KM launches AccurioPress C14000/C12000 series

KM’s higher volume digital press with inline automation

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AccurioPress
AccurioPress C14000

On 1 December 2020, Konica Minolta (KM) Business Solutions India launched the AccurioPress C14000/C12000 series through a local but virtual event. As a part of the launch of its latest series of high-volume production presses, the company has introduced two machines – a 140 A4 pages a minute (ppm) AccurioPress C14000, and the 120 A4 pages per minute AccurioPress C12000.

Tai Nizawa, the newly appointed managing director of Konica Minolta Business Solutions India, referred to its commitment to making life more productive and profitable for its customers. In his opening remarks, he said, “The launch of our latest machines is in sync with this vision. It further reaffirms our commitment to meeting the changing needs of our customers and offering them products that ensure higher quality and productivity with minimal waste of resources and time.” Recently arrived from Japan to take up his position, Nizawa added, “Going forward, we will continue to follow an agile approach, innovate our existing portfolios, and offer the best to our customers in the following years.”

Enhanced media capability

The new presses sport resolutions equivalent to 3600 x 2400 dpi and an enhanced media capability of up to 450 gsm. They are equipped with new duplex banner printing up to 900 millimeter and a simplex banner length capability of 1,300 millimeter. Combined with envelope and embossed media printability, these products enable customers to offer new types of work, including four-panel gatefold brochures and book covers for finishing offline. Printers can also do envelope printing using the standard fuser more seamlessly.
Besides, the machine’s technology, including finer toners, improves the image quality on textured paper stocks.

During the virtual launch, Manish Gupta, head of marketing at Konica Minolta Business Solutions India, said that the new presses are easy to calibrate for color and paper stocks. They can efficiently print items such as posters, magazines, catalogs, books, and business cards – a staple product for digital print businesses.

The AccurioPress C14000 fills the gap for Konica Minolta in the higher volume production print segment in India. “With the C14000, we will be now present in the high production print segment. We will bridge the gap between the mid and high production print segments,” Gupta said. “We can now address a market that requires higher productivity.”

Operational Efficiency

Paired with Konica Minolta’s enhanced IQ-501 Intelligent Quality Optimiser, the new presses
automatically and continuously measure and correct color, so the first print in a run matches the last. The company has also improved its two-dimensional registration correction feature through the higher output resolution. The automatic media detection sensor comes standard on these models. It detects the stock, assigns the appropriate tray, eliminates time-consuming paper settings and operator error, reduces waste, and eventually amplifies productivity.

New inline accessories for the presses include the TU-510 versatile trimmer unit, an inline, four-edge trimmer, and creaser that allows full-bleed finishing support for banners, booklets, direct mail, and a dedicated business card cutting option. Additionally, the LS-507 large stacker supports higher speed, permits banner bypass, and offers operators the advantage of offloading while the machine is still running.

Convenient colour management and job management utilities are available with Konica Minolta’s proprietary controller. A customizable operation screen makes the products extremely easy to operate.Other third-party controller options include the latest Fiery and Creo RIPs.

Improved total cost of ownership

Konica Minolta’s IQ-501 Intelligent Quality Optimiser’s enhanced auto inspection options offer expanded inspection performance. It is capable of verifying print quality and detecting streaks, spots, and blemishes. It ensures maximum stability even during long-run jobs, while better registration and quality increases total usable print volume. The new presses offer a duty cycle of 2.5 million, up from 1.8 million with the AccurioPress C6100, with double the toner capacity of earlier models.

Rs 1,000 crore target delayed by pandemic

Konica Minolta Business Solutions India has experienced consistent double-digit growth over the years. This track record made the company confident of getting to the Rs 1,000 crore revenue milestone in a couple of years. However, due to the temporary setback owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the lockdown, and continued constraints on economic and social activities, that target has moved a bit further away.

“Last year we generated a revenue of Rs 700 crore, and that is why we were hoping to touch the revenue of Rs. 1,000 crore by 2022-2023. Unfortunately, due to the current market conditions, it looks very tough to touch that figure [within that time frame],” said Kuldeep Malhotra, vice president sales and director, Konica Minolta Business Solutions India.

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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