Top brass from French digital solutions developer MGI have been in the country preparing for PacPrint, where the full range of the company’s innovative embellishment solutions will be launched.
Kevin Abergel, vice president sales and marketing, MGI is in Australia visiting potential customers and setting up with service operation, which will be run under the auspices of Konica Minolta, now the majority owner of MGI.
Abergel says, “PacPrint will be a key event for MGI and Australian printers. The range of JetVarnish digital embellishment solutions will be launched in sizes 36cm, 52cm, 64cm and 75cm with the roll to roll version planned for later in 2017. The systems provide tremendous in-house opportunity for commercial printers.”
It is commercial printers and packaging printers running offset litho presses who are the main target market for MGI, Abergel says, “A lot of companies outsource embellishment, but having a system in-house means they can sell it, rather than just have it as a service. And the MGI machines are suited to jobs up to 10,000 runs, which is a majority of print jobs these days.”
According to Abergel one of the key advances form MGI has been in Artificial Intelligence registration, he says, “With the MGI we use a live image comparison of a printed sheet scan with the PDF of the print file using hundreds of content points, so registration has become a conversation of the past.”
The MGI range uses Konica Minolta print heads, which says David Cascarino, national manager of Industrial Print at Konica Minolta, means, “MGI has complete ownership over the entire technology, this is an integrated dedicated solution, not a device dependent on external technology..” Abergel says that MGI and Konica Minolta have been working together for the past 20 years.
MGI first entered the market as specialist digital printing systems developer, with its presses able to print one a wide range of substrates, including plastics and foils. It has since developed the digital embellishment systems, including the JETvarnish 3D Evolution B2, which was a major focus at drupa this year, with the stand also featuring the Meteor Unlimited Colors Se+ digital press. Both these technologies will be on show at PacPrint.
Cascarino says, “The Meteor Unlimited can print and foil in one unit. This is the strategy of MGI, it is offering innovative solutions that enable printers to sell added value print, so they can increase their margins.
There are six different products in the range priced from between $US250,000 to around $US1m. The roll-to-roll embellishment system is designed for the label market including the new Konica Minolta C71cf digital label press.
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