Ricoh is displaying its newly launched Ri 1000 Direct to Garment (DTG) printer at its stand B4 K31 in FESPA, Munich. In response to the growing demand for easy to use, efficient and affordable garment decoration solutions, Ricoh’s latest innovation renders printers with fast and flexible production while delivering high image quality. It joins the Ri 100 and Ri 6000 in Ricoh’s rapidly expanding DTG portfolio of solutions.
Faster than the Ri 3000, the Ri 1000 delivers greater print quality with enhanced resolution of 1200 dpi x 1200 dpi and supports CMYK and white ink to ensure impressive results on fabrics of any color. The Ri 1000’s application flexibility is supported by a new pre-treatment liquid suitable for 100% light polyester and polycotton blends. This opens up greater opportunities for garments and textile products in a number of sectors including sports.
The ability of the printer to smoothly switch between multiple styles of platens up to 406.4 mm x 508 mm allows quick operation and production versatility. The Ri 1000’s magnetic mechanism enables the platens to easily snap on and off. This flexibility supports continuous production and a wide range of print capabilities from children’s sizes to super wide designs.
“The Ri 1000’s comprehensive functionality, production flexibility and versatility make it the ideal option for personalized garment printing and print-on-demand services,” says Graham Kennedy, head of Commercial Inkjet business, Commercial and Industrial Printing Group, Ricoh Europe. “It delivers the perfect combination of smart technology, fast print speeds and high output quality to enable creative print providers to capture genuine business growth opportunities. Its four Ricoh printheads, robust product design, and advanced features such as temperature and humidity sensors, and precise ink supply monitoring, assure consistently reliable high quality results.”
Minimal maintenance with customizable cleaning options maximizes production uptime. For the maintenance tasks that are not automated, the device’s 7-inch touchscreen display provides smart alerts notifying operators when to perform manual maintenance tasks.
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
– Naresh Khanna
Subscribe Now 
