Our new tech fills gap between scanning printer & single pass

MS Printing, a Dover group company, is one of the leading providers of digital printers in the world. The company offers printing services for textiles, paper, plastic, and other products. Amit Sharan, India Sales and Operations Coordinator of MS Printing Solutions Srl, Italy, speaks on MS Printing’s set-up and facilities in India, since its inception, and also about the real breakthrough for the company in digital printing. Excerpts…

Can you please tell us some details of MS Printing’s set-up and facilities in India, since its inception.

Currently MS has its own sales and service facility in India. We have trained engineers to support customers.

What were the machines launched at ITMA Barcelona and please give some details about the key features of some of the major ones.

During ITMA Barcelona, we displayed almost each and every model of our printers with live demo, along with our advance technology steamer. Our main focus was on Mini Lario and online foam coating system in Lario, which has unique features. Mini Lario was launched for the first time in ITMA, and we have received a very good response for it. This will fill the gap between scanning printer and single pass (Lario).

Mini Lario: 64 printheads, eight colors is earmarked for the textile industry that wants to carry on the revolution within its production chain to face and overcome the new challenges. Challenges are focused on: flexibility, quality, speed, energy efficiency and sustainability.

LaRio: New in-line fabric pre-treatment that brings great benefits, drastically reducing:

• the set-up process that becomes one, halving the time,
• the raw materials used in the process and the waste produced,
• water and energy consumption, and
• environmental impact.

Ecovapour (Steamer): MS developed a sophisticated system to generate steam directly in the machine to guarantee that the colours will always be fixed with completely satured steam. The machine is equipped with water container in stainless steel inside, which a heat exchanger with steam boiler or diathermic oil is placed, by boiling the water, generates steam.

Depending on the type of fabric used, there is a need to eliminate the risk of colour repetition between the layers of printed fabric (contact point). This is possible, thanks to the variable and immediate step that can be controlled from the operator panel. This configuration is available on ECOVAPO VS at any time of production, without interruptions and with very short times (around 40 seconds) for the conversion from the 100 mm at 200 mm and conversely.

How has the Indian market developed for MS Printing over the years? When did the real breakthrough happen? Which are the parts of India where the response has been very good?

MS is always concerned with the market demand. We came into the market with JP6, which was the highest production machine, and we gradually developed JP7, JPK and Lario.

Just as LaRio, the first single-pass printing machine in the world made its debut in 2010, a decade later Mini Lario was launched, which is the fastest scanning machine in the world and is set to change the face of digital printing. We always get good response from western India, although we have highest number of installation of digital printing machine in India.

MS Printing is the fourth generation-run company. How has the global markets responded to the changes and which are the major markets?

The market is responding very well because since years and also by changing generation, MS never lost the market leadership and has always been able to assure continuity in innovation and customer support. The major market is still Europe but we are now focusing in supporting Asian countries to get the benefits of digital through a continuous training and enlarging our presence in the territories.

Do you have any strategic plans for the Indian market? Can you give us some details?

We aim to reinforce our strategy of being the best aftersales service by increase the number of skillful people. Also we are now offering a complete solutions, which include machine, software and inks. We have launched our own Kian-based ink in direct disperse, sublimation, reactive and pigment with 24 months PH insurance programme.

Please give us information on your company’s facilities and R&D set-up? What are the future plans for the next few years?

We have two production facility in Italy – one in Caronno Pertusella (our headquarter) and one in Guanzate where we also have our academy for digital. In our R&D team, we have more than 20 engineers who are focusing in providing innovation by improving quality and reducing the printing cost. A very good example is the new in-line pre-treatment, which will allow our partner to simplify the process, making it cheaper.

Give us some details about the software and other offerings of MS Printing.

The software MatchPrint II has been designed to control large format textile printers with a particular focus an optimising colour quality and accuracy of the images reproduced on fabric. MatchPrint II disposes of the same friendly, immediate and flexible user interface as all software products developed by MS Printing Solutions.

A highly sophisticated characterisation and calibration system represents the core of MatchPrint II, thus allowing the user to employ any given set of dyes and any given type of fabric on the printer in use. The lecture of a series of test pages by spectrophotometer assures the calibration of the printer in terms of linearisation and reproduction fidelity. The applied technology goes beyond the optimization of traditional four-color printing and makes thus out of MatchPrint II an ulterior evolution of the colour-matching systems already integrated in MS Printing Solutions software products.

How do you see the growth prospects for digital printing in the future? Will these be more affordable to a wider section of users? What are the other drivers of growth for this printing, according to you? We see that each year digital technology is gaining market share from traditional. With the growth of knowledge, more and more companies are moving towards this new technology. What has happened in Europe is already happening in Asia and the main leverage are: quality, shorter time to market, flexibility and sustainability. In addition, with the latest development in machine speed and ink cost, digital has become more and more convenient than traditional in a lot of cases. So the offer is now attractive for large number of market players who can see in the digital the best investment to support their growth.

We aim to reinforce our strategy of being the best aftersales service by increase the number of skillful people.