At the February 2015 Printpack exhibition in Greater Noida, Monotech Systems first showed its mid-web digital inkjet press. Although still under development the signs were clear even then – Monotech was clearly attempting to stride forward in building a complete digital press for documents and variable printing – a step beyond the marking engine for labels which it had already shown and successfully brought to market in previous years.
Monotech India is a leading graphic arts distributor in India with a variety of products from prepress to offset presses including BasysPrint’s CtCP and the Highcon digital enhancement machines. Basys Print has several times honoured the company as it best distributor and its success with Highcon has made India the second largest market for its image enhancement technology after the United States. Monotech’s success with Konica Minolta made it the leading digital press vendor in India and ultimately led to Konica Minolta buying out the sales and service operation for its presses at an undisclosed but reportedly, tidy sum.
Monotech has long manufactured wide format signage printers and label-width inspection and marking engines. It has demonstrated and shown these at various exhibitions including Labelexpo Brussels with significant market success including exports. In fact the company’s inkjet domain knowledge brings in new customers every day who are looking to address all types of coding, marking and over-printing challenges in their work with made to order or bespoke inkjet hybrid solutions.
The JetSci VSRI Variable Data Printing System launched in Labelexpo India 2014 and also highlighted at Labelexpo Brussels, has met with success in a short time frame with ten machines already installed says Jimit Mittal, vice president – inkjet, labels and packaging for Monotech Systems. “This machine with our own in-house developed slitter and rewinder is mainly used to overprint on holograms, certificates and other documents. For certain, it’s an attractive proposition for a customer who is wanting to print variable data on a wide variety of substrates.”
Now, the Jetsci WP 600 project is reaching the beta-testing phase at a customer location. Mittal, who is heading the project says, “The Jetsci WP 600 is an exciting new development for us. Monotech Systems is always listening to its customers and this new press is to meet their growing needs. This webfed inkjet press can print on paper and other media from 45 to 135 gsm at a maximum speed of 150 metres a minute at a resolution of 600 x 300 dpi at an increased resolution of 600 x 600 dpi at a speed of 75 metres a minute. The web width can be as much as 26 inches while narrower A4 media can be duplex printed using a turn-bar. The Jetsci WP 600 uses Konica Minolta and Kyocera inkjet heads with ecofriendly water-based inks as well as UV curable, UV LED curable and other security inks. Customers can change the inks on their own for a variety of needs and projects. Our target customers include book printers, commercial, as well as transactional printers. Moreover this machine is completely customizable as per customer demands.”
As a multi-purpose inkjet, digital press and digital enhancement vendor, Monotech Systems has accumulated considerable domain knowledge in various types of digital printing. For its own machines it generally uses inkjet-heads from Konica Minolta, Ricoh and Kyocera. However, for the Jetsci WP 600 digital press, Monotech is planning to stick to heads from Konica Minolta and Kyocera.
The Konica Minolta heads are 70 mm wide whereas the Kyocera heads offer a width of 108 mm with droplet sizes of 6, 7, 11 and 14 pico-litres. Mittal says, “The printhead we use depends on customer demand with the biggest press that we can offer right now has six Kyocera heads for an overall print width of about 650 mm. We are offering this press in roll-toroll, roll-to-sheet as well as roll-to-fold options and it is for the customer to choose the customization that he seeks.”
Monotech has built up a huge amount of experience and facility with both hardware and variable data with many inkjet head installations on various types of presses. “In these hybrid solutions, we mount inkjet heads on offline sheeters and feederconveyors on sheetfed offset presses. On webfed presses our heads can be mounted on or between offset, flexo and gravure print units and on the rewinders. For example, one of our customers is printing the variable barcodes on flexible laminate courier bags with LED curable inks.”
Currently undergoing the final stages of its R&D and fine tuning at Monotech’s facility in New Delhi, Mittal says the WP 600 press team needs a couple of months for fine tuning and making it ready for beta testing at a customer location. “This press is completely customizable according to the customer’s needs. We are confident that it will meet their requirements.”
