PrintExpo 2016: Digital at the forefront

"The trend of digital printing innovations that we saw in Drupa this year has carried on to our exhibition (PrintExpo) and we truly believe printers from South India would benefit by the presence of all the digital press bigwigs," said Ashok Neelkant, managing director, Intel Trade Fairs & Exposition, the organiser of PrintExpo. He's seen second from right during the photo-op along with Balaji Rajagopalan of Xerox and other exhibitors

The exhibition saw participation from 137 companies through three days from 12 to 14 August 2016 at Chennai Trade Centre. Top digital brands HP, Xerox, Canon, Konica Minolta, Ricoh had displayed their range of production presses. Exhibitors and dignitaries are seen lining up to inaugurate the event

The eighth edition of the expo recorded total visitors of 11,739 and generated business worth over Rs 150-crore, according to the organisers. The registration counter seen in the picture was busy through the day with almost equal number visitors every day

Canon were the first to kickstart business at the show with SV Color Graphics adding the C10000VP as their third Canon press. Incidentally this would be fifth installation of the C10000VP in South India and 16th in the country

"Last year we showed live demonstration of our Kongsberg V20 which was well-received by the visitors. This being the Drupa year and our announcement of platform 16 we decided to create more awareness of its advantages. We have used this exhibition as a platform and lined up meetings with a series of our prospects which we hope to convert into sale post expo," said Fredrick John, sales manager - South at Esko- Seen in the picture with Nirmala G, executive, lead management at Esko

"The southern market has a huge potential for digital colour presses, especially in the Tier two and three cities and towns. In fact our 5100 series would be the right fit for the photo labs in these cities," said Sambit Misra, chief operating officer for production printing, Ricoh India- Standing here with his colleague in front of their stylised stand

"Like every year since its inception, we have had a successful event with steady footfall. “This also gave us the opportunity to reinforce our focus on the southern market in India wherein we have witnessed significant growth in segments like photo-printing, book publishing etc.," said Balaji Rajagopalan, executive director of technology, channels and international distributor operations, Xerox India

"PrintExpo is crucial to our growth strategy as one of the front runners in the market it plays a key role for us to meet our existing customer and prospects alike. The show is a success for us with excellent number of leads generated and even a few intent of deals signed," said Vasudevan S R, regional sales manager of Konica Minolta- Seen with his team in the picture

HP along with its partners Redington showcased Indigo 7900 digital press which was the latest iteration launched at Drupa 2016. This is first time that HP has a live demo of any of its digital press at PrintExpo. Ashok Pahwa, regional sales manager of HP, graphic solution business and Ramesh K S, vice president of Redington India are seen in the picture

V Vaidyalingam, director at Suba Solutions was seen interacting with visitors in their usual meet and greet stand. The company offers conversion machinery and accessories for folding carton and corrugated box production, automatic BOPP/MetPET laminator, quality inspection and sorting machine, automatic die cutter with foil stamping, board to board pasting solutions, automatic folder gluer and die cutter etc

"This is the second year running we have decided to emphasise on the need to 'go green' to the industry. Everything from the machine on display to the stand design has been done keeping this in mind," said George K Mathew, director of Insight Communications, who stressed on the need to go processor and chemistry free for CTPs using Sonora plates

“The good thing to happen in Drupa for us in terms of Scodix is it becoming mainstream. A host of commercial and packaging printers have signed up with us and the order books quickly filled. Incidentally, it will be P M Digitals once again who will be the first in India to install Scodix Ultra in September,” said T P Jain, managing director of Monotech who is seen posing in front of Scodix sample gallery

"The show is an opportunity to reach out to other fellow printers and highlight the innovation and capabilities of our printing unit. As a hybrid organisation with equal offset and digital press capabilities we wanted to offer our services to the community we are part of. We have done it with transparent pricing too," said G N Vishwakumar of Rajams Digital, who recently boosted capacity with Heidelberg Anicolor SX 52

Vasai-based manufacturer of screen printing and allied machinery, Grafica Flextronica had showcased its swing cylinder press with in-line UV and nano series of screen printing machines at the expo. A customer from Bangladesh interacts with the Grafica team in the picture

The iFoil sample gallery printed from MGI's Jetvarnish 3DS was also featured at the Konica Minolta stall. Chennai-based Dina Color Lab are the first in India to install the machine provided the samples. Dr M Dinakaran, managing director of Dina Color Lab is seen in the picture along with K V Jayavel and S R Vasudevan of Konica Minolta

Hi-Tech Systems, the Mumbai-based distributor of print finishing equipment were seen part of the Canon stall this time but were busy as ever. Parag Shah of Hi-Tech seen interacting with customers

One of the busiest stalls in this year's event were the debutants ePrint Machinery, who along with their principals from Horizon did good business and were seen happily interacting with one and all from the industry. O Venugopal of Anaswara Offset seen posing with ePrint and Horizon team. The company also launched their cutting system eCut at the show

Another Chennai-based print finishing suppliers, Gayathri Machineries presented a fleet of small equipment from their multi-principals which include Hohner. In the true sense of camaraderie, we witnessed Parag Shah of Hi-tech Systems singing praises and pitching to a client on behalf of Gayathri Machineries for their four in one machine used for bill book printing. Uday Grover is pictured at the stall