Xerox will now go to market with the industry's broadest range of digital presses, strengthening its leadership in digital colour production printing. "A hallmark of Xerox's long-term success is our focus on innovation, and Impika has demonstrated an innovative approach to advanced production inkjet printing that complements Xerox's technology," said Jeff Jacobson, president of Xerox's Graphic Communications Operations.