DMI’s creative valentine card 100% screen printed

Hi folks,

Lots of news and updates are to be posted on my blog. First our newly launch Grafica’s nano-prinTex, the nano-prinTex launching party, exhibition updates, textile workshop etc.  But in the mean time I thought let me first take the advantage of this valentine day by sharing this beautiful DMI’s VALENTINE CARD which was screen printed in my recent workshop at DMI Institute.

This card is screen printed on a white paper with 100% black UV Ink as a background color later on top of this black background we screen printed various Special Effects UV Inks and Varnish.

With the growing trend of email, e-news and sms distributing greeting cards has become a luxury. Manufacturers of greeting cards are not able to huge attract consumers because of producing simple and boring designs just with few meaningful quotes or sentences. They all look monotonous that we do not feel like spending money on such card. Because if words can only say everything than why not send an email or sms.

In this dominant digital world (email, e-news & sms) the only thing which will remain forever is TOUCH, FEEL, SMELL & FEELINGS and screen printing is the only process which can deliver better and cheaper than any other printing process currently used.

So considering the benefits of screen printing process this VALENTINE CARD was screen designed and screen printed in my recent workshop at DMI Institute. In this card I used various special effects inks and varnishes including fragrance ink on the red rose and matt UV ink directly screen printed on mirror.

The meaning of this valentine card is very simple I hope you will understand once you see this video.

This card can be used for any occasion or event not necessary on Valentine’s Day. But since today is a Valentine Day. So I thought let me take a chance to impress you.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Bhargav

Thanks BMPA for recognising DMI’s efforts and success in screen printing education

Thank you BMPA for recognising DMI’s “efforts” and “success” in screen printing education

At the recent High Point 2011, an annual function of Bombay Master Printers’ Association (BMPA) held on September 30, 2011, I was taken by surprise when I was called on the stage to receive a trophy on behalf of DMI for its “efforts and success” in screen printing education and training.

As the invite sent to me had clearly stated that at this function BMPA would felicitate my friend Dr. Rajendrakumar Anayath, for being honored with this year’s ‘Education Award of Excellence’ from Printing Industries of America (PIA). By receiving this honor in US he has not only made India proud but proved that nothing is impossible if you have the will and courage. This man is not only dedicated and devoted but also gifted to our printing industry. If you ever get chance to listen to his lectures or talks do not miss I am sure you will be highly inspired by him…

I felt greatly honored when this award was presented to me from this legend (Dr. Rajendrakumar Anayath) who is not only my close friend but also a well wisher of DMI.

I remember well that day when I called him up with the request to inaugurate DMI in 2006, he willingly accepted my invitation without any excuses. Since then I have been more closely associated with him and on several occasions we shared same stage at various industry forums.

When he was at Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT), as head of the Printing Technology Department, he had invited me to make presentation on advanced screen printing technology which was great honor and I willing accepted and we had a great time in Manipal together for couple of days.

Whenever he visits any printing exhibition he makes it a point to visit my stall and he always spends time to see DMI’s creative print finishing samples. That’s because he is an intelligent academician who knows the importance of each and every printing process. I very well remember what he said after visiting our stall at Print Pack 2011 in New Delhi: “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.”

I think this award is also a tribute to my father, late Shri Dhirubhai Mistry, the founder of Grafica group of companies. As a genius in printing technology, he himself was a student of Sir JJ Schools of Applied Arts, Mumbai. It was his vision to set up an institute like DMI to provide full fledged education and training to students in screen printing and make them finest screen printing technologists rather than machine operators. Grafica took up the initiative to make his dream a reality and I will continue with his mission.

Have a nice weekend…

Bhargav

US delegation led by my friend Mike Young visits DMI and Grafica customers

I know that you are all missing my blog posts for over a month now. That’s because I have been fully preoccupied with lot of new developments. After I returned from FESPA AMERICA (that was my last blog post), I had series of planning and development activities including last DMI workshop, US delegation led by Mike Young, office shifting and streamlining lot of activities post-shifting of my sales, marketing and account office, visits to some international exhibitions, etc. But how long I can suffocate myself with so much news? So, next few paras are all about the immediate past events.

By the way, many big ideas are cropping up in my mind which I feel will create a new bench mark in the screen printing industry with the support of many industry leaders, friends and colleagues. So, just few months to pass before I announce big news that will again bring revolution in screen printing industry.

US delegation led by my friend Mike Young visits DMI and few Grafica customers’ facilities in Mumbai and Pune.

Last month Mike Young, a SGIA Fellows, a member of ASPT, led a US delegation of screen printing professionals to DMI/Grafica, following which I also arranged their visit to some leading customers in Mumbai and Pune as they wanted to get the feel of developments taking place in Indian screen printing industry. Mike and his colleagues were touched by the warm, gracious and generous hospitality of Grafica customers. From my side, I can say that this tour of India was mine and Mike Young’s “THE BEST BUSINESS TRAVEL EXPERIENCE EVER.”

They were in India from 28th March to April 1, 2011 to get familiar with DMI’s activities and to study the developments taking place in Indian screen printing industry as a whole.

Mike is a SGIA Fellows, a member of the Academy of Screen Printing Technology (ASPT) and recipient of the prestigious Swormstedt Award for technical writing. Mike who runs his own consultancy firm Imagetek Consulting International, has also conducted training programs in several screen printing companies in India.

Grafica feels proud to be associated with Mike Young time and again. In 2009 Grafica had sponsored his Knowledge Tour in India, covering various six major cities. Then recently Grafica was one of the prime sponsors of his technical seminars at SPI 2010 in Mumbai.

 

This time Mike Young’s visit to India was very special. There was no seminar, no presentation, but only mutual exchange of ideas with Team Grafica, DMI faculties and Grafica customers.

This visit was the fall out of FESPA AMERICAS held in Orlando, USA where I had conducted live workshop on value addition and special effects through screen printing process. I was among the five Global Screen Masters who had conducted live workshops during FESPA AMERICAS. The gentlemen were well impressed with my live demo and wanted to know more about DMI’s activities because they were very much impressed by the creativity which I explored in FESPA AMERICAS.

 

During his interactions with few Grafica customers Mike gave them many TIPS which will definitely help them to improve quality and enhance productivity. Mike was also kind enough to present his ‘Register Guide Technical Book, Part 2’ to few Grafica’s customers during his visit.

Grafica feel honored to have such an association with Mike Young. He has special heart for India and Indian screen printers. He sees a great future provided the screen printers in India remove all bottlenecks the major being “clean-room environment in the screen making and printing setup.” That’s because he saw hard working and sincere efforts by Indian screen printers to achieve quality through high level of automation. He is quite optimistic about Indian screen printers. He says that Indian screen printers can face the challenges ahead with determination, enthusiasm, passion and courage.

On behalf of DMI and my team, I sincerely thanks its customers – Fashion Accessories Pvt Ltd, Star Labels Pvt Ltd, Pinnacle Prints Pvt Ltd, Ace Printers, Sai Toys, Minda Stoneridge Ltd, Pune Metagraph Pvt Ltd, NBA Studios – for all their efforts, resources and valuable time spent with Mike Young and his team. My Team thanks Mike Young for visiting DMI and India to share his rich knowledge generously.

Back home these gentlemen wrote touching letters which are reproduced elsewhere in this newsletter along with Mike Young’s tour report.

Update on Nano-Print plus!

The production of our new innovation “Nano-Print plus” is now in full swing and dispatches are being commenced. There is a surprise to all those who have booked for this machine earlier. Nano-Print plus has been redesigned after meticulous R&D by our engineering team to offer bigger print area 22” x 28” instead of 18″ x 24″ print area with no additional cost.

NPL plus Package

Based on the runaway success of Nano-Premier League (NPL), ‘a complete screen printing solution’, introduced by my company a year ago, I am pleased to announce that we have also launched Nano-Premier League plus (NPL plus) which includes NANO-UV of 18″ curing width. Just like NPL, this unique package also consists of 11 items which is intended to give screen printers greater freedom to deliver high quality jobs with reasonable capital investments.

Grafica’s Cylinder Press

My company has achieved a big break-through in Gulf region and we have already installed several cylinder presses now in UAE. More orders being finalized both in India and abroad. That’s because there has been a growing trend of many offset printers and packaging printers embracing screen printing process for carrying out print finishing in house to provide value addition through screen printing process.

DMI Workshops

Since January 2011 I had conducted two workshops at DMI and next one is scheduled to be held on 21, 22 and 23 April. It gives me immense pleasure to reveal you all that till today DMI has provided high quality training to thousands of printing professionals across the globe through our regular workshops and corporate training programs. My next workshop is scheduled to be held on 9, 10 and 11th June. Do register your names online quickly from our website www.graficaindia.com

At the recent DMI workshop, I demonstrated a new concept of process colour screen  printing requiring low investment. I lined up FOUR NANO-PRINTs with FOUR NANO-UV inline and screen printed 4-colour jobs instantly like a multi color screen printing line. The participants were curious and  enthusiastic to see the simple mechanism of Nano-Print semi automatic multi colour line.

This new concept: “NANO-PRINT semi automatic multi color line” is yet another revolution by Grafica with low investment for faster job turn around in four process colour screen printing with UV inks or multiple UV special effects printing.

Usually four process colour screen printing on a semi automatic machine is to be done one colour at a time and it is not possible to evaluate the final result until the 4th color is screen printed. But with this concept created by my company, screen printers can now instantly see the final output of the printed job and if required one can set the densities of a particular color or tweak the machine settings to get the final print as the proof.

This is really a time and money saving factor which one should start considering as a future investment. This concept also requires less manpower thus reduces supervision time and cost and can increases production at a rapid speed.”

Watch one minute video of this new concept of:

Grafica’s “NANO-PRINT semi automatic multi color line”

Also in the last workshop we had shown a glimpse of Epson T1100 A3+ inkjet printer to make in-house positives. In the coming workshop we will show live demo of how to generate positives without using expensive RIPs to create halftone positives.

 

This printer is a good investment for producing in-house positives and I am sure it will also replace screen printers who are using tracing papers for making positives. Believe me if you want to do quality jobs and want to improve sharpness and registration accuracy Epson T1100 is a better solution for all NANO-PRINT customers.

This printer can also be used for color prints and proofing. To see how to generate high quality positives using Epson T1100 and how to make halftone positives including process color (CMYK) without using RIPs than kindly register online and reserve your seat for the upcoming DMI workshop.

Rousing success at Gulf Print & Pack, Dubai

My company garnered rousing success at the recently concluded Gulf Print & Pack in Dubai from 14-17 March 2011. This was for the first time that Grafica displayed its Cylinder Press in an overseas exhibition. This was Grafica’s third appearance in the desert.

 

My Team consisting of Hanish Mehta, General Manager; Keyur Vashi, Sr. Sales Manager and other technical staff were camping in Dubai to manage the exhibition. Grafica’s participation in this exhibition was possible through Dilawar Dalwai of Al Mahir Printing Equipment Trading, Grafica’s loyal representative in Dubai.

Join DMI’s Facebook:

I appeal all screen printers to join DMI’s Facebook network for exchanging ideas and sharing knowledge. Also get many insights and tips from experts. Make friends within the industry and be in contact with world famous gurus and experts who are linked with me. Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/dmiinstitute

Lot more to come soon. Till than good bye…

Bhargav Mistry

Back in action after FESPA AMERICAS rich experience

FIRST MY PRAYER & TRIBUTE TO PEOPLE OF JAPAN

Before I begin to pen down my all recent news, I submit my sincere prayer: may GOD bless the people of Japan with peace and lot of inner powers to face the toughest challenges arising out of the recent earthquake and tsunami, its after effects including the nuclear crisis.

I personally like Japan and the Japanese technology; I respect their hardwork and dedication which they have put not only into electronics but also automobiles, engineering and other areas. They have given the world many fantastic innovations that cannot be ignored. Their ability to bounce back from the aftermath of the World War II is a great lesson to be learnt by rest of the world. And I am sure they would equally bounce back from the current crisis too.

I had worked with many Japanese in the past when I joined my father’s business in 1989. At that time we used to manufacture Printed Circuit Boards and our company Grafica Display used to cater to many of the giant electronic companies in India having collaboration with renowned Japanese organizations. So my experience with them was really amazing. I have learnt a lot from them, their system of working, management, production and quality systems, how to achieve production efficiency etc. etc… (Photos of my training in Japan)

Once again I strongly pray to GOD to give them great support and courage to face such devastating tragedy.

OVER TO FESPA AMERICAS:

Now let me share my rich experience at FESPA AMERICAS event in Orlando, USA.

First of all, I sincerely thank FESPA and their team for giving me such a great honor by inviting to conduct a joint workshop with great masters.

It was a valiant effort by FESPA for experimenting and bringing such great idiosyncratic talents together under one roof. It was great fun and a rare experience working with such veterans of our industry.

Michel and I were suppose to teach process color and graphics screen printing but what I realized from this show that Print Finishing for value addition has a HUGE, HUGE scope in the US market. Screen printers in the US have great potential in this segment and need to explore the idea of print finishing which I am teaching in DMI since last three years. Thousands of screen printers have already benefitted by learning print finishing from DMI Workshops FREE OF COST…

Michel looked very energetic throughout the show as always, Charlie and Scott were great together and my new friend Ad Versteeg was also great human and knowledgable in art screen printing.

Overall the show was mix of all printing technologies, screen, digital, textile and few stands selling offset machines and stuffs.

Also, I had a great time with friend Mike Young who came with few of his industry friends and colleagues, Ron Hayden, David ECKL, Jon Andresen. We had great time and delicious dinners together.

After the FESPA AMERICAS at Orlando, Mike Young was kind enough to take me in an around New York city and we had some fun moments together.

With me Hanish Mehta and Shashank Khedekar were also there to support me throughout the show while I was busy at the workshop.

I was highly enthused when I saw our NPL system running perfectly during the live workshop. The best part, it was appreciated by all visitors who saw our super creation.

The overwhelming response towards NANO-PRINT, NANO-SCREEN MAKER 5-in-1, NANO-UV and NANO-SHARPENER give clear indication that Grafica will definitely mark success in the US market soon.

It made me feel proud and the day is not far when NANO-PRINT, NANO-PRINT plus and complete NPL package will be part of success story of many screen printers in US.

With this remarkable achievement by our company, I am highly glad to announce that from next month onwards Grafica will have full fledged operation to cater the American market with efficient sales team and highly qualified service engineers to offer prompt technical support.

DMI Workshop starting tomorrow:

It will be very busy week for me because less time and more task to complete in a short span of time. This time I am expecting 45 to 50 participants mainly from outside Mumbai. That’s because of huge gap within two workshop dates due to FESPA AMERICAS.

During the workshop, for the first time, I would be demonstrating semi automatic multi color screen printing by lining up 4 Nano-Print with inline Nano-UV. I am sure participants will gain new insights how to improve production capacity with minimum investment thus maintaining high quality standards.

On second day I would demonstrate creatives and new ideas in wedding cards and packaging through screen printing. Some of these jobs will be executed on Grafica’s new Nano-Print plus and Nano-Print.

On third day as usual I would be demonstrating practical on heat transfer screen printing both tagless neck labels and garment printing.

Dubai Exhibition:

I was also informed by my team that our Dubai exhibition is going great guns and they managed to book more than a dozen of NPL package and couple of Cylinder Presses. Grafica is creating a storm in the desert that’s because this is our  3rd exhibition in Dubai within one year. WOW that’s great news to keep me energetic.

Garknit-X Kolkata

My has company created a great interest among West Bengal’s offset printing community at the recently concluded Garknit-X Kolkata, an exhibition focussed on apparel, knitting, leather and jute technology fabric and accessories.

Garknit-X Kolkata was held from 25 – 27, February 2011 at Science City. Although it was a garment, textile and jute industry event, in order to take full advantage of the exhibition, we had invited several printers from offset and non-textile segment. We had also displayed a set of creative print finishing samples with a variety of special effects produced by DMI students which stirred the creative minds of many offset printers.

They were lucky to see live demo of Grafica’s NPL and NPL plus series of screen printing machine and equipment for the first time in Kolkata.

And finally, kudos to DMI students:

In a fitting tribute to the successive achievements at ASPT, Screenprinting & Graphics Association of India (SGAI) in association with Screen Print India felicitated DMI students at their Awards felicitation program in Mumbai on 2nd March 2010. The awards were present by Al Guercio, President, Ulano Corporation, USA.

Being in FESPA AMERICAS I really missed the opportunity to see my students being felicitated. They were also honoured for their achievements in the ASPT 2010 students’ competition.

My company’s new office in Mumbai:

Before my official announcement, I am delighted to inform you that GRAFICA FLEXTRONICA is beginning its new office in Mumbai very close to the domestic airport and international airport. Our office will be fully functional by 21st of March 2011.

So from 21st onwards all the marketing, sales and accounts related matters will be handled from our new Mumbai office.

Customers can now come down to our Mumbai office instead of going all the way to directly factory. For customers who want to visit our factory for demo, trials and inspection of our machines, special arrangements have been made to reach our factory.

We shall intimate you soon with full contact details of our new office once the telephones lines are hooked up.

To all my respected customers, friends and industry colleagues, this is my personal invitation to visit our new office anytime and shower your good wishes. To have a cup of tea or coffee together will also be a great fun.

So, from 21st March 2011 see you in at our new Vile Parle office in Mumbai.

Join DMI’s FaceBook:

Welcome onboard DMI’s facebook for educationally like minded screen printing professionals. Its very simple to join DMI FaceBook network you need to just clicking on “I LIKE” button and you are connect with me and my DMI’s network.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN

The purpose to involve with DMI’s FaceBook Network is to know various development in the industry, exchange ideas, share your thoughts with like minded printers, give advise and tips from the industry gurus and experts associated with DMI’s FaceBook Network. This is a platform specially created to exchange knowledge on advanced screen  printing process and technology.

Till then have a nice and a profitable week.

Bhargav

 

 

 

Finally five global screen masters all set to shower knowledge at FESPA AMERICAS in Orlando

All set to fly to Orlando, USA within next few hours to join the elite club of 5 Global Screen Masters who are going to conduct exhaustive 3-day workshops on advanced screen printing during the FESPA AMERICAS on 24, 25 and 26th February 2011. CLICK HERE FOR WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

My brand new screen printing package now popularly called as Nano Premier League (NPL) has already reached Orlando for the workshop. A set of DMI’s creative samples has also been sent along with NPL to promote my print finishing concept for value addition through screen printing.

‘Orlando’ is synonymous with the famous Walt Disney World or Disney World, the world’s largest and most-visited recreational resort. If this world famous resort was inspired by the dreams of Walt Disney, then FESPA AMERICAS I would say, is inspired by the think tanks of FESPA Board to fulfill the aspirations of American Screen Printers. And I would look forward to conduct this workshop which I hope would bring fun to every attendee as much as the Disney World.

So, please stay tuned to my blog for daily update with photographs which I shall upload on day to day basis after the workshop. Because this is going to be one of the first of its kind creative live workshop on advanced screen printing organised by FESPA.

GULF PRINT PACK 2011, Dubai – 14 to 17 March 2011

WoW! This would be our second appearance in an international exhibition within 45 days. Recently we had successfully exhibited wide range of screen printing machines and allied equipment in the 14th Annual Sign and Graphic Imaging Middle East exhibition at Dubai Airport Expo.

Now once again my team is busy in preparing for the International exhibition on Printing & Packaging Industry to be held at Dubai Airport Expo from 14-17 March 2011. This would be our third exhibition within one year in Dubai.

This time we are demonstrating 30″ x 40″ Cylinder Press with inline UV with all new improved features like sticky roller for dust removal and antistatic system along with NPL package.

Gulf Print & Pack focuses on the latest innovations in printing machinery, substrates and other solutions that will allow the screen printing business to grow in many folds.

Garknit-X, Kolkata – 25 to 27 February 2011

And now we have this GarKnit-X in Kolkata next week which is an international trade show on apparel, knitting, leather and jute technology fabric & accessories, to be held at Science City from February 25 – 27, 2011. We will be displaying our complete NPL package for the first time in eastern region all with new and improved features besides array of DMI’s creative samples all 100% screen printed.

Nano-Print plus production commenced…

The production of our new innovation “Nano-Print plus” is now in full swing. There is a surprise to all those who have booked for this machine earlier. Nano-Print plus has been redesigned after meticulous R&D by our engineering team to offer bigger print area 22” x 28” instead of 18″ x 24″ print area with no additional cost.

By the way we have also started to offer NPL plus package. Download PDF for more details about attractive discounts offered on NPL plus

What’s new to see in next DMI Workshop:

NEW Series of Packaging design and innovation through screen printing with special effect.

I will also be showing my new concept – Nano Print semi automatic multi color line using 100 LPI halftone dots.

The reason to show this innovative concept in my workshop from now onwards is to educate how to reduce manpower and supervision cost and how to increases productivity. This is something I believe never done before in the screen printing industry with semi automatic machines.

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE IN DETAILS ABOUT MY NEW CONCEPT

So folks finally have a nice weekend and don’t forget to see my FESPA AMERICAS workshop blog and photos daily from 24th onwards.

Thank you an good bye for now…

Bhargav

Eureka! Grafica’s NANO-PRINT – Semi Automatic Multi Color Line

This week I had to produce a process color samples for my forthcoming FESPA AMERICA workshop in Orlando. So with the intention of proofing the job faster I experiment by lining up FOUR NANO-PRINT’s with FOUR NANO-UV inline at my DMI’s training centre and screen printed the job instantly like a multi color screen printing line. It was amazing experience.

Usually printing single color one at a time you cannot judge the final result until the last color is screen printed but with this concept you can instantly see the final output of the printed image and if required you can set the densities of a particular color or tweak the machine settings to get the final print as the proof. This is really a time and money saving factor which one should start considering as a future investment.

This concept also requires less manpower thus reduces supervision cost and increases your production at a rapid speed. This is something I believe never done before in the screen printing industry with semi automatic machines.

The simple plan has turned out to be a great concept which I feel would be a next leap in the screen printing industry.

This is yet another revolution I am looking forward to happen with low investment and get faster job turn around with this New Concept Grafica’s “NANO-PRINT semi automatic multi color line”.

Watch out  video of this concept live in action…

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

DMI students made India proud by winning international awards year after year

Ever since its inception in 2006, my institute, DMI is continuing its saga of winning awards in national and international students’ competitions. This year my institute has set a world record by clinching two hatricks in two major international awards competitions and made me and my country proud.

As many of  you would recollect, by winning Silver at FESPA 2010 Munich, DMI became the first screen printing institute in the world to win in FESPA’s Youth competitions for three years’ in succession.

And in this ASPT students’ competition 2010, my students sealed yet another hatricks by cornering awards for 4 consecutive years.

DMI's "BEST OF SHOW" Entry - The Munich River

This year DMI won 3 Gold Awards, 3 Honorable Mention and 1 Best of Show Honor in ASPT’s Tom Frecska Student Printing Competition 2010. This means out of its 8 entries, it cornered 7 awards.

I am very proud of all my students who really worked hard with perfection and won 7 international awards for DMI.

Here, I would like to specially mention two names “Shailesh Yeole” and “Firoz Chippa”, who played a leading role in the entire awards entry process. Both of them really hard with passion and dedication and the awards are the reflection of their efforts. Their entry not only won GOLD but was also judged as “BEST OF SHOW” in this competition.

Student of my 6th batch printing samples for ASPT Students Competition at DMI.

Some of the entries submitted to ASPT students competition by DMI:

DMI's Award Winning Entries at ASPT Student's Competition

List of DMI Student who won the awards at ASPT Student’s Competition

I was told that there were 61 entries from six institutes in the Post Secondary section out of which 17 entries were bestowed with awards. I was also informed that DMI was the only entity from India in this section which had submitted 8 samples out of which 7 were bestowed with awards.

The ASPT students’ competition though relatively new, the quality from the participants are improving year after year as noted by the observers. There has been also a growing interest among the visitors to see the students’ award gallery. But visitors usually tend to feel that students are not competing in the same manner as professional printers.  But this year their belief was wrong.

Many of the visitors could not really believe the standard of quality of entries submitted by DMI students this year, especially the DMI’s winning samples on display.

Mike Young, during his visit to DMI

My friend, Mike Young, a leading consultant (Imagetek Consulting International), USA, had sent me an email about this good news and here are his words.

“Dear Bhargav,

“Yeole Shilesh did a great job. He won gold for the Butterfly Bag, an honorary mention for the A4 Catalog and gold for the FESPA Munich River which also took deservedly the “Best In Show” Award.

Rishi/Sunil won honorary for the Chocolate Box, as did Albert Baby Chand for the Guitar print.  However, Rishi won gold for his Teddy Bear entry.

This year, the competition was tough from several really good entries from US students – effectively setting up a challenged to the Indian ‘block’.

Please give your students a resounding thanks and appreciation in all their efforts and endeavors and not forgetting their instructor of course.

Regards,

Mike Young”

About Mike Young.
He has been a specialist in high-definition graphic and high-performance industrial screen printing close to 40 years.  A regular visitor to India, he is an honorary judge for the SGIA Golden Imaging Awards, legal expert witness and a frequent seminar speaker in all aspects of sophisticated and high-definition industrial printing.  He is a SGIA Fellows, a member of the Academy of Screen Printing Technology and recipient of the prestigious Swormstedt Award for technical writing.

DMI’s Past Achievements – A FLASH BACK:

My students will be happy to read your inspirational comments on this post for their continued achievements.

Regards,

Bhargav

A tribute to my guru Michel Caza

“Big News”

This article is a tribute to my guru, MICHEL CAZA who recently conferred with the prestigious Howard A. Parmele Award, By SGIA (Specialty Graphic Imaging Association), USA, for his “extensive contribution to the screen printing industry”

When I first received an email from my friend and colleague at ASPT, Mike Young that my guru “Michel Caza was presented with the Howard A. Parmele Award during the SGIA Expo in Las Vegas” I was really thrilled and excited to congratulate him on the phone first rather than congratulating through email. So, I called him immediately on his mobile phone when he was in Vegas. While talking to him I noticed that he was very contented because after a long wait his hard work was well recognized by this industry.

I salute my GURU (and a great legend) for his achievement and his commitment, dedicated towards this industry. His passion and hard work in screen-printing research & development will definitely benefit many screen printers and his pupils in this world immensely.

To honor my great guru Michel Caza a thought immediately flashed in my mind to write this memoir as a fitting tribute to him. In fact it was a long due.

I want to recount how Michel and I met, how from an ardent ‘screen printing disciple’ finally I became his spiritual ‘son’. (In fact I am still his ‘pupil’ and ‘son’ as he often addresses in his all communications). As you walk down my memory lane sketched here, you will realize that I had just a professional connection with him initially.

Once I happened to read some spiritual thought which said: “Everyone should adopt a GURU in their life. Your GURU will guide you and help you develop your skills.”

On that day I vowed to follow these ‘words of wisdom’ throughout my life because I strongly believe in it. First of all, my great guru and guide was none other than my father late Dhirubhai Mistry, from whom I have learnt the best values of my life and still following it. Whatever I am today is because of my father’s sheer strength, hard work and dedication … and of course my parents blessings.

My father used to read a lot daily. He had an enormous library adorned with many useful technical books and magazines. Even today I have screen printing magazines and books dating back to 1960’s (courtesy my father). My father had an eagle eye for good articles. He used to make a copy of them and file separately so that he could have an easy access to refer them whenever needed. I remember, he always made it a point to discuss good technical articles with me and share few tips on what he read.

As a new-comer, I used to pay heed to his advice or sometimes just pretended that I understood. After my father’s death I started realizing the value of such technical information. Thereafter, I developed more appetite for updating my technical knowledge by reading various books, articles and magazines.

The more I read the more interest I developed in reading. It dragged me towards the screen printing process more deeply. Now it has become a part of my life or I say passion.

As many in the printing industry know about us, I mean Grafica & DMI, we were originally into screen printing business before we entered into machinery manufacturing in 1989.

So screen printing process was not new to us. May be one of the reasons, why my company is today able to manufacture good machines was because we know what screen printers really need to deliver high quality prints.

In the year 2000 there was a sudden boom in advertising business, generating huge demand for graphics screen printing and digital was just getting popular in those segments.

Since I had very good expertise in industrial screen printing (especially Printed Circuit Boards-PCB’s), process color (CMYK) graphics screen printing was like a rocket science to me but not for my father because since 1960′s he had mastery in producing billboards through screen printing process. But ever since I joined my father’s company in 1987, process color screen printing and graphics was totally replaced with printed circuit boards (PCB) since early 80’s. So my expertise was mainly in PCB’s and I had no idea how to even carry out the basic CMYK separation.

Soon our machinery business started growing in these segments there were plenty of crazy questions from customers; there were frequent problems ‘delivered’ by my engineers and customers and I was supposed to give them appropriate solutions.

In the absence of complete knowledge in process color screen printing, myself and my engineers used to blindly arrive at a conclusion that e.g. the problem of dot gain was due to screen printing machine. This is one of the examples like that there were many other teething problems that we had to solve daily.

However, once I started reading SGIA’s Technical Guide Books, we realized that ‘dot gain’ problem was not due to machine there were some other reasons related to the technicality of process color screen printing. That is said: half knowledge is dangerous.

(Those days SGIA used to send Technical Guide Books to all its members. Later, they started sending them in PDF format on CDs. Now we can access everything online. Days have changed … but I still like the printed version.)

Those days I read many remarkable articles, some of my favorites were: “Screen Printing Criteria in Halftone Printing” by Hans Gerd Scheer and “Screen Printing of Fine Line Halftones by Michel Caza and his several other articles. I am mentioning his full name here because at that time he was not my ‘guru’ but story is taking you there, step by step.

I was quite fascinated by Michel’s in depth knowledge and command over the subject. I found his articles very easy to understand, crystal clear and absolutely practical. His articles became my daily ‘food for thought’ and a ‘dose of medicine’ to cure many routine problems.

As I gained knowledge from his articles, I started hunting for more information about him and his technical articles. Later, I found that Michel had published a Technical Guide Book, Titled “THE TECHNIQUES OF SCREEN PRINTING” compiled in a PDF format on a CD, comprising around 1400 pages with 17 videos explains the details of screen printing techniques for industrial, graphics, textile and art (serigraphy). Within no time I ordered my copy.

It’s an amazing tool of technical information in one CD. The CD emphasizes UV technology, four-color process, fine line halftones with 120 parameters to control, stochastic halftones, analog and digital pre-press, stencils, substrates, inks and more…

This is the newest, most comprehensive source of technical information on screen printing to be found anywhere. It is in a PDF format easy with great search features.

This is all about my CMYK connection with Michel. Now, over to UV curing technology:

UV Curing technology was not new to me because my father had adopted UV in PCBs since 1986. So naturally, from the day I joined my family business, I was exposed to UV inks only. But I never knew that UV is so popular in western countries for graphics four-color process until I read all of Michel Caza’s articles on UV Technology.

Except my father-mentor, I rarely came across any screen printers who had such in depth technical knowledge in UV technology, UV Curing Inks and related chemicals. After reading his series of articles on UV, I yelled: “Here’s a screen printer who knows his subject very well. Hat’s off to you Michel.”

From this moment I considered Michel Caza as my ‘remote’ guru yet to be embraced fully. I was eager and kept a high hope to meet him one day and shake hands with him. But I never realized that this ‘golden’ hand will one day become an ever helping hand in my profession… why in my profession, but the entire screen printing industry in India.

In 2002, I joined the managing committee of Screen Printers’ Association of India (SPAI) and we had organized a group tour for our members to visit FESPA 2002 in Madrid, Spain. The committee had a great plan to handover mementos at FESPA’s both to the incoming President (at that time) Ricardo Delgado and the outgoing President… it was Michel Caza! Now I was 100% sure that I would get a chance to shake hand with Michel, a long pending ‘project’ ever since I started reading his technical articles. Why just hand shake, I was now confident that I would also get some time to sit with him and discuss my problems related to screen printing. But on that D-day unfortunately he was busy with his board meetings and I could not meet him on the scheduled day.

But I was fortunate to catch hold of him the very next day at FESPA Stand and requested him to spend his valuable time with me. He was kind-hearted to concede my request and spent time with me sharing many insights about screen printing.

Finally, I was back in India, Mumbai precisely with good memories of meeting a ‘screen printing guru’ but with half satisfaction.

Soon after the FESPA Madrid show, there was an exhibition – ‘Screen Print India’ expo at Nehru Centre in Worli, Mumbai where the organizers had invited him as a chief guest for the opening ceremony which was later followed by his full day technical seminar in fine lines and halftones screen printing.

Regardless of being an exhibitor in that show, I attended his seminar with full excitement and attention. With the request of the organizers, my company also gathered a large number of printers to attend his seminar. That was for the first time in the history of Indian screen printing industry I witnessed more than 155 screen printers attending such a long technical seminar even though the seminar fee was Rs. 2500.00 per person!

During the seminar Michel displayed many of his creative and magical screen printed jobs using 150 LPI and above. Frankly till that time I had only read from his articles that he used to screen print 150 LPI and above but when I saw his actual prints I was really stunned. That’s why I call his prints magical!

After the seminar I requested Michel to allow me to see those prints closely and he was delighted to show and explain me the tricks. But for me those simple tips and tricks were not simple. It was not all that easy to understand because I didn’t even know e.g. ‘what is dot gain and what is gray balance’ in graphics process color screen printing.

After attending his seminar I could not focus fully on the remaining days of that show because since then I had sleepless nights as to how and where I could learn these great “Michel Caza Techniques” of screen printing fine lines and moiré free halftones. But I was determined to learn these techniques.

Since this show, I was restless because at that time I could not find anyone in India like him who was a master in screen printing. So, few weeks later after I dared to write an email to Michel requesting him whether he could teach all those techniques which he explained during his seminar in India. Unbelievable! He replied back in just few hours saying: “You can pack your bag anytime and come to France to learn these techniques practically in my company Graficaza and stay till you are completely satisfied.” I was thrilled like a child… because at first instance I never expected this positive reply and I just tried my luck by shooting him an email request with remote hope.

Also, he had made it clear to me that during the training period, I could learn as much as I wanted and surprisingly he was kind enough to offer me a free training as he mentioned in his email that “I do not teach for money”. Later I found that there were many lucky pupils like me to whom he had devoted his time, energy and superb technical knowledge.

In today’s professional world, who would impart such high knowledge free of cost? But Michel is unique and special. In fact this is called passion towards the industry. In fact the knowledge, which he openly shared with me is now benefitted by thousands of screen printers in India through my institute “Dhirubhai Mistry Institute For Print Technology Research & Training (DMI).

And this was the first LESSON I learnt from Michel even before becoming his PUPIL… And I vowed not to take any fees from students if I were to set up an institute in India to teach screen printing, and in fact my beloved father late Dhirubhai Mistry too had the same vision when he had great plans to set up a screen printing institute.

Without wasting much time, I planned all my immediate work schedules in my company to accomplish urgent tasks and meanwhile I also booked my ticket to France or I say for a ‘screen printing educational tour’.

I just opened my memory-diary and I recollected that on 28-April-2003, Monday afternoon I reached France. There after from the airport I reached Novotel Hotel by taxi. Immediately I informed Michel about my safe arrival and he was very happy and excited as well. He told me to get ready within one hour as he would arrange my pickup to have dinner at his home with his good friend and a board member of FESPA, Gyorgy Kovacs, a Hungarian screen printing professional, who is currently the President of FESPA.

Michel lived in an interesting country side village where the total population he mentioned was not more than 200 people. His house was surrounded by serene and beautiful environment. He lived in an enormous huge house flank by a big garden on the rear side. And that was the first time I met Michel’s better half Therese and Gyorgy Kovacs.

Since I am a pure vegetarian, usually whenever I travel abroad with lengthy tour, I carry home-made Indian food and some dry-fruits since I do not find much of veg-stuffs, suiting my tastes. But that day Therese surprised me by serving me with Indian curry with rice. Obviously I could not expect the Indian taste with many spices. But because of her excitement behind cooking and serving the Indian food to me with love, the dinner became extra delicious.

Anyway, after the dinner Michel accompanied me all the way back to the hotel and alerted me to get ready by 6.45 am in the morning so that we could reach his factory Graficaza by 7 am. The working hour was very interesting to me – 7.00 am to 3.30/4 pm. ‘Early to bed early to rise’ principle was possible there, considering this timings!

For few days, out of my excitement, I clicked as many pictures as I could, to make sure that I take good memories back home.

Since my training at Graficaza was planned for three weeks minimum with the possibility of extending it to one full month, I wanted to stay in a comfortable hotel that too somewhere nearby to avoid waste of time in travelling. To start with as I mentioned earlier I was put up in Hotel Novotel. But few days later I was contemplating to shift to another better hotel nearby Graficaza or near to Michel’s home to avoid long distance traveling. But I could not find any similar quality hotel nearby. So the next day I approached Michel to help me in this matter but he was also unable to find a better hotel near to his home or factory.

After few days, he told me to checkout from Novotel as he was planning to find some solution. I checked out of my hotel and kept the luggage in his car and he straight drove to his factory. Till afternoon he kept me under suspense not knowing about his plan.

In the mind I had full trust with him that he must have made some arrangement for me. But in the afternoon he called me to say: “Look, if you are comfortable in staying in our house for the duration of your training, I and Therese have no problem. In that case we want you to stay in our house but ….“You can stay as our Guest and not as a paying guest!”

Vow! That was really a memorable moment in my life! I felt greatly honored especially when I was not so closely known to him except that I was a keen knowledge seeker. I only knew at that time Michel always used to be eager to openly share knowledge with serious knowledge seekers like me. On the other hand I was also thrilled to live with his family because I felt this opportunity would take me more closer to his heart and I could also see the life style of my ‘guru in the making’.

Slowly and steadily my relation with Michel & Therese turned out to be so spiritual that I could really feel the warmth of their love and affection. My mom died when I was very young and Therese filled that vacuum and gave me those wonderful feelings back for few days.

Today, Michel Caza is not only my guru but more than what a guru can offer to his pupil. Those feelings, moment, love and affection, which they both showered on me, are deeply engraved in my heart which can never ever fade away.

After my training was completed, yes I had to really say a hard pressed goodbye with tight emotions. As I was leaving, Therese could not stop her emotions and she was in tears with motherly love.

Frankly this was my most memorable moment in my life because I entered in France as a knowledge seeker and was leaving my Guru’s home as their adopted son. Even today Michel always greets me in all his communications mentioning “My Dear Son or Hi Son.”

In today’s materialistic world, it is difficult to receive true and selfless love. I think there is something called past life relationship which must have got me reunited with Michel’s family in 2003.

Since my training with my guru, I have been closely associated with him in various FESPA and SPAI related trade events in India.

Even my guru had conducted a 3-day workshop on art-reproduction through screen printing at DMI. He was kind-hearted in permitting to publish his technical articles in my Grafica News and my companies website.

Michel is one of the key and important person towards the success of my institute DMI. Today on his achievement I would like to pass on all the credits for what my institute and I have received so far. Click here to read his message to DMI

Finally, I would like to congratulate my guru “Michel Caza” once again for being honored with “Howard A. Parmele Award” a long due and well deserved.

I also repeat my thanks to Therese & Michel Caza for being highly supportive, lovable and a source of my inspiration in my life.

Why Dussera Event at Grafica is always a full house

The Dussera Event at Grafica is alway a full house. This is the day I celebrate with my employees & staff of Grafica & DMI with full of energy like a family.

Its also very important day for all my people wanting to see my detailed presentation about Grafica’s last years performance. I also reveal all our future plans and developments of Grafica without any hesitation with facts and figures.

This presentation helps my people to understand the goals of my company and it also helps them to understand what is their future in my organization. The presentation clears all their doubts and gives them a clear picture. It also helps them to know what a company wants from them and what our customers demands.

Later I also speak about our requirements to enhance, production, quality, service, marketing, sales etc. as which area requires more attention and what changes are required on the basis of our last years performance.

My sales and service team also gather important point which requires attention and correction which I believe they need to understand so that we can improve ourself on those weaker areas.

Later, I also express my gratitude by calling my people department wise on the stage who have performed well last year even if they are from the housekeeping department because they too work really hard to keep our factory and office clean.

After my presentation and speech there is a short break for some delicious lunch and there after all my people get a chance to show their unique skills by performing live on stage. It’s a real talent hunt because its the day when I get to see real hidden talent lying within my people apart from seeing their routine work.

Every one in my organization is important and a part of the growth, which I make them feel and realize.

I believe everyone in their organization should celebrate any one day with all employees and staff together and should make a detail presentation about the past performance of your organization and should also reveal your future plans openly with them. This will help your employees to be clear about their future as well the company where they will be investing their whole life.

I am sure one day will come when you will realize that you have reached close to your goals.