Epson India secures orders for three printers at Sign India 2019

Epson’s eco-solvent large format printers on display

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Epson India team along with visitors at the Sign India stand
Epson India team along with visitors at the Sign India stand

Epson India received orders for three wide-format printers at the recently concluded Sign India 2019 show, which was held in Mumbai from 15 to 17 November at Goregaon Exhibition Centre. At the show, the company showed four different eco-solvent printers for indoor and outdoor signage and wallpaper printing customers.

“We aimed to showcase the environmentally friendly printing solutions that we offer to customers who print signages and wallpapers. That is why we demonstrated our eco-solvent wide-format printers. We have managed to secure three orders at the show,” says Milind Chavan of Epson India.

At its Sign India stand, Epson India demonstrated Surecolor SC-40670, Surecolor SC-60670, Surecolor SC-80670, and Surecolor SC-B6070. In addition to the four wide-format printing solutions, the company also showcased its WorkForce Pro WF-C869R, which is meant for business printing needs.

The Surecolor series is designed for different types of indoor and outdoor commercial printing applications, including posters, signs, banners, backlit panels, interior decorations, exhibition panels, and more.

The SC-40670 can print up to 64-inch width and on media up to a thickness of 1 mm. It has a printing speed of 58.4 square meters per hour. The SC-60670 can print up to 64-inch width and on media up to thickness of 1 mm at a speed of 95.3 square meters per hour. The SC-80670 offers the widest color gamut to meet the demanding jobs for indoor and commercial applications with the 10-color UltraChrome Epson and UltraChrome GS3 ink. The machine has an option for white or metallic silver colors. The 44-inch SC-B6070 is ideal for printing indoor signages.

Epson WorkForce Pro WF-C869R, which is meant for business printing needs, is capable of printing up to 86,000 pages in black or 84,000 pages in color. It employs Epson’s PrecisionCore printhead, with draft print speeds of up to 35 pages per minute and resolutions of up to 4,800 x 1,200 dpi.

Talking about the overall demand situation in the large format printing market, Chavan says that there are definite signs of slowdown. “Although we have seen good response at the Sign India expo, overall, we have seen some slowdown in demand this year as compared to last year. The liquidity has dried up significantly, and therefore, money is not circulating, which is leading to the slowdown,” he says.

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

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