Delhi – NCR based Provin Technos is a distributor of MHI-PPM, RMGTL range of sheetfed offset and heat-set web offset printing presses in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In January 2013, the joint venture of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ printing and packaging machinery with Ryobi Limited resulted in the formation of Ryobi MHI Graphic Technology Ltd. The strategic joint venture company soon offered a range of printing equipment in the market supporting a wide range of paper sizes.
Provin became the distributor for the entire product range of RMGT in January 2014. “Sale of presses is increasing every year. The installation figures have been on an upward trend for the past four years now. We are growing rapidly in terms of sales, which has helped us move up to the second spot. We come after Komori and are followed by Heidelberg and KBA,” says Vinay Kaushal, director of Provin Technos. In addition to this, the company also offers Miyakoshi narrow-web offset presses.
Ironically, while the printers continue to complain of a slump in demand of print, machine sales post 2013 have registered an upward swing. The major reason behind the slump in sales in 2013 was the economic slowdown which hit the Western market. The scenario in the Indian market also looked threatening. However, thanks to the towering potential of the country’s domestic market, the demand never went down. The dynamics of the Indian market in comparison with that of US and UK markets is completely different.
“Those who are changing with time and upgrading their machines are growing. They are the ones allowing newer technology to come to India. On the other hand, the ones working on refurbished second-hand machines are cribbing and hence we’re witnessing a contradictory scenario in our country,” adds Kaushal. “If you own a 40-inch press for commercial printing jobs and the moment you shift to a 36-inch press, the operational cost comes down by 35% and to highlight more add ons, there is no change in the job, you’re faster, working on a better technology and have a service guarantee as well.”
Multi-wave LED curing systems
The multi-wave LED curing systems now being introduced by Provin Technos which were first displayed at Printpack 2017. Multi-wave LED is a combination of LED and conventional UV. Conventional UV has been an established curing process for the past 25 years.
Conventional UV has the drawback of high heat and high power consumption and while LED is cooler and uses less energy and the lamps last longer, since it is relatively new the inks are still more expensive by as much as 2.5 the cost of non-UV conventional inks. The LED curing system introduced by Ryobi in 2008 had the advantage of being environment friendly but was expensive.
The new multi-wave technology introduced by Ryobi in 2017, uses an LED lamp that cures both conventional UV inks and varnishes and LED inks and varnishes by merely dialing up or down the lamps radiation. “We introduced this technology in 2017 but have been doing trials on this technology ever since. There were many aspects on which we had to focus and we wanted to be very sure before launching this technology and hence we took one-and-a-half years to get done with it,” says Kaushal. The company has booked a bigger space at the forthcoming Printpack 2019 than last time when it showed LED curing at its stand. It also plans to display two machines at the event venue.
