More than 170 exhibitors, dealing in manufacturing and distributing arrays of wide-format printers, CNC routers, laser engravers, plotters, printing software, LEDs, printing media and many other allied products for signage and display graphics, exhibited whole new lines of new-age machines and technologies during the course of the three days of the expo. The mention of some key exhibitors that pulled crowds to their showcases would include NEGI Sign Systems & Supplies Co., ColorJet/Apsom Infotex, JN Arora, Mehta Cad Cam, FUJIFILM, Mimaki, Avery Dennison, Apsom Technologies, Mean Well, City Advertising, Sun Sign & Technologies, Pioneer Polyleather, Canon, ADS LED, MSTronics, AT Inks, JX Enterprise, Newclear Technologies, HP Inc, among others.

In an exclusive conversation with Sign & Graphics, Raj Mahek, MD, Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India Pvt Ltd, said the industry is quite good as its growth rate continues at 13.9 CAGR with an overall vibrancy in the market. “In this edition of the expo (New Delhi), UV, LED and laser are some Raj Mahek of the major highlights and I found exhibitors are coming up with upgraded technologies to take the industry to one step ahead,” he said, adding that the expo is designed to be a right place for the signage companies to move one level to another. Raj asserted they are now making their best effort to take expo to wider geographies across India as well.

Main attractions

Raj Mahek Pradipta Chowdhary and SM Ramprasad Vimlesh Arora and Macro De Rossi Sailesh Kapoor and Shamrendra Kumar Varun S and Alexander Yakushev high-speed RTR UV LED inkjet printer to Venus Plastic in New Delhi. Amit Jain Vinod Kumar Gupta (right)

Media Expo 2017 in New Delhi had a bunch of products on showcase, which were newly unpacked during the expo or having been popular/high-demanded lot in the market, pulling huge crowds. Of them, the 3.2 m ColorJet VULCAN UV LED RTR printer from ColorJet India impressed the trade visitors, as the printer is empowered with the V8 technology, an immense combination of superlative print quality, smart memory utilisation, speedy communication with advance cabling system. “This new printer also offers benefits of multi-tasking and multithreading to speed up the printing operations, which maximise productivity. With this printer, we are guiding those in solvent business on a pathway leading towards UV, easier and smoother than ever,” says Smarth Bansal, senior product manager, ColorJet.

ColorJet offered a finance scheme with easy instalments for those looking for start-ups with ColorJet printer—Apna printer Apna kaam sirf Rs 20,000 per month, under the Skill India campaign, which was announced during the expo. Apsom Infotex, alongside ColorJet, showcased a line of highly-demanded Roland systems, viz. VersaEXPRESS RF-640A, TrueVIS, Versa UV LEF-300, among others.

A big announcement from FUJIFILM India at the expo was Uvistar Hybrid 320, a flexible all-round production hybrid printer capable to take on roll and rigid applications which has just been officially launched at the company’s demo centre in Mumbai. This new 3.2 m super-wide roll to multi-sheet rigid printing system, which is equipped with Dimatix Q-Class printheads. “With its advanced features, Uvistar Hybrid 320 can broaden production capability of PSPs in one investment,” mentioned SM Ramprasad, executive vice president, FUJIFILM India. He added that the printer would raise the bar in standardisation of quality to a new level.

Presenting their comprehensive range of printers and machines designed for complete printing solutions, NEGI Sign Systems & Supplies offered trade visitors at the expo fresh business opportunities. Main spotlight in the line of products was shed on the company’s own Negijet Starfire 3300Plus that has been gaining mass popularity in the market. “Our new (Negijet Starfire 3300 Plus) printer has recently been adopted by one of the leading signage companies in New Delhi,” said Vijay Kandari, sales head, NEGI Sign Systems & Supplies Co. Showcased alongside the Negijet Starfire 3300 Plus at the company’s colossal stall were NegiJet NJ-UVF1/UVF2 UV LED curing flatbed, Ultra Star Premium 3304/08, among others. In addition, the company also presented Brother GTX direct inkjet garment printer with printed T-shirt samples, alongside PZO and Sawgrass inks.

JN Arora, at its two stalls presented a whole gamut of products, which comprised machines/printers of diverse sizes and configurations, inks, printing materials.

The company also presented itself as Avery Dennison partner. HandTop (Gen-5 Series, Kyocera Series) UV flatbed and RTR printers as well as Polyprint direct-to-garment printers shown at the company’s stall pulled huge crowd and the portfolio created value for the trade visitors. “We received a good amount of enquiries about the overall products we are presenting here. One of the HandTop UV systems has been sold during the expo,” said Aashish Arora, director, JN Arora & Co Pvt Ltd.

Also, presented by JN Arora, at its separate stall in the expo, were Siser showing portfolio thermo transfer products for textile printing. Marco De Rossi, MD, Siser Pte Ltd, said their partnership Vimlesh Arora and Macro De Rossi with an old and experienced player like JN Arora is quite a landmark move to explore the Indian market. In this, Vimlesh Arora, MD, JN Arora & Co Pvt Ltd complemented the collaboration an ideal step to boost their portfolio.

Crowd that gathered at the stall of Mehta Cad Cam System was quite huge for the reason that the line of products showcased by the company impressed every passerby. Shailesh Mehta, director, Mehta Cad Cam Systems Pvt Ltd said among the arrays of products on showcase, a big attraction was for the Gongzheng solvent with Starfire printhead, which is designed for diverse graphic art applications. “During the expo, we have received 50 bookings of our machines of diverse models and configurations,” he added. The company showcased its whole range of products, viz, Rasterjet (UV flatbed), Gongzheng (eco-solvent, solvent and sublimation), Mehta CNC routers, Libra, Erica, Eva, Gloria, Etan and Erina laser engravers, Mehta vinyl cutter and others.

Heavy rush of trade visitors was witnessed at the stall of Avery Dennison that presented its new and upgraded product portfolio at the expo. The Sailesh Kapoor and Shamrendra Kumar company, following the acquisition of Mactac and Hanita Coating, has boosted its product portfolio in a complete way, providing graphic art companies complete range of materials. “In addition to our existing products (Avery Dennison), we have augmented the portfolio with Mactac’s architectural wall films as well as window films from Hanita Coating, which consist of Safety Zone & SolarZone films,” said Samrendra Kumar, business head-graphics, Avery Dennison. The enhanced portfolio of the company was exclusively showcased during the expo, offering fabricators and convertors hands-on experiences during the expo.

Among the big crowd pullers at the expo was Mimaki India that showcased its exciting line of diverse printers—JV 150 & 300 Series (double printheads), UJF UV-LED flatbed printers, SIJ-300 Series, among others.

“What we present in the expo are our existing line of popular printers, which are designed for signage and industrial direct-to-product printing,” mentioned Mandar Nalawade, director, Mimaki India Private Limited. On the other side, Canon India presented a line large-format printers, which included imagePROGRAF iPF671 (5 colours), imagePROGRAF iPF8410SE (6 colours) and imagePROGRAF PRO-560S (8 colours) and imagePRESS C650 digital press. “The imagePROGRAF series is a game changing wide-format printers in the graphic art industry,” said Sanjay Bindroo, national business manager-DGS, Canon India Pvt Ltd.

JX Enterprise attracted crowd to its newly launched Gongzheng GZH 3206 high-speed production printer with 6 Dimatix Starfire printheads, shown alongside Perestroika 1600 Varun S and Alexander Yakushev hybrid UV-LED printer from the Russian company IQDEMY. Alexander Yakushev, brand manager, JX Enterprise (Hyderabad) said the UV-ED system is designed for above the average quality in the market. Leading importer and supplier of printing media Gita & Company made a crowd-pulling showcase of its complete range of smooth backlit roll, super-wide polyester roll and polyester flag roll. In addition, the company announced its new ‘Tex-Frame’ reusable textile + frame system at the expo.

Apsom Technologies announced some new printers at the expo, among which Xenons Micro5 Plus for soft film and Xenons Micro 180 hybrid UV printer attracted crowd. According to Vir Vikram Bhatia, MD, Apsom Technologies (India) Private Ltd, the new hybrid printer from the company is meant for those in pursuit of low investment in high-end technology. Along with their existing range of SureColor Series, which consists of S60670, S80670 and others, EPSON presented versatile SC P20070, which is designed to be the fastest ever printer introduced by the company.

Sun Sign & Technologies, as always, showcased an array of Starflex flex, vinyl and one-way vision materials, SENFA premium backlit fabrics and LED power supply systems (powered by SAMSUNG). “Amid the portfolio, what we unveil today are McCal colour vinyl range; among the new addition, Super Canvas 600 matte is worth mentionable,” mentioned Deepak Gupta, director, Sun Sign & Technologies. Keith Electronics was yet another big crowd puller at the expo as the company showcased a wide range of its Graphtec flatbed cutting plotters as well as other systems including Yueming laser marking machines. Graphtec FC4500 Series and FC 2250 Series flatbed cutting plotters were the key showcase at the company’s stall at the show. Raj Chopra, director, Keith Electronics Pvt Ltd, appreciated the show for being a right network for meeting right industry people.

A big announcement from Britomatics India was the launch of BritJet, which is a new move of the company switching to distributorship of Allwin printers. Sumit Dev, director, Britomatics India Pvt Ltd, said their new move would help them expand their product line to a new expand. The Alllwin range of printers, which consisted of C1024i Plus, E-180W, E3208B, among others, were showcased at the company’s stall during the expo. Also announced new at the expo from Sun Printable Fabric was Elica BL-200 backlit fabric, designed for major printing technologies. India’s leading media manufacturer Pioneer Polyleather presented a portfolio of its popular products and signage solutions, such as standees, pulling a huge crowd of trade visitors.

All that rush at Kheizer Sign’s stall at the expo was of those trade visitors who were looking for quality channel letter-bending machines. The company showcased a line of quality machines designed to meet the increasing demands for versatile and innovative applications. Riyaz Siddiqui of Kheizer Sign said the expo pulled a right crowd who showed keen interest in their products. Another big-crowd puller at the show was Arrow Digital, distributor of Efi and OKI systems in India, presented a line of products comprising high-end printers/machines, such as Efi H1625LED, OKI Pro 9542 and ColorPainter M-64s.

At the expo there was an announcement of tie-up between Jindal Specialty Textiles and German media company Neschen. “Our collaboration with Neschen is a big step to boost our product portfolio to a new standard,” said Vishal Sharma, director-marketing, Jindal Specialty Textiles Ltd.

About the partnership, German Kallmeyer, international sales manager, Neschen said they would start with entry-level products and the portfolio will be expanded step by step. Yet another announcement was of Super Sign, which has been branched out from Sunlex, for manufacturing flex and foamboards in a separate Roorkee plant. Suresh B Nambiar from Super Sign Industries said the new plant is a big leapt of the company to expand their overall portfolio.

Modular and glow sign systems

At the Media Expo 2017, as always in every edition of it, a number of leading LED companies had presented a string of advanced products, opening new prospects of glow signage or backlit solutions. Among the league, ADS LED, one of the leading LED modules and power supply providers, unpacked a series of products. In addition to its existing product line, the company introduced some new products, such as Lumina Mini 2835 Series, with 5 years warranty, for clothe banner; and Elegance 2835 Series, with 3 years warranty, shown at their stall.

Yet another big LED power solution provider showing standard LED driver was Sterling Sign Systems, which deals MW (Mean Well) LED power solution. “The MW solutions are designed for all purposes, including lighting for outdoor, indoor, bay, flood, LED strips and display, decorative and more,” said Rajesh Choraria of Sterling Sign Systems. Demonstrated at the company’s stall were rainproof ERPF and LRS Series power supply systems.

A big announcement at the expo was the introduction of MSTRRONICS (SMT Solutions India Private Limited), a new avatar of Mono Sign System. The new company introduced two rigid bar modules—UNO and MONO, which feature 5630 SMD LED as light source, even lighting. “We offer types of modules, such as Korean, Taiwanese and Chinese. In our portfolio, MONO LED is 100 percent waterproof with IP65 and IP68 products,” said Saurabh Aggarwal of SMT Solutions India Private Limited). On the other side, AT Ink unpacked new UV Multi + that has been designed as universal ink for flat and flexible surface, alongside a HP PritDelta range.

Unpacking a whole new range of innovative glow sign systems, City Advertising announced some block-outs, clip-on signs, steel-letters, cut metal displays, among others. Nitin Srivastava of the company said the new solutions are made for fresh innovations in glow sign solutions. In this, Southern Agencies is yet another exhibitor whose LED and SMPS portfolio are unconventional and innovative. When it comes to innovation, Kakatiya Energy System is worth mentionable, as the company introduced Nature Switch-GSM, a smart solution for automation and energy conservation for glow sign systems or any lighting solution.

Stood out of conventional products, Wililux India presented a range of LED modules, which could maintain constant current and five years warranty in exclusive optic design.

“We provide whole range of solutions, which include modules, power supply systems, indoor and outdoor LED solutions, which are acclaimed not only in India, but across the globe,” said Amanmeet Singh of Wililux India. COSIGN India introduced three new products during the expo—Art Frame, Fabric Profile and Flex Tensioning System. “All our products are designed for ease of use,” said Tejasa Purandare, executive director, COSIGN India. Arihant was also among the group of exhibitors that presented complete LED/glow sign solutions. Likewise, Gogia Pint-O-Grafix did showcase the same, attracting a tide of trade visitors. Acrylic House was yet another LED/glow sign solutions provider at the expo whose showcase attracted every trade visitor around.

League of crowd pullers

A league of exhibitors at the expo pulled crowd to their stalls where showcased state-of-the-art products and technologies. Among them was Monotech System that announced a PixelJet 3.2 m UV LED flatbed printer, alongside the showcase of its range of other existing PixelJet Series and Mimaki systems. “Our new PixelJet 3.2 m UV flatbed system is meant for those looking at new entry-level system,” said Manoj Garg, GM, Monotech Systems Limited.

Newclear Technologies pulled crowd at the expo as the company unveiled a versatile E320 UV roll-to-roll printer, which is first-of-its-kind system in the Indian market. In the similar way, Angel India Cad Cam also introduced Angel 1325 metal and non-metal laser cutting machine. “This 350 watt laser cutting changer in laser cutting,” said Anil Kumar, director, Angel India Cad Cam Pvt Ltd. Siare Technologies, showing SINOINDO industrial laser and CNC machines, attracted huge crowd of trade visitors to its products on showcase—WitColor StarFire Series printers and others.

Knowell Corporation, India distributor of products of Politape (Germany) and others designed for diverse applications ranging from printing to coating. Presenting cutting-edge technologies that meet the need of CNC routing technology that meets the sheer needs of the industry, Biesse India revealed solutions for the water-jet cutting systems.

“We are happy with the trade visitors at the expo, which is always turned out to be a right platform to showcase cutting-edge machines and technologies,” said Kumar Chndra Shekhar, deputy manager, Biesse India.

Kartar Corporation showcased a line of cutting-edge laser cutting and routing machines designed to meet the need of the increasing demands for innovative applications. The company showcased products from the companies, such as Aluk, IPS, TigerTec and others. Charanjt Singh of Kartar Corporation said they offer complete machines for routing and laser cutting solutions. JB Distributor also introduced a new ACE Accu-Bend channel letter bender at the expo.

Launch of its MT-118 direct-to-garment printer helped 3S Graphics Solutions pull crowd to their stall. SS Saini, CEO, 3S Graphics Solutions said they would receive tremendous enquiries of the new machine they introduced at the expo. Satyam Plastics showcased whole range of media and inks any sign maker could pick up for innovative job. The product range that impressed every trade visitor at their stall included Pioneer and Staflex materials, Jindal and Gita & Company textiles, to mention a few. On the other side of the show floor, SAM INK’s stall was jammed with visitor. The reason was the ink company offered reduced products at the expo.

ITMS India at the expo announced expansion of its product portfolio, adding OSRAM range. The existing line of the company’s products includes LG Hausys, Finiks, SRF and others. Patel Enterprise showcased half-square cutting machine for self adhesive label, an allied system for the graphic art. Similarly, Polyfix unpacked instant glue products in different grades for sign makers. Ajit Industries Pvt Ltd (AIPL) also adhesive taps designed for such applications.

Dinesh Plastic Works on other side revealed its portfolio of signage solution accessories in an alluring fashion. Similarly, Unic Alutech presented an attractive line of POP and display structures and DOC World also the one in the category offering signage and display solutions of the same.

Crowd that thronged to the stall of True Colors Solutions was for the new products the company unveiled during the expo. Charaanjeet Shah of the company said that their two newly introduced UV flatbed printers—NexGen-II and i-Jet 3204/3208— pulled good amount of trade visitors. Sidharth Machineries presented wide range of Purajet solvent, eco-solvent, UV, laser and CNC systems, designed for sign makers of all sizes. Arvind, a widely known clothing and retail chain brand, over the last one year, switched to production of textile for signage and graphic art applications. “What we are planning is to product such printing materials replacing flex in a big way,” said Kamlesh Patel, COO, Arvind.

Crowd that gathered around the show floors at Media Expo 2017 were around the stalls of some exhibitors whose innovative products instilled the trade visitors who wish to push business to a new level. Among the companies were Sign Sutra and Shreeji International, which offer laser machines as well as display solution systems. Mentionable further in the league were some popular manufacturers and suppliers of flex/printing materials as well as composite panels, such as Qrex Flex, Plasto India, Viva Composite Panel, Crossbond, among others.

Products sold

A handful of printers/machines had been sold during Media Expo 2017. Of them, Lucknow-based Fusion Signs picked up HandTop HT3116UV FK3 from JN Arora. Shalab Gupta of Fusion Sign said they opted for the UV flatbed printer for two reasons—first, the printer provides high-precision outstanding print outputs; second, JN Arora is trusted and reliable partner. Another big deal that had been sealed at the expo was the selling of ColorJet’s newly launched 3.2m VULCAN high-speed RTR UV LED inkjet printer to Venus Plastic in New Delhi.

FUJIFILM India drew huge crowd to their showcases of products during the course of the three days of the expo. Among the crowd jamming at the company’s stall, Sunil Kaul of PROMOS, a New Delhi-based reputed signage firm, was protruded because he booked for the FUJIFILM Equity EY displaying at the company’s stall. When asked why he went for the printer, his answer was straight: “Equity EY churned on rigid media unlike any other printers.”

At the HP stall in the expo, visitors would grab the prowess of Latex printing technology. Two big signage companies in Delhi—Directions Retails Projects and HANNU Marketing—have recently adopted HP Latex 1500 and HP Latex 3200. Samples printed on latex systems were the main attraction at the stall. Amit Jain, director, Directions Retail Projects, said the adoption of Vinod Kumar Gupta (right) the new latex printer made them capable to explore the retail domain, which they were not capable to do earlier. Directions Retails Projects worked with clients like Airtel, LAVA, Vodafone, Reliance Mobile, to mention a few.

Vinod Kumar Gupta, MD, HANNU Marketing Pvt Ltd had the similar story. “We have been HP customer for years; and we have recently upgraded ourselves with HP Latex 3200, marking the first such HP system in North India,” he said, adding that the printer helped them deliver sharper image quality, handling tiling jobs with confidence and colour consistency.

Media Expo 2017 in New Delhi marked a resounding success for everyone who attended the landmark international signage and graphic art industry show. The show will be back to the capital city next year on September 7-9, 2018 at the same venue (Pragati Maidan). And the upcoming edition of the expo will be Media Expo Mumbai, which will be organised from February 22 – 24, 2018 at Bombay Convention and Exhibition Centre, Goregaon (E), Mumbai.