Meteor inkjet has been associated with printer OEMs in India since 2012.

The markets that have benefitted from Meteor Inkjet technologies in India encompass all digital printing markets (Ceramics, product decoration, textiles, packaging, functional & 3D, labelling, signs & décor, and commercial print).

Meteor has been represented in India in a few ways over the last 10 years,from system integrators to OEMs or Meteor working directly with the OEM meeting face to face. The company currently has five key sales locations across the globe, United Kingdom, China, Japan, USA, and South Korea.

“The OEMs have observed several changes to the digital printing market over the last decade and seen how the industry has moved from textiles to ceramics and now on to 3D and additive manufacturing,” observes David Heath, Technical Sales and Marketing Manager, Meteor Inkjet.

Consequently, in more recent months Meteor has seen more uptake in the label, direct to packaging, 3D printing and additive manufacturing sectors.

“The largest industries are still textiles and ceramics. Meteor continues to push the boundaries of software and hardware capabilities to provide its customers with shorter downtimes by providing new maintenance capabilities and therefore the customer can achieve more throughput whilst in production,” emphasizes David Heath.

“Meteor’s datapath design is unique and has given Meteor the edge in front of its competitors,” he states.

Meteor’s key strength, according to David Heath, lies in its close relationship with all the major printhead manufacturers.

When travel to the customer site was difficult or impossible during the pandemic, Meteor reviewed various avenues of improving its support and now offers customers an AV hardware platform to assist with the development, prototype and production stages of the customer’s printing systems.

“We continued to operate as normal and ship to our customers through the pandemic. There now seems to be a trend where OEMs are willing to do a broader spectrum of work on their printing systems to bring as much of the print system knowledge in house to benefit their businesses and become less reliant on other business sectors,” shares David Heath.

“Meteor provides reputable advice to its customers. Meteor has a strong background based firmly in research and technology as well as the experience gained over the last decade,” he adds.

The company plans to continue focusing on all areas of design, prototype and production. “But looking at today’s print systems there seems to be a lot of focus on the modularity of the design,” observes David Heath.

Meteor projects to continue to grow its customer base as the digital printing industry continues to expand. In regards to the Indian marketplace expansion, Meteor is focusing on expanding its scanning and single pass software to enable OEMs to get to market quicker.

“3D printing and additive manufacturing is expanding exponentially. In India there are many OEMs who are willing to take the first steps into this new technology sector. These OEMs accelerate manufacturing in industries such as automotive where 3D printing has enabled prototype designs to be created at a higher pace,” says David Heath.

“Currently the hottest applications are in 3D, Ceramics, and textiles,” he underlines.

Meteor has recently launched drive electronics for the Epson I series, Epson S series and the Xerox W series of printheads. Meteor is currently developing the next line-up of drive electronics to provide users with a faster and more flexible datapath, this will allow for future expansion in frequency and data. Meteor’s software is continuously updated with focus on the future of the inkjet industry and the industry’s requirements.

Meteor’s electronics continue to drive the latest digital inkjet printheads released by the industry’s top manufacturers.

“Digital printing is really opening up the direct to shape printing industry, this is important as more and more consumers are after products exclusively tailored to their requirements and needs,” says David Heath.

There are many key peripherals that Meteor Inkjet provide to its customers to assist in the development of their systems. For example, their recently released encoder isolator board assists the customer by filtering out any noise on the encoder lines and ensures the output signal does not contain any crosstalk to cause inconsistent print or defects.

Speaking about their growth strategy, David Heath comments, “The market opportunity is so big, we have only scratched the surface.  We will continue with our approach of being the highest quality supplier with the best service and supporting the widest range of printheads while also expanding our software solutions.”

“Meteor believes India’s textile and ceramics markets will continue to develop and grow with the government backing machine developers in India,” says David Heath looking forward.