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CJ 7000 with Seiko Alfa printhead and CJ 4008 with Seiko 508GS printhead, which are perfectly designed to take business of their customers to another level. In an exclusive interview with

SIGN & GRAPHICS, RAJAT MITRA, Director of CALDRON GRAPHICS, talks about their new products and challenges they face in the industry.

CALDRON GRAPHICS opened its own factory at Industrial Model Town (IMT) in Manesar in 2007. Since then till the end of 2017, they just had CRYSTALJET printers with single 510 Seiko printhead (35 pl). “It was the time when faster printheads were emerged in the digital large-format printing market and we lost our pace,” admits Rajat Mitra, adding that they however would never ever lose hope and try to cheat their customers. “When people turned up to invest in our machines, we frankly told them the reality that our machines could longer be premium in the market.”

“It was by the end of 2017 Seiko offered us two new printheads, Seiko Alfa and Seiko 508GS, which are featured in the CJ 7000 and CJ 4008 in our current portfolio. The printheads are fast, almost five times higher firing frequency than its predecessor SPT 510. Seiko Alfa is 20 percent faster than one of its closest competitors in the market. It can run at the maximum speed of 2800 sq ft/hr on 4 heads on 2 pass offering a resolution of 360 x 480 dpi, which is considerably one of the fastest in the industry till date,” explains Rajat.

CJ 7000 is a high-level production printer designed for customers who want to deliver high-quality and high-volume prints in short and demanding time. It produces prints of 480x720 dpi at high quality speed on media raging banner, vinyl, photo papers, PP and backlit film. Likewise, CJ 4008 is a classic luxury model that can hold 8 Seiko 508 GS-12 pl printheads. The staggered printhead configuration of the printer is designed for high speed. Both the printers feature new bridge steel structure design for improved stability, heavy duty multi rod for better media feeding and special anti-skid rod below pinch rollers. Panasonic A/C servo drive and motor in the printers improve speed by 50 percent.

A new momentum

With the introduction of the CRYSTALJET models with new Seiko printheads for sharper image and longer life, CALDRON GRAPHICS is now fully geared up to regain the lost connections with their customers all over the country. “With these new machines we are now regaining our pace in the market. Over the last three months we have made nearly 25 installations of our new CRYTALJET printers across the country,” mentions Rajat, adding, “When you would never cheat with your clients, give them your best service and focus on moving towards a right direction, it’s quite obvious that they will follow you.”

A mere beginning

Before switching to manufacturing, CALDRON GRAPHICS was merely a print service provider having a production facility equipped with an Infinity printer (XAAR printhead). “In the beginning, we were quite successful. We were a bunch of dedicated professionals and committed to our works.

As a result, we would easily recover our cost of investment in the machine within a period of few days,” recalls Rajat.

But unfortunately they were not happy with the after-sale support they received from the Indian distributor of Infiniti. That’s why they directly approached the principal company in China. “Even those at the headquarters of Infiniti in China were not impressed with the way their distributor in India was doing, disheartening clients. It was when they turned to us, asking, “Rajat, why don’t you take up distributorship of Infiniti printers in India?” informs Rajat.

“I said we are just PSP and we had never been into any distribution business. But they gave us the chance for a trial run for a period of 3-4 months. We decided to do it and we started reselling Infinity printers for Indian sub-continent in May 2003 as a sole channel partner of the Chinese wide-format printer manufacturer Fei Yueng,” narrates Rajat, adding that they thus started participating in big signage exhibitions in Mumbai and Delhi.

A new turning point

Distributorship of Infiniti was a short-lived business for CALRDON GRAPHICS. “It was short-lived because in 2005 we came to know that the Infiniti printers in India were available in the grey market. In such situation we had to sell the machines in lesser prices. Otherwise people would feel we overcharged them. This is how we ended our distributorship of one of the most sought-after machine brands in India,” tells Rajat.

In 2005 CALDRON GRAPHICS successfully developed their own brand CRYSTALJET. After that in 2008, they closely tied up with Fei Yueng Union to develop many new models equipped with Seiko SPT printheads. “We kept consistently upgrading the performance of our printers on both quality and speed,” mentions Rajat. In the following year, CALDRON GRAPHICS also unveiled their own ink factory to enhance performance and print outputs of their printers.

HP connection

In the year 2010 CALDRON GRAPHICS closely joined hands with HP to distribute a range of HP printers comprising Latex and inkjet models. Today the company’s HP portfolio consists of Latex L570, L560, L365, L335, L335 Print & Cut, L315, L315 Print & Cut, DesignJet 5800, PageWide XL5100, PageWideXL4000 and the entire range of HP PL30 product line from T830 for architects to Z9 for photographers and so on. “PageWide XL5100 will be a game changer in the Indian reprographic market. The machine is perfectly designed for short-run prints for corporate firms and architects. This machine is now widely popular in Australia. Why not in India someday?” asks Rajat. PageWide XL5100 is large-format colour multi-function printer for instant monochrome and colour prints such as line drawings, maps, posters and others.

Complete portfolio

The current machine portfolio of CALDRON GRAPHICS is a complete combo. The range consists of CNC routers and laser engravers such as Caldron 1325M Laser, Caldron Fibre Laser and others. Caldron UV portfolio consists of Flatbed Printer and Roll-to-Roll printer available on Seiko, RICOH and Toshiba Printheads and Caldron F2280 a direct-to-fabric printer. Apart from CJ 7000 and CJ 4008, the CRYTALJET (CJ) line consists of CJ 7000, CJ4000, CJ 3000, CJ2513 (flatbed), CJ 4008 and others. So far, CALDRON GRAPHICS has installed around 4000 CJ printers across India, out of which more than 2000 are still running.

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Testimonies of CJ customers

CALDRON GRAPHICS has installed its newly introduced CJ 7000 with Seiko Alfa printhead and CJ 4008 with Seiko 508GS printhead at the production facilities of a number of leading signage companies across the country. The customers express their satisfaction over the features of the new and upgraded CJ printers.

“Caldron CJ 7000 Seiko with Alfa printhead is indeed a production printer for those engaging in high volume print production. After the installation of the printer we have enhanced both quality and volume in our overall production. We also have CJ4008 with 508GS printheads in our Delhi unit and we are able to do eco-solvent vinyl quality on this printer at high speed and this printer is good for all frontlits, backlits and vinyl as well. Caldron has been a household name in our company since last 16 years and has never let us down.”
–Rajesh Taneja,
Printing Palace, Bareilly

“We are really blessed with the adoption of the Caldron CJ 4008, which is equipped with a powerful Seiko 508GS printhead. Our production facility has upgraded to a new standard with this machine. This machine is best in its class for producing high-quality prints for corporate clients.”
–Robin Singh,
Chatwal Plastic Sign, New Delhi

“I would like say Caldron CJ 7000 with Seiko Alfa printhead is one of the best machines we have ever installed in our production facility. This machine helps us increase our production speed and volume in a tremendous way.”
–Monti Ramani,
Vijay Ad Agency, Gwalior

“Many manufacturers might claim their printers for ‘high speed’ with ‘high quality’ printing. But these two qualities seldom find together in a printer, except Caldron 7000 with Seiko Alfa printhead. This Caldron production printer is doubtlessly designed for churning high quality prints in high speed. We also have CJ4008 with 508GS 12pl printheads and it helps us deliver excellent vinyl, backlits at high speed and also does frontlit flex at great speed and quality.”
–Nipun Thukral,
Satyam Enterprises, New Delhi