ARS Graphics, a CtP service bureau and digital printer in West Delhi, has installed a Kodak Nexpress Digital Production Color Press. A Kodak CtP plate customer since 2010, ARS installed the first Kodak 5360 VLF CtP Platesetter in India in 2012. The company which presently produces about 1,500 square metres of plates each month, started off as a prepress bureau with two imagesetters in 2003. Focused on customer needs, Sunil Chauhan, director, ARS Graphics, has built a competitive advantage with several differentiated services. With an existing customer base that demands high-quality applications, Chauhan felt the importance of diversifying to the digital printing segment.
“Our digital printing capabilities supplement our offset printing. The Kodak Nexpress differentiates us in the market and opens new avenues for business. After the installation of the Kodak Nexpress, a number of our offset clients have added digital work to their operations. We have also seen an increase in the number of new clients as a result of the new digital offerings we can produce. With the Nexpress, we hope to fulfil the market demand by printing high-quality, short-run jobs. We have ventured into photobook printing, a high-growth segment that delivers quick ROI. The unique Fifth-Imaging Unit Solutions are an added bonus, enabling us to push the boundaries of digital print and establish our position in the printing market as a unique solution provider,” says Chauhan. Currently printing 50,000 visiting cards a day on the Kodak Nexpress, ARS Graphics expects to boost the volume to over 300,000 a day.
Ramani Viswanathan, vice president, sales, Digital Printing Solutions at Kodak, says, “The Kodak Nexpress provides versatility, photographic image quality, and benchmark productivity for high-value print applications, while mixing easily into a full-service printing environment. ARS Graphics felt the
need of having an in-house
production engine to cater to increasing print volumes and the Kodak Nexpress fulfils this business need. The ability to seamlessly move work between offset and digital is a huge advantage for our customers.”
Trends in the printing industry
Lois Lebegue, managing director — Asia Pacific Region, Kodak, who was present at the inauguration of the Nexpress at ARS, says, “There are some important trends that we have seen in the print industry. The first trend is that many geographies in Asia are going away more and more from CTCP analog plates to thermal plates
for higher quality longer-run jobs. The second trend seen is what Chauhan is doing here — taking all short-run jobs of his customers and printing them digital, because up to a certain volume it makes more sense to go digital and deliver the job the same day while providing some flexibility with that. A lot of printers are no longer interested in doing the 500 sheet-runs on a normal offset press — it is not the right way to occupy your assets. And so
they are moving into this and we can see many service bureaus doing that. The third trend that we see is commercial printers diversifying into packaging because packaging is becoming a thriving segment which is going to be there for a very long time.”
Prosper 6000 and new technology centre
“We have just launched our Prosper 6000, a new generation press of the Prosper series which is extremely fast not only on coated paper but also on glossy paper. So we are starting to enter the publishing industry in the capacity to print their magazines totally digital and at a very fast speed and high productivity. The resolution is very close to offset. 24-inch wide, the press can reach 175 lines per inch. The first unit has been installed and sold in the US. We are not only producing new products in our factories, but also are opening a big technology centre in Shanghai in September where we will have all the products in demonstration as well as share customers’ experience,” says Lebegue.
