As the number of high-mix, low-volume print jobs continues to increase, it leaves print companies reeling under pressure to complete orders within shorter lead times. However, with the flexibility that digital printing offers today, printing demands that were difficult to fulfil earlier with conventional presses can now be processed efficiently and timely.
With its digital label press, the bizhub PRESS C71cf, Konica Minolta is now entering the industrial printing market in India too. With this, the company takes its successful bizhub PRESS series of printers to a new level by providing its awardwinning digital printing solutions to the growing flexo market. “We are pleased to introduce our first roll-toroll machine bizhub PRESS C71cf in India. We have already launched this toner-based label press in Europe, US and Japan. It is getting a very good response in these markets and a couple of presses have already been installed. With this product, we are moving to the industrial printing segment which is a much bigger market that production printing,” says Yuji Nakata, managing director, Konica Minolta Business Solutions India.
Before venturing into the label industry, Konica Minolta had conducted a research on the label converting market in the US, Europe, Japan and also in India. “We even visited a number of label converters and discovered that there are good high-end as well as entry-level label presses available for label printing but between these two levels, there is a gap despite an increased business and demand in the market due to increase in short-run label printing,” says Nakata. “The new label press will target customers who need to shift volumes from conventional to digital printing due to current developments in the market to produce shorter run length jobs. Many label converters are unable to invest in very high-end machines and they are also not happy with the quality and performance of the lower-end machines; this press exactly fits their requirement at an affordable investment.”
Speaking about the speed of the bizhub PRESS C71cf, Manish Gupta of Konica Minolta says, “At 13.5m/min, the speed of the bizhub PRESS C71cf is comparable to the production speed in digital category.” The press supports a maximum paper width of 330 mm and 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution (with optical resolution of 3600 dpi). “The basic engine and technology of the press is from Konica Minolta although we have taken support from one of our technology partners for the winder and unwinder.”
The bizhub PRESS C71cf can be used for the production of non self-adhesive and self-adhesive labels and can produce short- to mid-runs at a competitive price, according to Gupta. With a faster turnaround time, the machine will also provide variable data printing opportunities. “For long-run jobs, customers can of course continue to use their flexo presses, but for short-run requirements like variable data, they can use this press. The press is very user-friendly for short-run jobs,” he informs.
The bizhub PRESS C71cf will be launched in India at Labelexpo India 2016 in Greater Noida. Visitors to Labelexpo India can see the label press running at Stand F21. Konica Minolta will also demonstrate its black and white machine, bizhub Press 1250, for printing barcode labels at the label show.
