Prakash Chopra, senior vice president of sales at Arrow Digital, standing at their Stand in front of the banner of EFI Fabri VU 340i+ soft signage printer.
Photo: IPP
A pioneer in digital printing, at the recent Gartex show in Delhi, Arrow Digitalspoke about the Kornit Avalanche Poly Pro and EFI dye sublimation printers garment printing. The Kornit Avalanche Poly Pro is specially designed for dark polyester printing. Its specialty is ink that is specially designed for printing on dark polyester and for curing at very low temperatures. This ink helps to avoid dye migration on polyester but is slightly more expensive than other inks.
The EFI Fabri VU 340i+ is a dye sublimation printer mainly aimed at home furnishing and soft signage, with its first installation at Caterpillar Signs. A big advantage of this machine is its inbuilt curing system. While speaking about the EFI Fabri VU 340i+, Prakash Chopra, senior vice president of Sales at Arrow Digital, said that the company has installed three machines in the country so far – two in Caterpillar and one in Macromedia, Hyderabad. He suggested that there are several prospects in the pipeline for installing the Fabri VU 340i+ in various parts of India.
Chopra added, “The market for dye sublimation printing is gradually increasing because it is 100% green and since the ink is also water-based. One deal is finalized, and our next machine would probably be installed in Mumbai with the other somewhere in North India.”
“In this exhibition, we are expecting to create awareness. We are here for our presence since we haven’t kept any machines in our stand. Visitors are coming with their queries related to Kornit and Fabri VU because Fabri VU is the future technology for which everyone is looking. Many countries like America, Australia, and Europe have adopted this technology. However, India is slightly lagging, but here we’re getting good responses and queries from the industry visitors,” he concluded.
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.
