A fresh initiative by Silversheen Inks & Coatings Pvt Ltd, Inkjet Forum India is known for execution of conferences and education programmes to help the Indian digital printing industry understand technological developments, markets and application requirements.
The forum’s 2nd International Inkjet Conference, Inkjet India 2011 held recently in Mumbai concluded on an optimistic note and experienced a three times growth in compare to the previous edition.
More than 210 delegates attended Inkjet India 2011 hosted over two consecutive days making informative presentations and an interactive panel discussion covering diverse topics on ceramic inkjet printing, UV inkjet technology, printed electronics, RIP software and full focus on digital textile printing equipments and inks. XAAR, Huntsman, MS, Mimaki, Kornit Digital and SPG Prints were some participants whose display of brochures and samples in the networking zone received overwhelming response from the delegates.
Grand sessions
Stewart Partridge, director, Asia Pacific (Sepiax Ink Technologies and Chimigraf Ibérica SL) was the chief guest and opened the event with a key note lecture on ‘Novel Inkjet Solutions for Specialist Industrial Printing’. The session focused on industry demands that are driving inkjet into new directions, and specific solutions for a number of application sectors including wood laminate printing, packaging print and glass printing.
Another session during the conference focused on ceramic inkjet printing technology with presentations from Jose Miguel Monzo Guillamon, Torrecid Group and Stewart on ceramic inkjet printing inks and trends in the segment.
Day 1 session
Hirofumi Kitaguchi from Mimaki deliberated on UV curing inkjet printing technologies and solutions which can be used to produce value-added applications. It was followed by a technical presentation on electronics for inkjet printers, RIP software and printer mechanism by Atul Gandhi, director, Macart Digital. The day’s session was concluded with an interactive panel discussion on ‘Future Trends of Industrial Inkjet Printing in India’. The discussion panel comprised industry experts like Stewart Partridge; Vinod Krishnamurthy, director, Mimaki Kanphor India Pvt Ltd; Atul Gandhi; and B B Sen, director, Asha Penn Dispersions Ltd. The discussion stressed on various topics including sharing responsibilities between OEMs, printhead manufacturers, ink makers and end-users.
Day 2 session
This session saw presentations from Ayush Rathi, MS Orange (MS representative in India) and Maurizio Ponchiroli (BD Inkjet Asia, Huntsman Textile Effects) while Maurizio deliberated on the new digital ink developments for polyester printing. The next session saw Luca De Ascentiis (Regianni Macchine S.p.A) emphasised key points indicating the need to move to digital textile printing through the presentation ‘Why Digital Today?’
Then it followed with a presentation on Digital Pigment Printing by Sarel Ashkenazy, VP- Marketing & Business Development, Kornit Digital Ltd. He presented the advantages of digital textile printing using pigment ink technology and technical comparison of dye and pigment inks. Presentations from Vinod Krishnamurthy, Jos Notermans, (business unit manager SDI, SPG Prints), Hiroki Inada of Konica Minolta IJ Technologies Inc and Martin Basset of Zimmer Austria stressed on additional parameters.
Conclusion with a decision
Jos Notermans took the audience on a 25 years journey through time, from 1987 when the first development on digital textile printing began. The presentation was an eye opener and indicated the time and cost of research involved to make digital textile printing a successful technology today! Inkjet India 2011, summed up by Partridge indicating the need for knowledge sharing platforms.
