TP Jain, the owner of Chennai-based Monotech Systems, attended drupa 2024 with his colleagues to assist customers in navigating the diverse technologies showcased at the expo. Team Monotech was present at the stands of its principal partners, which include AKK, Canon, Color Logic, Cron, Kodak, Glunz & Jensen, Miraclon, Mimaki, Ricoh, and Scodix.
Besides being a distributor for leading global hardware and software brands in print and packaging, Monotech is also a leading Indian manufacturer of inkjet presses for book printing and label printing. In addition, it manufactures inkjet output devices for wide-format printing and print enhancement.
Indian Printer and Publisher caught up with Jain at the Scodix stand, where he shared insights about the drupa experience and emerging industry trends.
“Monotech’s role is to guide our customers on navigating the various technologies on display at the expo. Additionally, we have signed multiple deals with Indian customers for both Scodix and Ricoh machines. Both Scodix and Ricoh have a formidable presence at drupa 2024,” Jain remarked.
Scodix, a leading provider of digital embellishment solutions, which Monotech has sold with great success in India, launched two new presses at drupa – the Scodix Ultra 2500 SHD and the Scodix Ultra 6500 SHD. It also showcased the automated embellishment creator tool, Scodix AI. The new presses feature Scodix MLE (Multi-layer Enhancement) and are equipped with Scodix SHD (Smart High Definition) technology.
“The new platforms that Scodix presented at drupa are game-changers in the embellishment industry,” explains Jain. “Scodix has created a significant gap in the level of embellishment available elsewhere. The precision of the embellishments is particularly eye-catching, especially in minute details. Additionally, the artificial intelligence built into the platform enhances its capabilities.”
Regarding the response to the Scodix technology from Indian visitors, Jain noted that Monotech signed two deals for Scodix presses. “Scodix is a very strong platform now. We have seen a good response from the Indian market, booking two orders for the Scodix Ultra 2500 SHD. One order is from a commercial printing customer, and the other is from a packaging customer. The demand for embellishment is growing rapidly in both commercial and packaging printing applications.”
At the crowded Ricoh stand, featured technologies included the Dragon – the Ricoh Pro Z75 B2 sheetfed digital inkjet press, which promises enhanced productivity and versatility for commercial, book, and direct mail printers. Ricoh also launched its Pro VC80000 digital color high-speed inkjet webfed press, known as the Harpy Eagle, which integrates AI capabilities and finishing equipment.
“Ricoh had a formidable presence at drupa. The flagship Z75 is now available in certain markets, and we hope to launch it in India very soon,” Jain commented. In addition, he highlighted the success of the Ricoh Pro C7500 and Pro C9500 in the Indian market. Both the presses were launched with considerable fanfare in India in the autumn of last year with numerous installations within weeks.
Emerging trends validate early adoption of inkjet R&D
Jain believes that inkjet technology is gaining traction in the printing industry and this was evident at drupa. “Inkjet technology is gaining a predominant place in the industry, as evidenced by this year’s drupa. Monotech has been an early adopter of inkjet technology. Our in-house R&D units are developing inkjet products, including label embellishment, on-demand book printing in both monochrome and color, large format printers for signage applications, industrial printing applications, and our own enhancement engine. We are pleased to see that our journey has become almost mainstream. With our solid expertise in inkjet, we will be able to guide our customers as this technology matures and gains popularity,” Jain said.
He also highlighted some of the interesting developments in inkjet printheads. “We are seeing the launch of printheads with much better capabilities. Not only the printheads but there has also been the development of the whole ecosystem around the printhead. This enables equipment manufacturers to adopt the latest technology much faster and bring it to users for newer and newer applications,” Jain concluded.
