Two leading print service providers in the Lower Parel region of Mumbai have invested in digital presses recently. Preview Print Zone in Adhyaru Industrial Estate has installed a Ricoh Pro C9100 while Ventura Cards, based in Parvati Industrial Estate, has opted for a Konica Minolta bizhub Pro 1100.
Ventura Cards has been in the business of making transaction and identity cards, such as credit cards, debits cards, PAN cards, school identity cards, corporate identity cards, etc. which require variable data printing. Ventura installed the Konica Minolta in early September.
“Since we have a large number of jobs with variable data printing, we require digital technology and we found that Konica Minolta Bizhub Pro 1100 suited our requirements the best. Having a digital press not just saves time but also helps reduce wastage significantly,” says Ventura’s Dinesh Ghosalkar.
The Konica Minolta bizhub Pro 1100 is a monochrome press with production speed of 100 A4 or 55 A3 pages per minute. It offers high print quality with 1,200 x 1,200 dpi resolution and LED print-head. The press can handle media weights between 40 gsm and 300 gsm in combination with intelligent paper catalog with mixplex/mixmedia functionality.
Although Ventura is totally dedicated to manufacturing cards, according to Ghosalkar, the company is open to venturing into regular commercial printing jobs as well to fully utilize the capabilities of the digital press.
“Although, we are focusing completely on the cards business right now, we are open to using the digital technology for commercial printing jobs as well,” he says.
Ricoh Pro C9100 at Preview Print Zone
Right next door to Parvati Industrial Estate is Adhyaru Industrial Estate where Preview Print Zone is located. Preview is into digital commercial printing as well as wide format printing. It bought a Ricoh C9100 in November last year with an aim to enhance its digital printing capacity. The new Ricoh C9100 complements Preview’s existing Xerox and Konica Minolta digital presses.
“We are extremely satisfied with the performance of the Ricoh press. The production speed and quality is top class,” says Vinod Gada of Preview. The company has been printing close to 2 lakh impressions every month on the Ricoh press.
The high volume Pro C9100 series was launched in 2014 and is meant for printers who generate heavy production. In the Pro C9100 series, Pro C9100 has a speed of 110 ppm based upon A4 (150 ppm A4 equivalent when running A3) while the Pro C9110 offers a speed of 130 ppm. Print services providers can take on a wide range of new commercial applications with the Pro C9100 series as it has the capability to print onto uncoated, textured and coated media from 52 gsm to 400 gsm, duplex banner sheet printing up to 700 mm, and even speciality media such as super-gloss, magnet, metallic, transparent or synthetic. It delivers image quality of up to 1200 x 4800 dpi.
Preview also has significant presence in wide format segment and employs Epson eco-solvent printer along with a Chinese press.