Incredible experience at Print Pack India 2011!

Hi everyone,

I am back in Mumbai, to be precisely, right in front of my laptop to write this blog intended to share my unforgettable experience at a week-long mega event PRINT PACK INDIA 2011 held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi (16-21 January 2011).

I and my team were really delighted to witness a marvelous turnout of visitors (and plenty of orders!), seeking to know about Grafica’s technology and various value addition possibilities through screen printing process.

I must acknowledge that following my company’s thumbing success at Screen Print India exhibition held in Mumbai in early December 2010, we accomplished yet another booming success at PRINT PACK INDIA, an exhibition of large scale focussing very less on screen printing process and more on other printing processes such as packaging, offset, flexo, etc which was in fact a blessing in disguise. During the show we created lot of curiosity among thousands of printing professionals. That’s because my company always focuses on technology and education.

Since many years we have been participating in Print Pack India and Pamex exhibition regularly. These major exhibitions are usually focused on offset printing/packaging. However, this year at PRINT PACK, even at last Pamex, I noticed that maximum time spent at our stall was by a large number of offset and packaging printers who curiously wanted to know more about print finishing for value addition. My company once again proved that screen printing complements offset very well.

I have been repeatedly telling that my company Grafica not only focuses on products during such exhibitions but we give special emphasis on explaining how printers can explore various possibilities to add value through the power of screen printing process.

An array of DMI’s creative samples gallery including some of the finest special effect screen printed packaging products stirred the creative minds of many offset printers who once used to neglect the power of screen.

I have always marked that when it comes to the scope and opportunities in screen printing many experts from all over world generally speaks about Industrial screen printing, textile, graphics, decals etc. but let me advice you that screen printing has huge demand in print finishing for value addition not only on offset prints and packaging products but also in many other segments. Frankly very few people in the screen printing industry have identified the power and secrets of screen printing in different applications and segments. Actually screen printing is the best and economical solutions and has hundreds of options to decorate your printed jobs.

In this matter I would urge all Ink manufacturers and suppliers to work really hard to develop low cost high quality speciality UV Inks and Varnishes which will help to boost the screen printing industry in various applications and segments.

And this reminds me of the comment made by Prof. Dr. Rajendra Kumar Anayath, Print Media Academy, Chennai – a Heidelberg Initiative. After a complete tour of our stall including DMI’s gallery he told me: “Bhargav, screen printing today is not what it was 6-7 years ago. With the kind of experiments that you are making at your DMI, it appears to me that it has emerged as a printing process to be reckoned with.” Being a printing professional and educationist from the offset arena, his remark is quite significant.

DMI’s creative sample gallery was looking awesome and thousands of visitors took great advantage by grilling team Grafica and DMI students to gain deeper insights into the concept of value addition through specialty screen printing.

This time all my students of recent batch were lucky to join my at Print Pack exhibition in New Delhi. Since I wanted to give them more hands on experience I thought this was a right moment for them to show their performance and share their experience with other printing professionals which they got through my training and classes. In fact they were quite active in showing and explaining visitors how such effects could be produced, that’s because many of the samples were screen printed by these students as part of their curriculum activity at DMI.

Today in a competitive printing world, dominated by print buyers, to get even 5% price increase from customers for regular offset printed jobs is very difficult. But by simply adding some special effects through screen printing process one can even get 10% to 50% price increase or even more. To earn this extra profit it does not require too much of investment as compared to the huge cost of offset presses. And this is what we demonstrated at PRINT PACK INDIA.

So, hundreds of printers including some new generation printing professionals from offset and packaging were stunned and delighted to see an array of DMI’s creative samples – 100% screen printed with various UV special effects for value addition. They wanted to know how such magnificent jobs could be created by screen printing process.

Nano-Print plus was again the show stopper in this exhibition. In fact when I launched this machine I always thought that Nano-Print and Nano-Print plus will follow a ratio of 60%~70% (Nano-Print) and 30%~40% (Nano-Print plus). But it’s amazing to know that it turned out the other way round even though the price of Nano-Print plus is a bit expensive than the previous version Nano-Print.

I am really excited to know that the design and feature of “plus” is very well appreciated and accepted in the screen printing industry with many simple and added features. The size of Nano-Print plus 22″ x 28″ (inch) which we are now offering as a standard model instead of 18″ x 24″ is also one of the factors for the tremendous response. Screen printers do not mind even if they have to pay just few pennies extra to get bigger print area.

Interestingly, we hardly booked individual machines. Almost all bookings were NPL/NPL-plus package which offers a unique combination of my company’s Nano range of products at an unbelievable price. Many customers who booked the NPL commented that no one could have even imagined get such high quality, high standard advanced complete automation system with big savings.

One thing is clear, printers are now realizing the need and importance of screen making. They have realized the great benefit of having a complete screen printing unit in-house rather than just buying a screen printing machine which makes them dependent on outside agencies for screen making.

NANO-SCREEN MAKER 5-in-1

NANO-PREMIER LEAGUE (NPL) For Print Area 15″ x 20″ & NANO-PREMIER LEAGUE plus (NPL plus) For Print Area 22″ x 28″ package is one of Grafica best engineering designed by my team of engineers. Today with this economic package, every screen printer can think of rejuvenating his screen printing unit.

I was surprised to know from my team that they managed to book more than 100 NPL package during the 6 day show at Print Pack India, which is mainly focused on Offset Printing, packaging and converting. This means 40% more business compare to Screen Print India held in December 2010 at Mumbai which is a focused exhibition on screen printing subject.

In fact, I never dreamt of that Grafica’s CYLINDER PRESS will roar with super extraordinary performance. I can say in the next coming 3-4 months we expect to get one dozen Cylinder Press orders as an outcome of PRINT PACK INDIA and that is in addition to the order booking for 6 cylinder presses at the exhibition itself. This would ensure us to cross half century (50) in our Cylinder Press sales.

There has been a growing trend of many offset printers and packaging printers embracing screen printing process for carrying out print finishing in house instead of depending on outsourcing. So, as anticipated by me well before the exhibition, there were many orders and serious enquiries from offset and packaging segment. This is indeed a good sign of prosperity for screen printing industry.

It was amazing to see the large pool of visitors watching the live demo of Grafica’s NANO-PRINT plus for quite long time and my team was pleased to attend their queries and closing the deals. Even I did not sit idle and I was fully engaged in attending to many of my customers and leading printers showing them my DMI’s sample gallery and teaching them new ideas and techniques to improve their skills and knowledge. In fact my main focus in all exhibition is to invite graphics students from various colleges and attend them personally and to show what’s new in screen printing. Interacting with students helps me to understand their minds and to know their knowledge about screen printing process. I try my hard to ignite them to join the screen printing industry through my institute DMI.

I had the fortune of meeting several valued customers of my company. It was fun to exchange ideas with them. Meeting customers regularly keeps me updated and it also improves my general knowledge about the latest developments going around in the industry.

Because of the popularity of PRINT PACK which is a multi dimensional trade event, there were visitors from almost all the states besides host city New Delhi. With the kind of response we received at our stall, I can say Screen Printing is rocking and will make a major headway in the years. I am also sure there are still abundant opportunities in screen printing only one has to explore by using all the advanced technology with right knowledge.

Today, I am proud that by exhibiting my screen printing machines at offset/packaging dominated exhibitions, my company Grafica has completely changed the scenario of screen printing industry. As always, Grafica’s stall in all exhibitions create lots of curiosity among thousands of printing professionals. I can even proudly say that my company Grafica is working very hard by creating a powerful impact of screen printing process in the printing industry.

I thank all my customers, well wishers and friends in the printing industry who were very supportive to us in this show. I also give special thanks to all those who have given strong reference to others to buy Grafica’s machines. I got refreshed myself when so many DMI Workshop participants visited our stall and greeted me and my DMI team.

So keep in touch and visit us in every event that my company Grafica may participate in future to stay updated with latest trends and developments in the screen printing technology.

To know more about new techniques and advance screen printing process join my DMI Workshops. My next DMI Workshop is scheduled from 17 to 19 March 2011.

Hey, before I forget if you are graphic designer, pre-press operator, wedding card designer or into any kind of designing and want to be more creative then from now onwards DMI is the best place for you to learn many great time saving tips and tricks in Photoshop, Illustrator, In-Design, Acrobat, Bridge etc. directly from the experts from ADOBE INDIA, Rajesh Patil who did a fantastic presentation in my last workshop for more than 3 hours on Adobe Creative Suite Design Premium 5.0.

At DMI, Learn More | Earn More…

Finally I cannot end up this blog without thanking my entire Grafica and DMI team – my rocking stars – who performed brilliantly presented Grafica which made us special from other exhibitors at Print Pack India 2011.

Hope to see you soon…

Regards,

Bhargav

More than 1200 printing professionals took training at DMI

It gives me immense pleasure to reveal you all that till today DMI has provided high quality training to more than 1200 printing professionals across the globe through our regular workshops and corporate training programs.

I am also thrilled to know from my team that NANO-PRINT plus is receiving overwhelming response. In just one month after its launch at Screen Print India 2010 exhibition we booked 36 machines. This gives me complete satisfaction that the design of this machine has been widely accepted and highly appreciated by every screen printer. My team has really worked hard to maintain a very reasonable price tag of this machine at the same time keeping a strict vigil on the design and manufacturing.

I am sure NANO-PRINT & NANO-PRINT plus will be trend setters in bringing automation in the screen printing industry all over the world.

Currently NANO range of machine i.e, NANO-PRINT & NANO-PRINT plus, NANO-SCREEN MAKER 5-in-1, NANO-UV & NANO-SHARPENER are not only getting popular in India but we are receiving many serious inquiries daily from overseas market.

For those who have missed the opportunity to see NANO-PRINT plus and our unique package NANO PREMIER LEAGUE (NPL) at Screen Print India 2010 in Mumbai, do not get dejected because we are all set to shows these machines live again at Print Pack India 2011 from 16 to 21 Jan 2011 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.

So do visit us at Hall 9, Stall 5, 6 & 8.

How can you miss to see DMI’s latest creative sample gallery, 100% screen printed special effects? By seeing our creativity, you will definitely get new ideas in screen printing for value addition.

I recently concluded one more houseful workshop at DMI. This time there were more than 40 participants including one from Tanzania and one from Mauritius (my new customer).

This time to show innovative print finishing and packaging, we designed a new type of corporate folder with rare color combination of white on a silver foil paper board. The rest of silver foil was overprinted with 3D reflective design to give the most popular ‘micro embossing’ effect which is otherwise produced on a very expensive micro embossing machine. The final product we made in this workshop was Grafica’s new corporate folder, pen holder and sweet / chocolate box.

Previously all our folders and creative samples in packaging and print finishing had 10 to 16 special effects, but this time I made it a point to restrict it to 3 or max 4 special effects. I tried to make the product look more powerful in terms of design and aesthetic look. In fact the reason why I always incorporate so many effects was to cover all types special effects but at the same time participants used to always tell me that I should make design in such a way that the experiment looks viable to sell in the market and not to add too many effects for the sake of demonstration of value addition.

To restrict colors and effects on my practical jobs execution were challenging because we had to maintain very high standards in terms of aesthetics and at the same time limit the cost to a minimum. So, since the last two workshops we have developed packaging products with 3 or 4 colors/effects. At the same time designed in such a way that it looked elegant and premium product but still viable for printers to quote for their customers.

On silver foil mostly I have seen printers print only matt or special effect varnish to make the product effective. Even offset printers usually print process color CMYK but very rarely I have seen printers use white on silver foil. Believe me, white looks very rich in terms of elegance and design aspects. So this time we printed half white, half with 3D reflective ink (micro embossing), on few areas metallic orange and finally thick emboss effect (which many know or I call as Ticky) using 150 micron thick film.

The photos of all this screen printed stuff will give you a clear idea of what I have explained to you here. To know more about such ideas, do register online for my next workshop scheduled for 17-18-19 March 2011.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR DMI WORKSHOP

In this workshop we have added one more flavor in our training program by inviting Rajesh Patil, an expert from Adobe to provide useful, important time saving tips and tricks, using CS5 design premium.

As he informed me before few days that he would take only 1.5 hour session at DMI since it was his first presentation in my institute.

But he subtly observed during his presentation that everyone was quite serious in watching his informative eye-opening presentation, he extended his session and took more than 3 hours, showing many tricks of In-Design, Illustrator and Photoshop CS5. In fact I also realized such session would require more than 3 hours to give justification to the subject.

My institute DMI is now closely associating with Adobe Systems India to provide more time and in-depth knowledge about all Adobe design softwares.

If you are a designer, wedding card producer, a pre-press operator or in-charge of your in-house designing studio or screen printer who wants to make good designer paper carry bags, sweets / chocolate boxes or even advertising agencies, then our next workshop will be very enriching for you.

So, don’t miss our next workshop because I and Rajesh will work closely to make sure we cover the most part of the CS5 Design Premium software which will be useful for printers.

Check What’s New in Photoshop CS5

Few new features of Photoshop CS5

Some more features of Photoshop CS5

Adobe Photoshop CS5 – Spot Healing and Fill Tool

Sneak peek of
new Adobe Photoshop CS5 technologies

Few new
features of Illustrator CS5

Also checkout more information and videos about Abobe CS5

Next, I feel proud to be associated with Mike Young time and again.In 2009 I had sponsored his Knowledge Tour in India, covering various six major cities.

This time my company was one of a prime sponsors of his technical seminars at SPI 2010. Let me tell you little about my friend Mike.

He is a SGIA Fellows, a member of the Academy of Screen Printing Technology and recipient of the prestigious Swormstedt Award for technical writing.

Despite the hectic Screen Print India seminars, he visited my DMI institute and my companies shop floor. He was thrilled to see my DMI’s library which has a collection of various screen printing magazines and books dating back to 1960s. Immediately he told the students to take full advantage of DMI’s facilities including the library.

I must acknowledge and thank MikeYoung because he kind heartedly felicitated the DMI students for winning successive awards in ASPT competitions for the last four years.

Since it was virtually impossible for my students to go to USA every year to collect the award, when Mike Young presented them the certificates and cash awards which was given to each student by DMI.

I am also thankful to Mike for his thought-provoking interview which I have recently published in my Grafica News and e-News. Those who have not read the interview “What are the new and growing profitable markets for screen printers?” HERE IS THE LINK

Knowledge-wise, my customers are lucky these days because in my current and last issue of Grafica News, another international screen printing expert, Mike Ruff, the Chief Technology Officer of Nazdar Consulting Services, was kind enough to contribute two exclusive technical articles for Grafica News which contain lot of tips on color management.

Article 1 | Article 2

I am really indebted to Mike Ruff for his generous contribution for the benefit of my customers and screen printing industry at large. I know Mike Ruff for the last several years ever since I started reading his informative articles. I became closer to him after I became ASPT board member. His experience in the graphics printing industry spans more than 40 years. He is a certified G7 Color Calibration Expert and a regular instructor at the SPTF Graphics Four-Color Workshop in Fairfax, VA, and he has authored numerous articles published in trade publications domestically and internationally.

The PDF version of our Grafica News is now available for download from our website. Those who are not receiving Grafica News you can still download the soft copy.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD.

We are publishing Grafica News since 2004 and circulating around 5000 copies all over India and abroad.

Apart from printers I also make sure to send printed copies to OE’s, Advertising Agencies and Print Buyers. This help them to find suitable printer solution provider.

By this way Grafica updates print buyers about the latest trends in screen printing.

Finally let me end here because I have many task to prepare for Print Pack India 2011 to make sure we make our best presentation at this mega trade event.

At this exhibition all six days we will be printing various special effect on all Cylinder Press, Cam-Shell, Two-Post, Nano-Print plus, Nano-Print with UV inks and varnish.

The latest DMI’s creativity which was recently screen printed in the last workshop will be demonstrate. So do not miss to watch and gain some insights, new tricks on value addition and print finishing.

Our complete DMI creative sample gallery will also be the show stopper for printers who looking for value addition through screen printing and wants to make more profits with minimum investments.

Kindly visit us at Hall 9, Stall 5,6 & 8 to see latest creativity in screen printing technology.

See ya at Print Pack India 2011…

Regards,

Bhargav

Happy New Year 2011

Let me begin my first blog of the year with great wishes to all of you and your family:

“A HAPPY, PEACEFUL, DELIGHTFUL & SUCCESSFUL NEW YEAR 2011”

It has been wonderful year which just faded away on the horizon. But I still recollect those sweet memories of associating with you during various exhibitions, DMI workshop and road shows and of course through my blog.

DMI was inaugurated in 2006 and today it’s entering 5th year of service to screen printing industry, I never imagined that it would be an institute to be reckoned with… but today it is one step ahead! DMI, a regular award winner in national and international competitions,  has been now recognized by the screen printing industry as a world class knowledge centre for advanced screen printing, conducting FREE 3-day workshops besides other technical seminars and offering training to print technology students.

DMI is not limited to India only. In the past I have seen participants coming various other countries like… USA, Dubai, Qatar, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Mauritius… So far, as per my knowledge, nearly 1000 printing professionals took benefit from DMI’s workshops and other programs.

This is in addition to my ‘Screen on Screen’ video film screened in 15 cities and small towns two years ago, benefiting over 1500 screen printers many of whom never had the opportunity  or access to ‘advanced screen printing’ knowledge.

I do not want to go in detail about the outcome. There has been a stupendous response and for me it was simply touching moment; because I could see smiles on the faces of hundreds of screen printers when they listen to my presentation, where else they get such enriching experience in terms of knowledge in screen printing.

Today, DMI is also a knowledge centre for many corporate customers who send their team to my institute to upgrade their knowledge in screen printing.

I am now gearing up for a great moment ahead. First the workshop at DMI on 7, 8, 9 January 2011… wait for my post-workshop blog with action photos of this workshop after 9th Jan. But those who have never attended my workshop at DMI, I have my next workshop lined up on 17, 18 and 19th March 2011. Please make sure you register for this workshop online.

My team is also hectic in the preparation for the PRINT PACK INDIA to be held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi – 16 to 21st January 2011. Hope to see you all there.

Just to remind you subtly, my company had launched the new NANO-PRINT plus with fabulous features at Screen Print India in Mumbai recently. Those who have missed to see the live demo of NANO-PRINT plus in Mumbai can now have yet another opportunity at PRINT PACK INDIA.

We will also be displaying other machines live – Cylinder Press with new features and advance feeder, Semi-Automatic Cam Shell, Two Post Pillar with Auto Take-Off system, UV dryers, Nano-Premier League. Also do not miss to see the large collection of DMI’s screen printed samples to learn more about new and latest techniques in screen printing.

CLICK HERE to know more about Grafica’s new CYLINDER PRESS with added features and new advanced feeder.

Let this winter be more and more chill, but let your screen printing business be more and more warmer with new ideas and creativity.

Wish you Good luck.

I do not want keep on scribbling in this first blog of the year which is intended to say THANK YOU ALL.

And, WISH YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR once again.

Regards,

Bhargav