Grafica News

DMI heartily welcomes 7th batch of students for training

Tue, 3 Aug 2010 22:21:24 +0530

Following the completion of one month’s training for 6th batch of students, DMI team warmly welcomed the 7th batch on 2nd August 2010.

The 7th batch comprises of 17 students from various Institutes (IPT-Pune, GIPT-Mumbai, Don Bosco Printing Institute-New Delhi, Pusa Polytechnic-New Delhi, Shilpa Bharati Institute of Fine Arts-Jaipur and Kalavidya Sankul-Mumbai).

This is the good sign of growing interest among the printing technology students to learn advanced screen printing process which is fortunately available only at DMI which has a full-fledged modern screen printing institute which is rated today as one of the finest institute of its kind in the world.

Mr. Bhargav Mistry conducted a half day orientation program for the new batch and gave brief outline of the course content which he said mostly comprises practical hands on training and real job execution. He inspired them to gain best out of the one month’s training at DMI.

He tried to understand the background of each and every student and asked them to reveal the reasons for choosing the printing as a career. Although some of the students joined printing course because of their family connection, most of them said they took up the printing career at the behest of their relatives or friends.

In view of this, Bhargav urged the students to develop a rapid passion in printing, especially in screen printing since they have chosen to undergo one month’s training at DMI. While narrating some of the success stories in printing industry, he also gave the students some useful tips required to succeed in printing career.

During their experience sharing, the students revealed that they did not learn anything beyond the outdated methods of screen printing process in their earlier institutes.

As usual, during this one month’s training the students are expected to greatly benefit from a couple of industrial visits in and around Mumbai.

The students also got charged with lot of enthusiasm from day one since they were right on the training floor of DMI surrounded by advanced machines and equipment, which they have never seen elsewhere.

Gautam Udhyog rolls out 1 million speciality saree boxes

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 22:16:55 +0530

With Grafica’s Cylinder Press, Gautam Paper Udhyog’s production pole vaults to 1 million saree boxes per month with various special effects.

Way back in 1999 when Gautam Paper Udhyog kick started packaging box manufacturing for textile industry, it had a capacity to produce only 0.1 million boxes per month. Now their production has shoot up to approx 1 million value added boxes per month.

On an average they roll out 50-60,000 screen printed sheets per day. This 10-fold jump in production was possible only after deploying a complete screen printing line from Grafica including a production horse ‘Cylinder Press’ with inline UV Dryer.

Gautam Paper Udhyog, an ISO 9001:2008 certified company, has today taken a giant leap towards value addition in saree boxes, paper carry bags, sweet and confectionary boxes and other packaging materials, innovatively incorporating various special effects. Their modern 36000 sq ft factory is located in Surat, Gujarat.

Gautam Paper Udhyog’s founder, Mr. Jitendra Mohan Modi - CEO and Managing Director - has over 30 years’ experience in printing and packaging. His “inspirational” son Gautam who is currently studying CA is the future of Gautam Paper Udhyog.

Over to ‘one-to-one’ with Jitendra Modi:

Why Cylinder Press?
We started our business with one manual screen printing table. Later we added five more and two years later we switched over to automation with two semi automatic machines.

However, it did not make any sense to further invest on semi automatic machines the way our business was growing. So if we continued to purchase more semi automatic machines we would have to substantially increase our workforce and production hours to match our targets.

In order to minimize our cost of production and working hours we straightaway jumped over to fully automatic screen printing machine Cylinder Press (30” x 40”) from Grafica. To be honest the kind of business we are into “Cylinder Press” is the most ideal machine for packaging and finishing applications

After effects of Cylinder Press:
We had already earned good reputation as a quality saree box manufacturers but with the help of Grafica’s Cylinder Press, its precision quality and speed, has enabled us to raise the quality bar further up. We are receiving good feedback from our customers in terms of quick delivery and praises for improvement in quality.

Unparallel technical support:
It is not only the machine even their technical support is unparallel.

Your experience at DMI:
Through DMI Institute we gained tremendous knowledge, which helped us to increase our quality standards in screen printing. One of the main points, which we learned from DMI, was to pay greater attention in screen making to produce finer details because screen making generally is mostly neglected by even experienced screen printers all over the world.

Grafica & Cam-Shell perfect match for wedding cards

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 22:15:00 +0530

Verma Packers finds Grafica’s Camshell a perfect match to produce luxury wedding cards

Way back in 2005, Rajan Verma of Ludhiana based Verma Packers, manufacturers of specialized wedding cards and boxes saw Grafica’s screen printing machines in Germany during an exhibition.

Verma Packers which was originally started in 1984 to produce hand-made cardboard boxes only. But when Rajan Verma joined the family business in 1993, he immediately engineered a diversification into wedding cards and sweet boxes.

Rajan’s younger brothers, Nikhil looks after production and Neeraj looks after sales. Sitting in Ludhiana, Verma Packers was able to bring happiness to hundreds of customers in India and abroad.

An interview with Rajan Verma:

Why did you switchover to automation?
1. To enhance print quality of our wedding cards and boxes.
2. To meet customers’ requirement for quicker delivery.
3. To stay ahead in the competition.

Why did you choose Grafica’s machines?
We gathered lot of positive feedbacks about their machines. Also, during our pre purchase visit to Grafica, I was convinced that they would fulfill all our requirements. I felt secured especially after seeing DMI’s world class facilities.

We preferred Grafica machine because…
1. Quality of material they use to build the machines
2. Their knowledge and technology
3. High precision of the machine
4. Their professionalism in dealing with customers
5. Full assurance on excellent after sales service and technical support.

So, your experience with Grafica so far:
Truly, their service is above par. We never had any problem in dealing with them and their response has always been prompt and friendly. We use Grafica’s Cam Shell along with complete screen making unit and are truly satisfied in all respect.

Ceramic Manufacturer in Khurja deploys 2nd Cam Shell

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:12:07 +0530

Grafica’s screen printing machine is best suited for ceramic transfers printing, says Abhishek Agrawal

Now-a-days, many intelligent and innovative ceramic manufacturers prefer to have their own in-house screen printing set up for producing ceramic heat transfers. Khurja based Anurag Udhyog is one such company which took a bold step by deploying Grafica’s 20” x 30” Camshell and complete screen making unit. The company has renewed its confidence with Grafica by placing an order for another 20” x 30” Camshell in less than a year.

Set up in 1980 by Mr. Anil Agarwal, Anurag Udhyog is an ISO 9001:2000 certified manufacturer and exporter of fine bone china wares and stone wares. Abhishek Agarwal, a BE in electronics is the marketing and creative brain at Anurag Udhyog and his brother Aashish looks after the production. “We stand in the premium priced, high quality branded products in India” claims Abhishek.

“Manual operation requires too many people around and hence the cost of production was very high. Also, besides slow production, in manual operation the quality was substandard as we could not maintain accuracy with perfect registration,” reveals Abhishek.

Enumerating the benefits of automation, he adds, “After deploying Grafica’s machine, our productivity has shot up due to speed and bigger print area. More importantly, the quality has also increased drastically and that is the biggest advantage.”

He made it a point to reveal that in ceramics industry, Grafica machines are currently most sought since they are running successfully in many companies.

“The most powerful feature of Cam Shell required for Ceramic transfer is the squeegee equalizer, adjustable peel-off mechanism and squeegee angle. Their unique flood bar with hardened SS blade specially designed for ceramics inks are the best to deliver good quality halftone prints. Cam Shell is truly a work horse,” says Abhishek.

“The best part with Grafica is even their service engineers have dual skills, mechanical and good knowledge in screen printing” he concludes.

Screen printing becoming preferred choice in advertising

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:09:41 +0530

An award winning screen printer now banks on Grafica for success

After realizing the limitation of quality that could be achieved in manual screen printing, Screen Art Enterprises has deployed Grafica’s semi automatic screen printing machine, UV curing machine with screen exposing unit and screen dryer.

These machines are neatly placed at their new unit in Shah & Nahar Industrial area one of the busied printing hubs at Lower Parel, Mumbai. This unit is in addition to their existing 2000 sq. ft. unit located at Kalachowki also in Mumbai.

Screen Art Enterprises is engaged in specialty commercial screen printing and process colour screen printing for many reputed corporate. Wedding cards and packaging is also their forte. The company is also closely working with many advertising agencies and design studios.

Many of the ad gurus are now preferring screen printed stuffs due to durability, light fastness and volumes. Currently some of the solution providers prints the job by offset and later paste it manually on sunpack or sunboard which is time consuming and requires lot of labor as well as it increases the cost of production. It is also not durable and the colors do not last longer. This all summarizes that screen printing is now becoming popular and preferred choice in the advertising world.

“After installing Grafica new semi automatic screen printing machine and UV curing machine we want to mainly focus on special effects, print finishing and process colour screen printing,” says Suresh Lodh one of the pillars of Screen Art Enterprises, others being his two brothers, Mahesh and Ramesh.

“Previously in manual operation we used to face many problems such as registration errors in multi colour jobs, uneven ink deposition and many more routine problems. To overcome all these problems we had no other choice but to switch over to automation,” says Suresh Lodh.

“Before buying Grafica’s machine, we did aggressive market survey about their machines, performance and after sales service and gathered positive references even from their existing customers”, maintains Suresh.

“The pneumatic squeegee pressure system is so accurate that it delivers uniform ink deposition across the entire printing area.” I am fully contented with the performance of this machine”, reveals Suresh.

“Initially our people got sufficient training from Grafica’s in-house training centre DMI Institute and their technical support is invaluable.”

“Along with my brother, we had attended DMI’s workshop where we got plenty of useful tips and learned how we could save manpower through automation.

With DMI’s knowledge and with Grafica’s support, we are looking forward to progress in our new venture,” he concludes with a hope.

Why Nirmal Offset preferred in-house screen printing unit

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:08:10 +0530

Even an aggressive farmer knows the benefit of automation in screen printing.

Nirmal Offset Pvt. Ltd. Nashik, deploys Grafica’s Cam-Shell and UV dryer for Spot UV service.

To keep pace with the changing trend, Nandkishor Madane, the commander of three offset printing companies, made sure that their Nashik unit, Nirmal Offset Pvt Ltd has an in house screen printing unit to incorporate Spot UV and other print finishing on offset printed jobs. Nirmal Offset is now a happy user of Grafica’s mini camshell and a UV dryer.

Nandkishor Madane is an entrepreneur-cum-farmer, owning a sprawling 30 acre land in Bhadgaon village of Jalgaon district, with nearly 25 years’ experience in printing, winning some awards on the way. Their other companies are located in Mumbai and Jalgaon. He and his son Gaurav look after Nasik and Jalgaon units.

We used to outsource all our Spot UV jobs to Mumbai but due to logistical reasons and for cost effectiveness, we decided to set up in house screen printing unit,” reasons Gaurav Madane.

“I also gathered market feedbacks on the performance of their machine especially from their customers. I felt Grafica would give better after sales service and there was no room for even a slightest doubt about the quality of their machine. Also, during my visit to Grafica in 2001 as a student of PVG, I was quite impressed with the company’s technological capabilities with huge infrastructure,” he recalls.

“We are very much satisfied by the performance of Grafica’s Semi-Automatic Cam-Shell, also its easy and very simple to operate”, concludes Gaurav.

Jaipur Printers ventures into screen prtg with NANO-PRINT

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 22:06:30 +0530

Nano-Print gets royal welcome in the court of Badshah of Printing in Pink City.

Jaipur Printers set up in-house screen printing unit to offer value addition services.

Recently Grafica’s Nano-Print received a royal welcome in the Pink City - Jaipur Printers Pvt. Ltd. It’s because they realized its immense potential as an entry level machine because they have a big plan to offer “value-addition” to their clients.

Jaipur Printers is a leading print solution provider with modern infrastructure catering to many prominent clients in India and abroad.

One to one with Mr. Alok Jain, Executive Director, Jaipur Printers.

Considering yours is a big press, why you decided to go for Nano-Print?
Before venturing in a big way, we considered NANO-PRINT is a best option to start our print finishing business keeping our investment low, since we were totally new to screen printing.

Your experience with Grafica
After seeing their training facility, DMI with an abundant collection of innovative samples we came to the conclusion that Grafica will a great support for our future venture.

The outcome with NANO-PRINT
The results we achieved using NANO-PRINT was more than our expectation in terms of quality and productivity.

I get excellent CMYK results on NANO-PRINT

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 22:04:37 +0530

“I bought Grafica’s Nano-Print only for printing process color screen printing jobs on sunpack and sunboard.”

In a rare daring incidence Harshad Borawake, an MBA in Finance and proprietor of Aurangabad based Speed Graphics bought Grafica’s Nano-Print along with UV dryer specially for undertaking process colour screen printing on sunpack, sunboard and other rigid substrates.

Speed Graphics was originally started by Harshad’s mother Saroj in 1989-90 with a single colour offset and DTP set up. Harshad took over the business and in 2003 he added screen printing unit with one table.

When he heard about the birth of Nano-Print, he was thrilled and quickly booked one for him. “Nano Print was beautifully crafted, fitting within my budget and suiting my business plans. Above all I liked its compact size requiring little space.”

“I can count on Grafica for their product quality and assured service.

NANO-PRINT shoulders higher productivity in bag mfg

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 22:02:56 +0530

At Sun Bags, Nano-Print earns 800 impressions of goodwill per hour!

Amit Patel, 24, Partner of Rajkot based Sun Bags just bought Grafica’s Nano-Print purely on company’s market reputation, user feedbacks and trust.

Sun Bag is a manufacturer of all types bags. In all, they produce 30,000 bags per month employing 1200 people.

It has chalked out big automation plans. “Screen printing operation is the immediate target because we have 8 tables requiring over two dozen people.

“Nano-Print is a perfect match to increase our production capacity minimizing labour cost because our strategy is to achieve higher production by employing less people” says Amit.

“I liked the simplicity of the Nano-Print and there is not a single feature which was difficult to understand. Nano-Print is a great space saver and we are able to achieve drastic quality improvement as well.”

“To our surprise, from day one absolutely it was trouble free and there was no need to contact Grafica,” concludes Amit.

NANO-PRINT ignites automation in PCB industry

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 22:01:03 +0530

NANO-PRINT is an anti-emergency guided missile at Arunodaya Graphics

“Nano-Print is an anti-emergency guided missile,” says Bhavesh Kumar Agrawal, owner of Greater Noida based Arunodaya Graphics Pvt Ltd.

Arunodaya Graphics now houses latest equipment and machinery required for PCB manufacturing. They manufacture PCBs, Self Adhesive Stickers, Aluminum and Stainless steel Name Plates for Product Identification.

NANO-PRINT is compact and sturdy. Grafica did not compromise on the safety aspect, which I liked the most. Considering its size, the cost was highly reasonable”, says Bhavesh Kumar

He considers Nano Print as an anti-emergency missile guided against twin problems that may occur any time - Emergency production and labour shortage due to absenteeism.

“I have a strong reason to believe that sooner or later, automation in screen printing is the only way of survival and success in business.”

Recalling his experiences at DMI, he says, DMI’s workshop knowledge has created tremendous impact in my operations.”

NANO-PRINT a preferred choice for value addition on tags

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:58:19 +0530

Mumbai based Pooja Graphic, a manufacturer of price tags, woven and printed labels and other accessories for garment industry recently deployed Grafica’s Nano-Print.

“We bought Nano-Print specifically for incorporating Spot UV and special effects into price tags,” reveals Mr. Amul Gala of Pooja Graphic, Dharavi.

When we bought our first UV curing machine from Grafica they were not manufacturing this kind of machine, hence we had to continue with our manual tables. When I heard Grafica launched NANO-PRINT, a low cost high quality screen printing machine, I saw a great future after seeing its demo.

“Nano-Print is a space saver for our kind of unit which is located in a congested area, Dharavi”, says Amul Gala.

“With NANO-PRINT we are getting sharp and accurate print quality with consistency. Honestly our production has also escalated.”

“Apart from their technical support we regularly get lot of creative ideas from their training institute DMI, which is helping us in a big way,” says Amul Gala.

Grafica begins worlds first of its kind educational campaign

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:35:44 +0530

Grafica successfully begins World’s first of its kind campaign on advanced screen printing

Programs in six cities receive overwhelming response with houseful participation

When Grafica planned world’s first of its kind campaign on advanced screen printing process, it never expected that there is so much craze to see automation in screen printing and hunger for knowledge.

We just concluded our educational campaign covering six cities, viz., Nashik, Aurangabad, Pune, Surat, Ahmedabad and Rajkot with average of 100 to 300 participants. There were participants from the entire gamut of printing industry.

The campaign had two components:
Technology - to demonstrate automation in screen printing and show live demo of special effects using NPL.
Knowledge - to bring awareness among screen printers on advanced screen printing process.

All the way from Mumbai we took the entire screen printing unit along with a huge sample gallery and our newly launched NANO PREMIER LEAGUE (NPL) package which includes Grafica’s Nano-Print, Nano-UV dryer, 5-in-1 Nano Screen Maker and Nano-Sharpener.

The campaign was an eye opener for all the participants and many of them concluded with feedbacks stating that now they see a great potential in screen printing business with low cost high quality screen printing solutions.

Participants went back home with bag full of FREE creatives samples and innovative ideas which they felt will be a great help in their business.

After attending DMI Workshop I am sure my life will change

Mon, 5 Jul 2010 21:32:48 +0530

A houseful workshop on Advanced Screen Printing was held on 1,2, and 3 July 2010 at DMI.

“I got to know about DMI’s workshop while searching on the internet. It really inspired me. Apart from training I was also touched by the kind of hospitality offered by DMI’s team,” said Filmon Tegle, Philmon Press from Ethiopia, yet another participant from overseas. This indicates the growing popularity of DMI, globally.

DMI is also witnessing increased participation of women printing professionals which indicates that more and more women are taking interest in screen printing and wants to learn systematically.

One participant gave a good suggestion to Mr. Bhargav that he should give a project work to all participants and evaluate their knowledge they gained during these 3 days of workshop.

Mr. Raghav Rao - General Manager (Technical & Manufacturing), Fujifilm Sericol India made a detailed presentation on heat transfers and tag less label screen printing with special effects.

ABOUT THIS CREATIVE FOLDER: Refer Bhargav’s Blog...

Feedbacks:

Malay Rajendra Gogri, Focus Print Products, Mumbai
“I would like suggest that you must also give some projects to participants so that they would know where they stand after the DMI gyan.”

B.G. Seetharaman, BG Handmade Speciality Papers P.Ltd
“Very inspiring, highly technical and informative”

G. Krishna Mohan, Business Needs, Vijayawada
“I would implement many ideas from this workshop which I never dreamt. I highly appreciate Mr. Bhargav for his tireless and enthusiastic effort.”

Robert B. Thomas, Brand Impression Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai
“Excellent workshop, no words to praise DMI, keep it up.”

Kirti K.Panchal, Print Master, Mumbai
“The workshop was highly motivational.”

Vanka Chandra Sekhar/KodukulaUmapathi, Print Choice, Vizag
“These were lessons I learnt at DMI: Save Time, not ink cost; Discard nylon and use polyester, stop house hold detergents to reclaim screens instead use good reclaiming chemicals, use Aluminum frames & stop using wooden frames.”

Parshuram P. Panchal, Narayan Graphics, Ahmedabad
“Everything is very good, Bhargav sir, you are my printing guru”

Pawan Modi, Vivek Packaging, Ichalkaranji
“After coming to DMI, I am sure my life will change.”

Amitabh Goswami, Riya Graphics ‘N’Print, Lucknow
“I came all the way to learn advanced screen printing knowledge since I have only manual set up.”

Monik Adaki, Kalpak Prints, Solapur
“I am fully satisfied.”

Sheetal Aradhye, Kalpak Prints,Solapur
“I admire DMI for their facilities, hospitality and cleanliness.”

Azhar Latif Khatri, Crescent Printing Works, Mumbai
“I can now implement Bhargav sir’s excellent knowledge in my business.”

Purav Shah, Student, Sigma Corp, Hyderabad
“DMI is very useful institute for students like me and I got a rare chance see advanced machines in action.”

Shailesh D.Purohit, Art Bureau Packaging, Lucknow
“Bhargav sir is like one man army selflessly working for the growth of our Indian screen printing industry”.

Harshad Doshi, Harshad Packwell Pvt Ltd,Pune
“DMI’s hospitality was awesome”

Asvin S. Shah, Viraj Prints, Mumbai
“FIVE STARs (*****) to DMI. Bhargav sir is doing a yeoman service to printing industry by imparting education in advanced screen printing. I think he wants all of us to go to the next level in our business.”

Nikita Goradia, Splendid Inc, Mumbai
“No words. I am highly impressed by the thorough and deep knowledge sharing by Bhargav sir.”

Jinesh Shah, Focus Print Product Pvt Ltd, Mumbai
“We will implement lot of new techniques that we leant at DMI.”

Dinesh Kumar Joshi, Bhaskar Screens, Ratnagiri
“Everything was well managed.”

6th batch of students completes training at DMI

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:08:09 +0530

The sixth batch of 13 students recently completed their one month’s training at DMI.

The training involved powerful theory and more elaborative practical in pre press, screen making, printing. They handled numerous projects such as process color printing, UV Spot, various special effects, print finishing, etc. All projects, right from designing to printing were independently executed by them under the guidance of Mr. Bhargav Mistry, Director of DMI.

In process color screen printing they were also trained how to use the densitometer in production effectively, maintain correct press parameters to get consistent dot percentage as per the proof. Various trouble shooting techniques were taught, like how to eliminate moiré in screen, how to linearize jobs in process color screen printing to get correct output, how to get rid of squeegee lines etc…

During their training program, as a part of their curriculum activity they also had two industrial visits to Ace Printers and Tarun Printing Works.

The next batch is expected to start early next month. The printing students who want to undergo training at DMI and printing houses looking for trained manpower in screen printing may contact dmi@graficaindia.com

DMIs hatrick at FESPA Youth Competition creates history

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 22:28:09 +0530

DMI has once again made Indian screen printing industry proud by winning yet another international acclaim. DMI won Silver Award at the recently concluded FESPA Competition in Munich under YOUTH Category. This is 3rd consecutive award for DMI in FESPA show.

DMI's job was printed on laminated silver foil with 14 special effects with micro embossing including the image printed with CMYK process color inks.

Set up in 2006, “DHIRUBHAI MISTRY INSTITUTE for Print Education, Research & Training’ (DMI), is the only one of its kind in Asia. In the past the Institute made India proud by winning award at ASPT and FESPA awards competitions. It has also won many national awards at Screen Print India, Print Pack, etc.

DMI regularly conducts workshops for printing professionals and short term training programs for printing technology students. Apart from these, DMI faculty team headed by its Director, Bhargav Mistry also conducts seminars at campus.

Pinnacle print finishes with value addition

Thu, 27 May 2010 13:09:38 +0530

Pinnacle print finishes with value addition

Mumbai based Pinnacle Prints switches over to lucrative value addition with strong back up from Grafica’s Cylinder Press

A veteran who has spent the better part of 22 years in the printing industry has now put his trust in advanced screen printing to give a new direction to his fast growing company by moving away from the traditional offset printing space. His company is now fully geared to offer value addition service to the print buyers even with high volumes.

Meet Mr D. Balasubramaniam, the founder of Pinnacle Prints Pvt Ltd which caters to some of India’s top telecom companies including Airtel, Vodafone and TATA. Born and brought up in Mumbai, Balasubramaniam has his printing set-up spread out over 45000 sq. ft. at Bhandup, a busy central suburb of Mumbai right on well known LBS Marg. With over 150 employees, he captains a pretty large but tight ship.

Pinnacle Prints is a full-fledged printing house with modern pre press, press and post press facilities. However, knowing the potential that exists in Screen Printing, Balasubramaniam has decided to take Pinnacle towards a whole new direction, he calls it as “value addition”.

Recently the company has purchased Grafica’s Swing Cylinder Press, the fully automatic screen printing machine which can fire over 3000 sheets per hour; a Jet Air and UV dryer combo. The company has also deployed screen making set up (screen exposing unit and screen dryer) and they get the screens made at Grafica.

Originally an advertising professional who worked for one of the India’s oldest advertising agencies, FCB Ulka, Balasubramaniam decided to quit in 1988 and started off on his own. His 9 years’ experience as a Print Production Manager helped him make a new beginning after receiving inspiration from Mr. Bal Mundkar, then chairman of the Agency. He was catering to all major advertising agencies and Ulka itself was one of his major customers. Slowly over a period of time, he moved into dealing with the corporate sector, especially the fast growing telecom sector.

They have a sister concern - Transactional Documents India Private Limited – which has branched out into a BPO offering voice and non-voice services to US and UK customers. It caters to the airline and publishing industry including New York Times and Washington Post.

Screen printing is relatively a new venture for them. It has been two years now since they started Screen Printing. “Right now, it’s a transition phase for us. We’re moving out of the offset sector and getting into the value-addition sector. The focus is on getting new ideas into print finishing – using UV inks,” he told in an interview to GraficaNews recently.

Although it’s only been few months, Balasubramaniam has complete trust and hope that Grafica’s machines will be able to give him the edge. He looks forward to deliver a lot of wonderful jobs in the days to come. A genial businessman who started his career in a small press with a humble salary of 653 rupees, Balasubramaniam has come a long way to establish his company as one of the best.

Over to the interview:

How is the market for printing business especially for screen printing?
First of all, let me clarify that although we have multi color offset along with complete pre press and post press, we are actually going out of offset space and moving very closely into value addition segment. It is an important point which I want to highlight here.

According to me, Telecom, pharma and insurance are promising sectors for printing business. That is why we started our diversification with a fully automatic cylinder press from Grafica for value addition jobs. When we talk about value addition, it is basically post press service and we are catering printers all over Mumbai and Thane. Besides catering to Telecom companies, we also do other works such as packaging, commercial jobs with value addition. As part of our future plan, we may also go for a larger 30” x 40” automatic press from Grafica to enter venture into rigid substrates printing space. Currently, our jobs involve printing on 90 gsm to 350 gsm papers as per customers’ requirements.

Your view on Screen-printing:
Screen-printing is where one can make a real difference. When it comes to our core clientele which is telecom, it isn’t only about value-addition but also convenience – the silver foil that would be applied manually is now being done with the help of these machines. Not only it makes the process automatic but also builds security into the process.

Why fully automatic screen printing machine?
Our jobs are volume jobs and hence there is no point in continuing with manual or buying a semi automatic and then shift to bigger machine. And for better precision and productivity automation is the only answer. In fact we had 8 tables for doing screen printing jobs manually (with around 40 people) and now the entire operation is taken over by one Cylinder Press.

Why did you choose Grafica as a technology provider?
So far, we got used to second hand machine buying culture. India is now a fast emerging economy. So, why should we buy second hand machines? So, on our part, we are stepping out of the so called ‘second hand’ culture and boarding onto new machine culture. We also realized that by buying second hand machine, we lost the best years of productive use. We had seen other second hand imported machines.

But, Grafica wins on many points, even in technology because imported second hand machines which land here are already 10-15 years old. So, obviously, the technology of today is not available here as it has already lost its best years of usage.

But what were the main factors behind your decision to buy their machines?
We had seen lot of other machines. But we were looking for a company which could give us good machine along with full support, give us new ideas in value addition. Grafica people were here 2 years ago and we had also seen their stalls in many exhibitions. We also visited the Grafica factory and DMI. We generally found them to be friendly people, informative and always ready to help. Ultimately, we found Grafica was all in one proposition - their people are well trained, we get many newer ideas and any new technical help is required they are only a phone call away.

So, rather than being a pure business transaction, we found that we were building a relationship. And to tell you the truth, we generally had a good feeling about Grafica – even the market seems to think so. So it really wasn’t so tough choosing a Grafica machine.

Having said that, did you get enough training from them?
Yes. Their technical person was here for 4 days to train our people. Anyway we were already doing screen printing manually and we were doing so much printing jobs. So, it was quite easy to handle the new screen printing set up, operating the machine was not a problem and we could pick up the techniques easily.

I even sent my son, Sagar and a pre-press operator to attend the DMI workshop after we closed the deal. And most recently, our production manager Mr Richard Rodrigues also attended DMI’s 3 day workshop.

What is your view on color management, which is highly neglected in our printing industry?
First of all, we are sophisticated enough to handle color management system. Our machines are computer-controlled and color management is done properly.

Now the question is - Do customers really want: ‘What you see is what you get’ (WYSIWYG)? I think there are only few customers left in the market who look for colors and other parameters. So, what you get is never been what you see. Customer has nothing to show you and if you see, you would reproduce it. Customer has got nothing to see; they will show you something on the screen and give it to you on a CD and it would throw out differently on your screen, and if you see digital proofs it cannot match because of vibrant colors.

So, WYSIWYG is a 15-year old theory, it is all taught in colleges but how much is practiced is a big question. Earlier there used to be high level of pre press activity and printers used to invest money in what you see what you get monitors. We used to own monitor from BARCO (which sells most expensive monitors) and we could calibrate monitor to achieve: What you see is what you get.

Your thoughts on Solvent Ink v/s UV ink:
Earlier when we had manual operation, we used only solvent inks. But now we use both UV ink and solvent ink for some applications. UV is always better and we are more comfortable with using UV ink.

Your views on the void between Print buyers vs print solution providers:
Earlier print buyers used to deal with printers through Ad Agencies but now they (printers) directly deal with customers and that gap has been minimized now.

Michel Caza & Bhargav Mistry hold seminar @FESPA Munich

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 22:24:38 +0530

At the recently concluded FESPA Munich, June 22-26, 2010, Mr. Michel Caza, past president of FESPA and ASPT and Mr. Bhargav Mistry Managing Director of Grafica Flextronica and DMI, he is also a member of ASPT, jointly conducted a conference. Mr. Bhargav was the first Indian who presented a seminar in FESPA Europe Exhibitions.

The topic was "The Future of Screen Printing Goes Thru Innovation" A comparison between Western and Asian Countries. The presentation was focused on how European countries are moving towards screen and how in Indian screen printing is moving with the latest trend.   While Michel presented his exhaustive knowledge in screen printing with regard to the latest trend and future, Bhargav enumerated on the developments taking place in India, how DMI was contributing to the Indian screen printing.

Michel said that Graphic and sign are only 20% of screen applications when 35% lies in textile printing and about 45% in industrial applications. Because of industrial production getting shifted to Asian countries, screen printing is also getting more and more attention in this region and that is the advantage for screen printers who are into industrial screen printing such as PCB, membrane switches, etc. And it is going to boom in Asia as viewed by many at FESPA.

Pinnacle print finishes with value addition

Thu, 27 May 2010 13:09:38 +0530