After close to ten months of extensive research and development, Mumbai’s Technicon India has developed and launched a brand-new product, an online rotary knife trimmer for booklets. This machine has been developed keeping in mind the newspapers who bring out quarter folded books or booklets as supplements. Several newspapers bring out such books in low pagination which are printed in one go.
The books directly enter the online rotary trimmer from the press folder which trims all three sides at press speeds and then enters the counter stacker (optional) where they are then counted and stacked and ready for dispatch. “The biggest advantage of our online rotary knife trimmer is that it completely automates the three-side trimming process requiring zero manpower. Now you can print and trim at the same time which was never done until now.” says Rajiv Gandotra, founder of Technicon India.
According to Gandotra, the trimmer can be attached directly to the conveyor and in the absence of one it can be attached directly to the press folder.
Technicon has installed their first trimmer line at Sakshi, a leading Telugu daily newspaper based in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The trimmer was commissioned in the last week of February 2020. Technicon has been associated with Sakshi for a long time. The company had automated all their mailrooms in 2008. According to Gandotra, it was on PVK Prasad of Sakshi who actually initiated the project and Technicon the opportunity to develop the trimmer.
“Sakshi was already doing online gluing of books but was taking away all the production work to their bindery and putting the books into a guillotine for three side trimming, then counting and stacking them again before dispatch. The whole process was extremely laborious and time consuming. With our online rotary trimmer, they have injected a lot of efficiency into the whole process. Now their printing and trimming both happen in real time” says Gandotra.
Success with Times of India with pouch sticking machine
Last year, Technicon closed a deal with The Times of India to supply its pouch and die-cut memo advertisement sticking machine to them. The machine, called Harrier has for the first time automated the process of sticking pouches and memo advertisements on newspapers. The machine is installed and working at Times of India’s Kandivali plant.
“We have had a very good experience with Times of India and they are also very keen to take this forward as they know that add-ons are the way of the future,” says Gandotra.
However, due to current market conditions, customers are taking it a bit easy, and Gandotra believes, Technicon will go full throttle with the Harrier once the conditions improve.
“The Harrier is a very innovative machine and has great potential. We are waiting for the market conditions to improve and then will give it a bigger push into the market,” he stresses.
Market condition to improve this year
The newspaper industry is geared to the overall economy has been going through a tough time in the last couple of years and needless to say, the overall slowdown in the economy has impacted investments in the newspaper industry as well. However, according to Gandotra things might just be looking up.
“Last year was an extremely slow year, slower than even 2018. However, we are seeing some improvements lately. There is a very bright light at the end of this tunnel,” Gandotra concludes.
