Sign & Graphics | Bi Monthly Publication of Signage Industry in India

Bordeaux enters into textile printer production

In addition to inks, for the first time in its 16 years of existence, Bordeaux Digital Printink has announced its entry into production of textile printers. At the recent 2016 SGIA Expo, the company launched its Velvet Jet direct-to-fabric printing line.

BGN introduces ‘green’ media for latex and UV technologies

Engaging in imports of premium printing materials for years, Chennai-based BGN has been partnered with a number of offshore manufacturers of various grades of printing materials. The company has recently introduced a ‘green’ or eco-friendly line of large-format media exclusively designed for latex and UV inkjet technologies. “Our latex and UV media is synthetic made of PP. It’s 100 percent eco-friendly and recyclable,” says Ranjit Veena Batra, VP, BGN Trading Private Limited. This material has no solvent content in it; rather it has water-based coating on the top. Further, Ranjit mentions that the ‘green’ media is designed perfectly for HP latex and UV inkjet printers. “This media has been approved by HP Inc for HP Latex 300 and 3000 Series,” refers Ranjit, adding that the prime applications possible with this media include roll-up standees, frontlit and backlit graphics. BGN also supplies a line of eco-friendly self adhesive backlit media series with removable glue (backlit).

Aurora opens new manufacturing plant, changes corporate logo

Aurora Specialty Textiles Group has opened a textile manufacturing plant of 124,000 sq ft at Yorkville, Illinois. And the company also announced its new logo and mission statement.

Mimaki UJF-3042 MkII delivers best-in-class flatbed prints

Launched at the recent Media Expo 2016 in New Delhi, Mimaki UJF-3042 MkII UV flatbed printer has opened up a new scope in flatbed printing, delivering best-in-class print speed with good adhesion to acrylics and many other materials, including glass, metal and resins. The printer is also ideal for producing membrane switches or wallet smart-phone cases that must be pressed or folded. A variety of ink types are available for these systems, enabling printing on both rigid and flexible materials, including inks designed for durability with excellent scratch resistance, and inks that can be stretched up to 170 percent without cracking.

Chennai edition of Media Expo 2016 postponed

Messe Frankfurt, the organiser of Media Expo exhibitions, announces the postponement of its first Chennai edition, which was scheduled from November 18 – 20, 2016. Being a leading Indian trade fair brand for signage and graphic art industry, Media Expo recorded an increase in participation at its recent New Delhi edition. Raj Manek, executive director, Messe Frankfurt Asia Holding Ltd, said, “We work closely with the industry to ensure our platforms represent what the Indian market requires,” adding that the decision to launch Media Expo in Chennai was thus based on the strategic feedback and support of key exhibitors who have now communicated a sudden change in their strategies. A new date for the Chennai edition is expected to be announced soon, in due course. The expo’s growing prominence in the corporate world and its expanding reach has already attracted renowned exhibitors for its upcoming editions in Mumbai (23 – 25 February 2017) and Delhi (22 – 24 September 2017) which will be executed as per the dates being scheduled.

Roland DGA bags three ‘SGIA Product of the Year Awards 2016’

Roland DGA Corp was honoured with three ‘Product of the Year Awards’ conferred during the recent 2016 SGIA Expo in Las Vegas. The company received the awards in three different categories—VersaUV LEJ-640FT large-format UV flatbed printer in the UV Flatbed category; TrueVIS INK in the Digital Inks - Solvent/Eco-Solvent/Latex category; and Texart SBL3 Dye-Sublimation Ink in the Digital Inks-Textile category.

FESPA Asia set to be ASEAN region’s specialty print event in 2017

FESPA Asia 2017, which is scheduled to take place at BITEC in Bangkok from 15 to 17 February 2017, is set to be the largest and most comprehensive event for digital wide format, screen and textile printing in 2017 in the ASEAN region. The expo will feature more than 100 exhibiting companies, with many leading international brands already confirmed their participations.

Activities of FESPA in Asia have been actively championed by nine National Associations, in Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Republic of Korea, Japan, China, Philippines and Australia, who support a combined membership of more than 2,000 PSPs.

Colorjet targets expansion in China & South East Asia

One of India’s leading wide-format printer manufacturers, ColorJet Group, is now gearing up to expand its footprints. in China and South East Asian. The move is taking up by the manufacturer with, its participation in ITMA Asia 2016 organised recently from October 21-25 at New National Exhibition and Convention Centre (NECC) in Shanghai, China. Colorjet Group, which also operates a manufacturing facility in China, offers digital textile printing machines with efficient engineering and innovative technologies. By participating at ITMA Asia 2016, the group has focused to repeat its Indian market success offshore countries like Vietnam, Philippines, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Indonesia, while also making deeper inroads into China.

Following the launch of its METRO textile digital printer at the ITMA 2015 in Milan, where the printer drew tremendous attentions, ColorJet Group had shown its high speed direct-to-fabric printer, METRO, at ITMA Asia 2016. METRO achieves production speed of up to 362 sq m/hr, and is upgradable up to 16 printheads for achieving the top speed. Compatible to work with all types of inks like reactive, disperse and pigment, METRO weaves magic on a variety of fabrics, including cotton, polyester, silk, viscose, wool, nylon, acetate, among others.

EPSON SC-S800600 now Pantone certified

EPSON SureColor SC-S80600, one of the company’s flagship 64 inch roll-to-roll signage printer, has just become Pantone certified. With this certification, the printer joins the industry leading SureColor Prographics range with coverage exceeding 98 percent.

HP certifies ImagePerfect Spandex vinyl line

For use on HP Latex 300 Series printers, HP Inc has announced the certification of Spandex’s ImagePerfect substrates. The company certifies 10 of the media manufacturer’s substrates, verifying certain substrates that are suitable for use with HP Latex Inks and therefore provides sign makers and PSPs with peace of mind when looking for new compatible materials.

Caldera celebrates 25th Anniversary with free gift

In its landmark 25th Anniversary celebrations, Caldera offers a pair of Pantone Lighting Indicators free to every buy of its V11 RIP software. The free Pantone Lighting Indicators, D50 and D65, can be used to determine if lighting conditions are correct for colour matching and evaluation.

3.3 million HP DesignJet printers sold since 1991

As HP DesignJet has celebrated its 25th Anniversary, the company has declared that more than 3.3 million HP Designjet printers have been sold worldwide since the launch of the printer in 1991.

XAAR 1201 printhead finds OEM
partnership in Zhengzhou New Century

XAAR announces that Zhengzhou New Century Digital Print Technology (New Century) is the latest OEM partner to develop and launch wide-format inkjet printers equipped with the new XAAR 1201 thin film piezo printhead in China. The range of printers recently launched by New Century include roll-to-roll aqueous and eco-solvent Sky-Color models using the new XAAR printhead in 1, 2 and 4 colour variants. These new printers were shown at Sign China 2016 held from 19 – 22 September at Shanghai.

AGFA Graphics bags three ‘Product
of the Year Awards’ at SGIA Expo 2016

For the second year in a row, AGFA Graphics has won a total of three Product of the Year Awards at SGIA Expo in Las Vegas, rec. The brand new Anapurna H3200i from the company won in the UV Hybrid Category ($100-500k), the Jeti Mira won in the UV Flatbed ($200-500k) category and the Jeti Tauro won top honours in the UV Hybrid High Volume Production Class category.

Canon’s two Océ Arizona printers bag Awards

Canon announces that two of its Océ Arizona series printers have received the SGIA Product of the Year Awards 2016. The two products were awarded under the categories—SGIA 2016 Product of the Year for UV Flatbed + White $100-200k: Océ Arizona 1280 GT and SGIA 2016 Product of the Year for UV Flatbed + White $200-500k: Océ Arizona 2280 XT.

NEGI Sign Systems marks mass installations
of Mutoh ValueJet printers and others

Over the last few months, NEGI Sign Systems & Supplies has delivered a line of Mutoh ValueJet printers with a few other systems including NegiJet Polariz 3300 Plus solvent printer and Mutoh VJ 1624 dye sublimation system. Those who have enhanced their infrastructures with the installations of Mutoh ValueJet 1604X in various cities including Delhi, Indore, Nanded, Vijaywada and others across the country include Uma Maheshwar, Gowrishanker Yadav, Sunny Thakur, Ganesh Kottawar, Sriraam and Rakesh Kumar Agarwal. In addition to Mutoh ValueJet 1604X, Subhash Rahageer has adopted a NegiJet Polariz 3300 Plus.

In the league of NEGI printer adopters, Mallesh Ilkal and Sangappa Benni have installed sublimation printers—Mutoh VJ 1624 and RJ 900x printers. The installation base extends upto Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh as Malesh and Rakesh Kumar Agarwal are proud adopters of Mutoh ValueJet 1604X in the regions.

First HP Latex 1500 in mumbai installed at Keen Graphics

Keen Graphics in Mumbai is the first HP Latex 1500 adopter in the city and second in the country. Located in Jogeshwari (West) in the city, this signage major is widely known for its best quality graphic outputs and state-of-the-art production facility where equipped a line of high-end printers comprising the newest entry, HP Latex 1500. Pushing the existing machine portfolio to a new standard, the newly added HP latex printer has added a new potential to Keen Graphics, broadening its production capability.

HP Latex 1500 is a super-wide latex system, which runs at 45 sq m/hr for indoor quality and 74 sq m/hr for outdoor PVC banners. Also, the printer is designed to automatically print double-sided backlit applications with the optional double-sided day night kit.

Arrow Digital delivers Efi-VUTEk and
Jetrix printers to two big signage firms

Two big signage firms—Macromedia in Hyderabad and VGA Digital Printers in Pune—have enhanced their infrastructures with the installations of high-end Efi-VUTEk and Jetrix printers from Arrow Digital. The new Efi-VUTEk GS3250LX Pro being installed at Macromedia is a 3.2 m hybrid LED cool-cure UV high-speed printer. Naresh Kumar from Macromedia says the Efi-VUTEk printer would make them assure of meeting customers’ deadlines with the latest green technology and no compromise on quality. Moreover, the printer’s LED feature enables them to use broad range of substrates printed in 1000 dpi at the production speed up to 2,400 sq ft/hr.

On the other side, VGA Digital Printers in Pune is adopter of Jetrix KX5, a true flatbed printer. Mandke from VGA mentions that they have been tied up with Arrow Digital, supplier of the printer, for a long period of time. He says, “Choosing a true flatbed and RTR system in the market was tough; we conducted tests and trails, but couldn’t able to get adhesion similar to that of Jetrix. So, we went for Jetrix KX5, a 2.5x1.3m UV flatbed machine with 6 pl KM1024 printhead that could give outputs in 1,440 dpi at 55 sq m/hr.”