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       There is a new wave of demand for web-fed inkjet printing presses in India. These presses can be considered as the third generation of inkjet printing presses in India. The first generation of inkjet printing presses, represented by Kodak CIJ print heads, were relatively rare: more than 20 years ago, there were only one or two full-fledged web-fed presses.
       The second generation of equipment consisted of several presses, mainly for transactional printing. A significant investment was the installation of a high-volume HP press by Repro Offset at its facility in the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR). This generation of digital inkjet equipment was initially too expensive for Indian printers, who were waiting for cheaper solutions and further development of the market.
       This has led to the emergence of the third generation of printing presses, which does not reflect a revolution and new technologies, but rather a change in mentality, driven by local needs and the abundance of inkjet presses produced in Asia (India, Japan and China). The pioneering work on the third generation of inkjet presses was done by Monotech India, which has been developing roll-fed inkjet presses with perfecting function for large format printing of signs, roll labels and books for the last ten years. The company exhibited its label printing presses at Labelexpo Brussels 2023 and has already exported several presses to Europe and China.
       At drupa 24, China had more exhibitors than any other country, but coverage of Chinese exhibitors in the industry media was scant. Of the 400 Chinese exhibitors, there were reportedly only 11 manufacturers of web-fed inkjet equipment, which is mainly used in the document, label and packaging printing sectors.
       Six of these companies – Arojet, Atexco, Flora, Hanway-Hanglobal, Hanglory, KingT and Shield – produce roll-fed inkjet printing presses for document and book printing. Most of these machines use a variety of inkjet print heads from brands such as Epson, Kyocera, FujiDimatix and Memjet, and have a resolution of up to 1200 x 1200 dpi, although resolution affects print speed.
       However, Chinese manufacturers Founder and Spande, who have recently entered the Indian market, were not present at drupa 24. Miyakoshi, a Japanese manufacturer that has achieved considerable success in the Indian market, was also absent. Monotech India, despite being a pioneer in this field and continuing to dominate the local market, also did not have a stand in Düsseldorf. However, other Japanese digital printing press manufacturers producing drum toner printers and sheetfed inkjet presses for the Indian market were present at drupa, demonstrating a strong interest in this market segment.
       Apart from digital label printing presses, local manufacturer Monotech has installed seven digital printing presses, including four monochrome and three four-colour, in its book factories in the last few years (as of March 31, 2024). “Since April, Monotech has installed two digital book presses, ordered eight more, and expects to install 15 digital book presses in the local market by March 2025,” said Tejinder Singh, head of the company’s KnowzzleJet business unit.
       In addition, we estimate that around 15 new web-fed inkjet presses will be imported from Japan and China this financial year, potentially bringing the total installed base to 30. Miyakoshi, which is sold and serviced by Provin Technos, is confident of doubling its fleet of two web-fed digital inkjet presses in the coming months. Leading the way in China so far has been Atexco, which took advantage of its presence at drupa 24, and its distributor Insight has installed several presses over the past year.
       Founder Group, which claims to have the largest installed base of digital printing presses in China, is currently installing and setting up one machine, which is a good start. Its distributor, TechNova, expects Founder Group to have installed six more machines by March 2025.
       The third web-fed inkjet press we know of in the Chinese market is the Spande, sold by Provin Technos. Although it has not yet been installed, Vinay Kaushal, CEO of Provin, claims that the Spande’s superior color quality with high saturation and use of eco-friendly water-based inks could potentially revolutionize the market. The Spande inkjet press uses Epson i3200 (8) AiHD print heads and has an online maintenance mode, including nozzle maintenance.
       However, Kaushal strongly recommends that printers in a hurry to buy a web-fed digital inkjet press do their due diligence before buying a digital press, he says. They need to understand the specifics of their printing environment and carefully calculate the required ink consumption to assess the running costs of such a press.
       In addition to the costs of servicing and replacing print heads, interface software and RIPS, the operating costs of a web inkjet printing press also need to be taken into account.
       We asked TP Jain, Managing Director of Monotech, if he was worried about the rapid influx of inkjet presses from China. He seemed confident of his continued dominance in this growing market, explaining, “Monotech’s monochrome presses use 8.5-inch Memjet Duralink inkjet heads, while our colour presses use 13-inch Memjet Duraflex inkjet heads. Our 1600 x 1600 pixel resolution presses are of first-class quality and have a good reputation in the market, as reflected in repeat orders from customers.”
       Speaking about ink costs, he said: “The high resolution is achieved thanks to the Memjet printhead’s 2.1 picoliter droplet size, which provides excellent ink flow and enables significantly more pages per liter to be printed. Despite the increasing competition in the market, our decade of experience across a wide range of inkjet applications should enable us to take advantage of the growing interest in this technology in book production.”
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