New Kodak NexPress SE 3000 digital colour press boosts Surat-based Perfect Digital Press' digital print productivity

"Whether you operate as a photo copy printer or a digital production colour print specialist, there is an immense opportunity to drive digital print growth in Surat," said Shailesh Ghetia, one of the managing directors at Perfect Digital Press in Surat.

22 Jul 2011 | By PrintWeek India

The city, according to Ghetia, produces four lakh A4 size prints per day.

Ghetia made the statement during the inaugural ceremony of its first digital production colour press NexPress SE 3000 with a glossing unit. The ceremony was held at its North Extension, Falsawadi location. This is the first NexPress to be installed in Surat.

Surat is a city that is largely recognised for its textile and diamond businesses. It is also known as the diamond capital of the world with 92% of the world’s diamonds being cut and polished in the city. Besides, it’s also known as the textile capital of India. It has one of the highest GDP growth rates in India. The two industries have been driving the increased demand for printed products.

"As the textile industry in Surat continues to increase its buying power with innovative offerings to its customers, it was time for Perfect Digital Press to gear itself to providing our print buyers with solutions. It was necessary to find new ways of differentiating ourselves from others," said Ghetia. "With most of the printers in Surat offering flat four-colour prints, our ability to print dimension with the fifth unit and gloss finish with the glossing unit has become the differentiation factors."

Digital Press eight years ago. Besides the NexPress, the firm has six Noritsu machines for printing photos. "We printed 20,000 photos per day using the six Noritsu machines, but with the NexPress we print that many in five hours, leaving time for much more to do," said Ghetia.

In the 20 days since the NexPress installation, Perfect has printed 1.5 lakh A4 sheets and it aims to print up to 80,000 sheets per days, once the NexPress is pressed into full production with an additional feeder attachment.

According to Ramani Viswanathan, vice president for sales, digital print, electrophotographic printing solution business at Kodak, the NexPress is not a digital equipment, it’s a high speed, high production colour digital press.

"It can print photographs, can be used for commercial short-runs and VDP as well as packaging segment with an additional feeder." The additional feeder attachment has the capability of feeding substrate of up to 14x26inch and thickness of up to 400gsm in production mode. "It’s ideal for short-run packaging jobs," said Viswanathan.

Perfect Digital Press, which operates from a 4,000 sq/ft site employs 15 persons.