Drupa 2012 had a message for all of us, says B S Kampani

Drupa 2012 had a message for all of us, says B S Kampani, president and managing director, Toyo Ink India

13 Jun 2012 | By PrintWeek India

To tackle large volumes, superior quality, faster printing machines with post-press in sync with its faster delivery to end customer as he does not understand Saturday, Sunday or 24 hours maturing time before post-press. Paucity of space makes the end packaging users hungrier for just in time delivery, with zero inventory.

Toyo Ink’s concept of ‘Visible science for life – contributing to life through science that can be seen’ was aimed at increasing recognition for the new and improved Toyo ink. As such, at Drupa 2012 we exhibited new generation printing solutions as well as the highest quality printing material for all customers.

Pariticipating as a holding company for the first time, Toyo’s main launch was LED cured and low cured ink with Ryobi besides Kaleido - wider gamut inks, digital UV and water-based flexo lamination inks. In digital, Toyo had single colour printer on display doing line printing for books.

The greatest challenge at Drupa 2012 was to keep walking, letting the eyes feast and marvel on innovative graphic arts on display. To let the brain absorb, retain and implement what they saw in new technology.

While Benny Landa’s inventions are likely to be available in the late 2013 or early 2014, two of our products are already ready for trial in India and our core team from Tokyo is already here in India.

The visitor profile at Drupa was a mix of young turks with their masters/mentors. Young absorbing the technology on display and the mentors willing to take a risk upfront on investment in technology for the future.

Impact of Drupa 2012 is difficult to gauge, but The Times of India not only placed orders for new machines; but was seen working hard to replace heatset with UV hybrid ink. Repro too was not lacking behind in its investments and enquiring on the availability of consumables in India, etc.

My takeaway: Digital is here to stay and will sell through innovation, though expensive.