Aims to tap the manufacturing potential of Indian market, says Aliasgar Eranpurwala, Head of Sales, Printek.
With a strong belief in trust and precision, Seiko Instruments GmbH has evolved from a watch business founded by Kintaro Hattori in Tokyo, Japan in 1881 to its today’s product portfolio comprising of micro batteries, quartz crystals, thermal printers and Industrial Printheads. The Industrial Printhead division was founded in the year 2001 and since then it has grown ever stronger in building lasting business relationships with its customers. “We work hand-in-hand with our customers to provide them the best fitting solution for their requirements in sectors like Wide-Format-Graphics, Coding & Marking, Labels & Packaging, Ceramics & Textiles,” says Aliasgar Eranpurwala, Head of Sales, Printek.
“We have proven solutions for Ceramics, WFG, and Coding & Marking applications. Our goal is to help in the adoption of Inkjet – the new generation printing technology – in a wide variety of different industrial applications,” he adds.
Seiko Instruments GmbH represents the sister company SII Printek Inc., which manufactures the printheads in Japan, as the point of sale, service and most importantly technical support in the regions of EMEA + Russia + India.
The current focus areas of the company include the textile market, coding and marking applications, printing on corrugated board, embellishment applications and the 3D market apart from ceramics, where they have already shown the potential of the technology they bring to the playing field.
The flagship Seiko RC1536
The Seiko RC1536 printhead was relaunched last year in a new all-ink version which can print not only UV and Oil inks but can also print Aqueous and Solvent Inks. Apart from this all Seiko printhead models have been designed to print not only in a horizontal but also in vertical applications.
Seiko’s flagship printhead RC1536 can print with a wide range of viscosities. Its recirculation system offers reliable printing performance even with higher pigment concentrations of up to 3µ particle sizes at D90. Its print width of 108.3mm helps in the reduction of the number of peripherals and hence provides an economical solution for both scanning and single-pass applications. Another important attribute of this printhead is the ability of printing with a varying print gap of 3 to 20 mm between the printhead and the substrate, depending on the application.
Seiko Instruments GmbH, employing a strong workforce of 50 people, based in Neu-Isenburg, Germany, is a daughter company of Seiko Instruments Inc. (SII). It is the point of contact for all customers of SII Printek Inc., in the region of EMEA, Russia and India. SII Printek Inc. manufactures the industrial printheads in Japan and employees close to 300 employees for Sales, R&D and manufacturing.
The all new Knowledge Exchange Centre in Neu-Isenburg
Digital inkjet printing is relatively new in the market. Regardless of the area of application, everyone wants to benefit from it, but don’t really know how to approach the new technology. “The all new Knowledge Exchange Centre opened in Neu-Isenburg, Germany is a platform where we can discuss and develop new ideas together,” informs Aliasgar.
“Although we already had set up a laboratory for the European market in Paris in 2017, in just over 3 years, the laboratory had already become too small to continuously support our customers to the extent we like. This shows how great the need is for timely, individual service under expert guidance and has prompted us to expand our laboratory,” he emphasizes.
Seiko’s new service centre offers a much bigger and state of the art laboratory as well as a training room for up to 30 people.
Seiko is well-known in the market for its timely and qualitative support to its customers both off-site and on-site. The dedicated engineers offer a holistic approach to project development and problem solving.
“Demo centres are good for finished products and as we are OEM Suppliers we work together with Printer Manufacturers to show the capability of our technology through their printers,” adds Aliasgar.
As an ISO certified company Seiko manufactures products to be in accordance with the requirements of the different laws in the countries it delivers its printheads to. “We strongly follow our tagline “The Culture of Precision” in the entire manufacturing process which includes the development of Piezos, Nozzles, fluid path and electronics followed by a strict quality control. The entire manufacturing plant located in Japan follows the culture of the company. The employees with umpteenth years of experience, from various fields are hand-picked to develop this futuristic technology,” reveals Aliasgar.
Seiko experienced a decline in sales during the first half of the Financial Year due to tough Covid-19 conditions but they picked up pace in the second half. “The second half has been extremely busy with new market segments being targeted by existing customers and also with new customers willing to try out Inkjet,” says Aliasgar.
As the Industry focuses towards becoming more self-sufficient, Seiko would put its efforts towards supporting and developing local manufacturing.
Speaking on possibilities of combining electronics and printing technologies by Seiko, Aliasgar says, “Printed electronics is one of the fields we are focussing on. It is very promising and also quite challenging. Inkjet is a field involving the firing of drops with utmost reliability. Even one missing drop could lead to a break in connection and hence a non-acceptable circuit. We believe our recirculation technology is an answer to the reliability issues that plague the Inkjet world and can help the printhead electronics sector as well.”
Apart from supporting their customers with the printhead technology, Seiko also provides the necessary knowledge along with contacts to peripheral suppliers such as drive electronics, ink systems & ink manufacturers. “We work closely together with our customers/partners to successfully launch their printers in the market,” says Aliasgar.
“India has tremendous potential in the manufacturing sector. Currently the market is flooded with printers that are imported and the decision of Seiko as an OEM Supplier to enter this market is to tap this potential and help in the growth of the market,” he continues.
As a first step in this direction, Seiko aims to develop partnerships with OEMs in Packaging, Textiles, Coding & Marking and WFG sectors.
“At Seiko we believe strongly in trust and precision& this is reflected in our planning and decision-making as well as in the quality of our products hence we seek for long term relationships with our partners in India,” concludes Aliasgar.
