Vijay Kamat, Pawan Chauhan and Ankit Madan speak about their Labelexpo India showcase, what makes the newly launched AccurioLabel 400 almost operator independent and more in an exclusive interview.
Konica Minolta’s booth at Labelexpo India 2024 showcased AccurioLabel Series of fine-tuned digital presses which meets the emerging needs of customization, speed, and sustainability in the packaging industry. According to Vijay Kamat, Product Manager – IP, PP & IP Marketing Division, “The highlight at Labelexpo India 2024 is the AccurioLabel 400, an advanced digital label press featuring CMYK + white toner capabilities, print speeds of up to 39.9 meters per minute, and seamless integration with conventional print workflows.” In addition, the company also presented automated digital die-cutting and workflow solutions to illustrate just how easy hybrid printing systems are to work with.
The newly launched AccurioLabel 400, according to Kamat, has an inline engine (IQ520) with a host of inbuilt automation instruments like photospectrometer, controllers for checking registration, ink density parameters, colour optimisation and so on to achieve the top quality of print, every time the machine prints and that too without any manual intervention thus making the machine almost operator independent.
Kamat adds, “This makes it a very friendly machine which now can have a unwinder and rewinder which can handle lengths upto 3000 meters at a go.” He also emphasised on the availability of AccurioPro Flux, a prepress, automation, collaboration, Web‑to‑print software solution from Konica Minolta specifically for the label printing industry.
Kamat emphasised that though Konica has complete solutions for printing, embellishing, finishing including software, the main strength was of the service provided by Konica Minolta to its customers. “We have a strength of more than 750 staff in our India operations out of which 50% is service personnel with dedicated team for the label industry, which I consider to be the major achievement for Konica Minolta,” said Kamat.
Over the years, during our interaction with various Konica Minolta users, both from digital commercial printing and label industry, PRESSIdeas has received extremely positive response from them, especially about the level of after-sales-service and support across the sub-continent. “We are proud to have 15 offices in India and additionally have 25 warehouses, which I believe none of the digital machine providers in India can compare with. Thus, we have a unique servicing support capabilities to the advantage of our customers,” adds Kamat.
There are about twenty-six installations of AccurioLabel in India (and Nepal) by Konica Minolta India as on date out of which three are of the new five-colour model.
Ankit Madan, Product Marketing Manager – PP, PP & IP Marketing explained to us about what Industrial Print constitutes in the Konica Minolta realm. Industrial Print constitutes three product lines starting with KM1 (an inkjet-based printing machine), second is the MGI machines (used for embellishment on prints) and then comes the machines for the Label industry under the AccurioLabel series which are a roll-roll machine.
Start-ups are a focus segment for Konica Minolta considering their need for very short run labels for launching their concepts into reality. “Number of startups in our country have grown manifold in the last couple of years and as the name suggests, they conceptualise their ideas and bring them into reality and initially require smaller sample lots to start with and that is where our technology comes into play,” says Ankit.
We provide 360-degree service to our customers which includes supplying and supporting of software, hardware, spare parts, consumables etc., operator training, help in transforming from flexo to digital, connect customers with end users to get them onboard into the digital world. “I remember meeting PRESSIdeas at a couple of exhibitions displaying only sample labels there. You know those samples procured from existing KM machine users not only showcased our machine’s actual capabilities in real-time environments, but also helped the visitors and printers meet for their business requirements. This way, actual users knew the availability of short-run high quality labels and digital printers got their business,” enlightens Kamat. By guiding label consumers/ brands to digital printers Konica not only helps the brands with another viable option to print their labels but also directs them to KM Digital machine investors thus helping them to attain more business.
Special requirements of brands like Track & Trace, Variable Data Printing, Security Printing and Barcode Printing etc. is also provided by KM which helps our customers to provide more value-added services to their customers which is a win-win situation for all involved.
Pawan Chauhan, IP Business Head, Sales Division of Konica Minolta India chips in, “Konica Minolta does not charge a AMC from its customers anymore and so everything is on click charge based.” With KM, a customer has an unparalleled advantage of scaling up as they grow, especially for start-ups, according to Pawan. “They can start with Accuriolabel 230, the entry level machine, at a comparatively lower investment and scale up to Accuriolabel 400 as the business grows, and there is always the MGI for embellishments etc.,” adds Pawan.
The trio of Vijay, Ankit and Pawan from KM, who talked with PRESSIdeas at Labelepo India 2024 also informed us that there are many customers on Accuriolabel 230 who want to upgrade to the all-new 5 colour Accuriolabel 400. Meanwhile there are many who want to start with Accuriolabel 230 to get on to the ever growing digital printing space. “We help in getting the dots joined, for all to grow and succeed by being an intermediary to the whole process,” concludes Kamat.
