In the first half of August I met Som Gangopadhyay, Director of Business Imaging Solutions at Canon India’ busy Gurgaon office across In the first half of August I met Som Gangopadhyay, Director of Business Imaging Solutions at Canon India’ busy Gurgaon office across the border from Delhi. Som Gangopadyay spoke candidly about the digital printing industry in India. He felt that we are ready to excel in office automation as we have in information technology and telecom and that Canon is still in the early stages of its market play in the digital arena. “Canon is just entering the prefunction area of the main hall of digital printing. In today’s scenario customised demands from customers are acting as a catalyst for the overall demand of digital printing. People have now set priority for customised convenience and hence they are now getting more close to digital printing.”

He further commented, “The digital printing industry is undergoing lot of change. Due to the stress on customised convenience there has been felt a need for fast turnaround times. We at Canon India are providing solutions which provide solutions for short runs.”
We asked him about the ImagePress C7000VP and he gave some interesting facts about the machine. “We are launching the C7000VP machine at IPEX South Asia show in Noida in October. The machine would be from then on would be available to buyers in India. The unique characteristic of the machine is that it provides output almost similar to that of offset printing. This is due to the use of an ‘Elastic Image Transfer Belt’. Even if the surface of the paper is not uniform this belt provides image transfer even to the unreachable areas of the paper. The elastic belt touches every nook and corner of the surface.”

He showed us a sample print of high quality and glossy. The gloss came from the oil-based V-Toner and the T-Developer used in the Canon imagePress7000VP. “This technology is so far available only with us. Just like the ImagePress C1 this machine is ideal for proofing and best solution for short run print jobs.” The press also features a 10,000 sheet capacity with an ultrasonic double sheet detector.

According to Gangopadhyay, Canon will also show new inkjet devices at IPEX South Asia, “We also have the ImagePROGRAF machines, which provide output in as many 12 colours.” Talking further about the IPEX South Asia show he said, “The event would mark Canon India’s serious entry into the world of Indian digital printing industry. We are very soon going to launch our own channel, service, and logistics infrastructure to provide 24 x 7 support to our customers. We are currently focussing on three arenas for our business growth – proofing for prepress, retail POD, and digital publications.”

When asked about competition from Indigo, Nexpress and likes, he said, “Right now we are just waiting for the launch of our product. Let us see and wait how the competition evolves. We are just focussing on growing along with the market. With us production is not a problem. We have recently set up a new manufacturing plant in Japan.”