Sakurai is known in India for it’s high precision rotary screen press as well as its offset printing machines. Since acquiring the sole

From left to right: Vijay Aggarwal of Alpna Visual Packaging Aids, Munish Aggarwal of Janus Packaging, Katsuya Tanaka of Sakurai, AjayGandhi of Kunal Enterprises

Sakurai is known in India for it's high precision rotary screen press as well as its offset printing machines. Since acquiring the sole distributorship for Sakurai machines in 2004, Kunal Enterprise based in Mumbai has been successful in effecting sales first in the cylinder silk screen segment and more recently in the multi-colour offset press segment.

Mr Sakurai with Indian visitors at welcome party with Mr Munish.

The cylinder silk-screen presses have gone into Sundaravel Printers Pvt Ltd, Sivakasi (SC102A2), Image Labels Pvt Ltd, Bangalore (SC102A2), Parksons Graphics, Mumbai (SC102A2), AJA Safety Match Co. Pvt Ltd, Sivakasi (SC102A2), 3M India Ltd, Bangalore (MS102A2 – double stroke, specially developed for 3M India), Madras Security Printers, Chennai (SC72A2), and Deepak Exports, Sivakasi (SC72A2). Except for Sundarvel Printers in Sivakasi all the installations have taken place after January 2007.

566SI forJanus Packaging
Significantly, Kunal Enterprise has also sold two multicolour offset presses. The first is a 4-colour installed by GK Print and Packaging in Bangalore. Janus Packaging in Baddi have purchased a Sakurai 5-colour with coater, extended delivery and IR dryer. The Sakurai 566 SI with a maximum sheet size of 660 x 470 mm has already been inspected by Munish Aggarwal of Janus Packaging at the factory near Nagoya Japan and is to be installed in January2008 .

Heidelberg seminar on publishing and print held in Agra on 10 December 2007

The compact and very robust SI presses take only 60 per cent of the space of traditional 4-colour presses and provide speeds of 15,000 iph with full automation including CIP4 capability for quick makeready with less wastage. Automatic plate changing without prebending is standard on the SI series of presses.

At IGAS held in Tokyo this September, Sakurai unveiled its new Oliver 96 SD series of A1 size offset presses. These presses can run sheet sizes of 965 x 640 mm for comfortable printing of eight A4 pages on one side of the sheet and are provided with both a double diameter transfer cylinder as well total automation as standard fitment. The essential automation features that are provided are the Sakurai Color Console, the automatic plate changer, the Sakurai SIS Interactive system for speed, ink roller setting and wash-up, printing modes, trouble shooting and ink sweep among other controls. The SAS Auto Set system allows easy adjustments for paper sizes and thickness and other feeder settings. The 96SD can print at a speed of 16,000 ipm and can handle paper from .04 to .6 mm thickness. The competitively priced 96SD series are built with heavy-duty construction but take up 20 per cent less space than other B1 presses.

Around 400 offset press installations in 07-08
Our sister company IppStar, which regularly monitors equipment purchases in all segments of the industry, reports that offset press sales and installations continue to be extremely strong for the second year consecutively. In the financial year from April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008 it is expected that around 400 installations of new imported offset presses will result from sales in the previous year and from sales in the current year. IppStar press counts coaters and single units and this number reflects all sizes from manufactured by Adast, Akiyama, Hamada, Heidelberg, KBA, Komori, MAN Roland, Mitsubishi, and Ryobi .

Sales in the current year continue on a strong note and we expect the 400-unit installation mark to be maintained if not exceeded. Drupa years are generally strong for new offset press sales to India as well.