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Chemnitz, Germany -- 23 June 23 2017. In their home countries, they work in universities and education centres, training students for careers in print and media. Yet for four weeks, the 15 experts taking part in this year’s specialist teacher training course run by PrintPromotion GmbH are students themselves again. At the AZP training centre for print and media in Chemnitz they are learning the ins and outs of modern print processes so that in future they will be able to pass on the knowledge to their students, trainees and colleagues.

Adriana Rodriguez Lezaca is among the participants from 15 countries from Africa, Asia, South America and Europe. She has been teaching since 2006 at the Centre for Design Technology and Business Productivity in Giradot in Columbia. Despite all her professional experience, she reports she has already learnt so much in the first week. “There was a lot that was new to me, especially when it comes to data preparation and color management.”
First, the AZP team presented an overview of a quality-assured, largely standardized print workflow to the participants before beginning to explain to them each individual step from incoming data through to the finished print product. Theory and practice go hand in hand so prepress specialists can understand printing technology and vice versa.

Rodriguez Lezaca herself trained as an industrial designer and now teaches budding graphic designers. “It's important they understand the overall process and get to know about modern printing technologies and today’s opportunities for quality assurance during their training,” she says. To ensure that as many trainees as possible can benefit from her newly gained expertise, she will be passing on what she has learnt to her colleagues in centers that are part of SENA (Servicio Nacional de Apredizaje – the national education service). With its 117 training centres throughout Columbia, SENA is the second largest national education organization in South America and systematically focuses on a dual education system.

Train the trainer courses create a multiplier effect
The fact that specialist teachers share what they have learnt with their students and colleagues is all part of the philosophy of PrintPromotion in holding such courses. “We train the experts so they can take on a multiplier role in their home countries,” explains PrintPromotion’s managing director Dr Markus Heering. If the specialist teachers go home after the course with a higher awareness of quality and pass it on to future specialists, then this is long-lasting promotion for modern printing technologies. With this in mind, PrintPromotion has set up a global expert network as a non-profit organisation within the German print and paper machine manufacturing industry with the focus on gaining qualifications in modern, premium quality print processes.

For Adriana Rodriguez Lezaca there is another aspect of these training courses: the opportunity to exchange experiences with colleagues who often have to teach under difficult conditions. Her institute, for instance, shares the printing technology they need with SENA institutes in other regions. They have set up around a dozen computer workplaces for prepress in a converted bus, which is also equipped with several small digital and offset printing presses. When practice sessions are on the curriculum, this training print shop on wheels commutes back and forth between the regional institutes.

Groundwork for working with state-of-the-art printing technology
It was not easy either when Frank Boadu began teaching at the Kumasi university print shop in Ghana. State funds threatened to dry up. However, the team did not give up but actively acquired printing jobs from the university itself and local businesses. The print shop flourished, achieved financial independence and in the meantime actually helps to finance the university.Students learn here under real market conditions and their teachers spend many evenings in the print shop, working on urgent jobs.

“Our revenues have shaped up so well that we have gradually been able to add modern print shop technology from Germany to our existing machine inventory,” reports Boadu, who in the meantime now heads prepress in the print shop. They bought another new machine at the last drupa, which is a good reason for the 31-year old to literally soak up the contents of the specialist teacher courses. What he learns here about modern print shop workflows is important in two respects. On the one hand, it will help him to fully exploit the new press’ potential and on the other hand, he will be able to pass on his knowledge immediately to the next generation of print engineers and printers. “I’m learning here about the possibilities especially in colour management, colour proofing and calibration that at the moment we don’t work with at all,” he explains. The benefits of standardized quality assurance methods are plain to see – “You don't need many of these time-consuming coordination loops with the customer,” he says.

According to Boadu, the aim of the university administration in Kumasi is to ensure that students can learn about state-of-the-art technology. This is already happening in the press sector. With the newest Computer-to-Plate technology and press and postpress machines from leading German manufacturers, the university is creating an environment that will produce highly qualified specialists for a modern printing industry. “We need more training and more education to meet the demands of the growing printing sector in Ghana,” says Boadu. Whether publishing or packaging printing, the expert sees great potential in his home country since up to now many local companies have been outsourcing their printing to India or China. This hopefully is about to change. “For instance, to sustainably develop the packaging sector, we are focusing not only on packaging technology, design and printing but also recycling technologies,” he reports.

Qualifications are the key
Thanuja Damayanthi Wijesiri Mudunkothge teaches at the Sri Lankan Institute of Printing (SLIOP) in Colombo. Students graduating with diplomas in graphic design, print technology and management, as well as visual communication and management can go on to do an MBA degree thanks to a collaboration with the University of Colombo. SLIOP has confidently set its sights on becoming a world-class enterprise that, with its qualified graduates, can help Sri Lanka’s printing industry gain international competitiveness. “In the sectors printing technology, graphic design and visual communication we are the leading education facility in Sri Lanka,” explains the young teacher. This is also because the instructors continue training and keep track of the new trends.

However, she also admits that the technology environment in her home country still trails behind such high goals. “We haven’t got the sort of technology that we’re working with here at the AZP in Sri Lanka yet,” she says. However, because she can see how much technology needs to catch up, she considers it important as a teacher to get to know the latest technology. This way she can teach future specialists about cutting-edge technology, while keeping an eye on the future of the Sri Lankan printing industry. “We need better printing quality to keep up with world standards,” she explains. The key to this is modern printing technology and quality assurance methods.

Delhi-based digital printer Avantika Printers has invested in a Canon imagePress C8000VP. This is Canon’s first installation of the C8000VP series in India. According to Canon, the imagePRESS C8000VP takes digital color printing to the next level, combining exceptional quality, productivity and versatility at 80 ppm across a vast variety of applications.

“The C8000VP comes fully loaded with the EFI B4000 Fiery server, where we have opted for the Fiery Graphics Arts Package – Premium Edition. The package includes automatic preflight, GA filters for hot folders/virtual printers, and ImageViewer,” says Himanshu Pandey of Avantika Printers. Avantika replaced its existing Canon imagePRESS C7010VP with the more sophisticated C8000VP on 24 May 2017.

The new digital press has helped Avantika improve color quality significantly as well as print deep textured images. The digital press is capable of printing across an extensive range of media up to 350 gsm. “Currently, we are not looking at adding volume as we are targeting just 5 to 10% increase in productivity. This means we have enough room for capacity utilization but we will focus more on quality rather than quantity,” Pandey points out, stating this as a reason for not investing in a Canon imagePress C10000VP. “We can anyway upgrade the speed of the imagePress C8000VP to 100 ppm whenever the need arises.”

Being highly quality conscious, Pandey is also looking forward to the G7 Expert / Professional Training and Certification Program organized by IPPStar in India. The G7 Training includes a blend of lab instruction and lecture where a trainee can learn how to apply the G7 method to achieve the highest quality color output on both offset and digital presses. The G7 Training is a theory-based program that can be applied to any print process.
n addition to the new Canon imagePress C8000VP, the press room of the Avantika Printers’ new plant in Okhla houses a Canon imagePress C800, Oce VP6000, Ricoh Pro 8120 and Konica Minolta bizHub Pro 6500. There are also a host of screen printing machines, PUR binders, diecutters, three-knife cutters, laminators, etc.

Presently, Avantika is looking at launching stationery products like diary, notebooks and wedding cards under its brand name. Pandey says, “The time period between May and July every year is a lean one in our industry. During this period, we want to keep our production going at a standard pace and what best can be to utilize our capacity in bringing out our own range of stationery products.”

Avantika Printers relocated to Okhla Phase-II about a year ago while production started just seven months ago. “The new setup is highly organized and under a single roof. Now, all departments are allocated separate floors unlike what we used to have in our old plant,” shares Pandey.

Speaking on the occasion, Puneet Datta, director, Canon India said, “The imagePRESS C10000VP has proven itself to grow the print volumes of our customers by up to three times upon upgradation. This has been possible due to the new technologies that have been incorporated in the system that help deliver exceptional quality, high productivity and great color consistency. However, there are PSPs who don’t necessarily need the 100-page-per-minute speed, but are looking for a press that will still provide the same high quality, reliability, consistency and media handling of the C10000VP; for those PSPs, the C8000VP is the answer.”

Two of most active printing associations in the country announced at a press briefing on 13 April 2017 at Mumbai, that printers are compelled by current circumstances to raise the prices of their services across the board in order to stay afloat. After the agitation by corrugated box manufacturers and their industry associations regarding the recent hikes in liner prices, the Bombay Master’s Printers Association (BMPA) and Mumbai Mudrak Sangh (MMS) together with All India Federation of Master Printers called on the media to help them reach print buyers to apprise them of the urgent need to revise print prices upwards.

In what was described as a last ditch effort to survive, the country’s oldest and largest industrial employers—the paper printing and packaging industry—came together to begin a national campaign that confronts rising paper and raw material prices in order to warn that the industry could be facing ‘a complete shut down.’ They claimed, “Around 80% printers across the country are facing a shut-down due to the rising prices of paper and other raw materials.”

According to the two Mumbai associations, the print and packaging industry has been struggling for the past year, and especially the last two months, against unprecedented price hikes in the price of paper and board—a key component which constitutes more than 60% of the total selling price of print products and services. They said that print buyers on the other hand have largely resisted any price increases and are unwilling to raise their print purchase prices, thereby putting immense pressure on the survival of a large number of printers.

At the press briefing, president of the BMPA Mehul Desai said, “Mumbai and the apex body of All India Federation of Master Printers (AIFMP) have come together to apprise the industry of the severity of the situation. Over the recent period, the cost of maplitho has gone up by 12% to 28%, kraft [liner] paper by 30%, recyled board by 15% to 18% and virgin board from 6% to 10%. If we do not mitigate the situation now, most printers will either run into losses or simply shut down. In this regard, we are soliciting the support of print buyers across the country in revising print prices by at least 15%, without which most of us cannot survive.”

The effects of steep price hikes in raw materials, including paper in the past several months, coupled with the extension of credit periods to print and packaging buyers, have added to the financial stress of even well-run and efficient print businesses. The Mumbai printers say that have never before found themselves in such dire straits and if they are unable to increase prices by at least 15% immediately, it would become impossible for them to sustain themselves as viable businesses.

The increase in costs of paper machinery technology for paper mills across the USA, China and Europe have led to global increases in freight, pulp and paper prices. These together with the increased in costs of overheads and labor have triggered horrific repercussions on the cost structure of printers. “The demand for price revision of 15% will make printers somewhat profitable, and will save close to 2.5 lakh printing presses employing 4 to 5 million people and their families from shutting shop,” added Tushar Dhote, president of the MMS.

An uncertain future awaits the mostly fragmented and unstructured Indian print industry as it faces hyper competition. Even those printers who have invested in new and rapidly changing technology and who serve niche markets have come under the severe stress in the current situation. The issue is whether the new generation of the industry’s leaders can make a cogent and convincing case to evoke a positive response from print buyers across the economic spectrum, including the large consumer product companies and multinational firms.