Vinod Krishnamurthy Iyer bumped upon the digital textile printing business in 1998 and since then there is no turnaround. During his stint of two decades with printing business, he collected diverse knowledge in various verticals of textile printing and related processes. The time, he found, is ripe to reap the benefits and use his expertise and experiences that he earned all through these many years from the industry. While sharing his thoughts with Sign & POP World, he highlighted many of his attributes, of which, here is the edited excerpt to follow:
A Vinod Krishnamurthy Iyer Company – This is what the Fortuna Colours & Prints (FCP) LLP has been tagged with. In 2014, Fortuna Colours & Prints LLP was borne to carry forward its goal of innovative solutions based on advanced technology in the world of wide format digital printing. He wants to create a space where FCP’s presence will not be limited only to bringing the innovation to the print technology, but also a big name in manufacturing.
“My aim is to make Fortuna the most unique print knowledge organisation,” asserts Vinod Krishnamurthy Iyer, the company’s founder. “I along with my team want to implement what we have earned all through a decade and a half working on various subjects in printing industry,” he says adding that he foresees FCP as a strong applications company in the next five years. “Soon, we would emerge as a player to reckon with.”
Iyer boasts of its core team. “The team is with me for over 15 years, and I proud of it. We are a FCP family now and are capable of bringing innovative things when it comes to digital printing solutions. All the members are experienced and have the expertise of designated fields. We together would make things happen the way, we want,” he avers adding that FCP today has verticals where it offers consultations for setting up turnkey plants for Industrial Inkjet.
Iyer informs that FCP is now a consultant for Fujifilm in its FFIC division to contribute to all its requirements for establishing water-based inks in the Asian market. In fact, Fujifilm has two divisions, Fujifilm Imaging Colorants (FFIC) and Fujifilm Graphics Systems Division. Besides this, FCP is also the distributor to Barbieri Electronic – the leading spectrophotometer for digital printing. We have already sold around 10 units, which is for precise reading and helps in achieving 30% better colour profiles.
“With years of experience in various types & levels of RIP software that includes Ergosoft, Onyx, RIP Master, Wasatch, Caldera, and many more; we are providing custom profiling which needs precision knowledge, grey balance and tweak results as colour management is a major subject in the world of printing. As we all know that India is a diverse market wherein digital prints are used in various sectors which will further expand with added applications,” he says.
In a recent development, FCP has entered into a strategic partnership with Swiss digital printing technology major. “Under this partnership, FCP doesn’t only act as an agent for its partner but also to establish a center to closely work with Switzerland to provide top end services using all the knowledge that we have gathered in years of active innovation, right from colour management to finishing. We will also be working toward value addition in Mouvent’s product development process,” explains Iyer.
Going forward, FCP’s vision is to become innovation partner in building applications. “We, at FCP, are not interested in building the whole technology but offering a complete package for outsourcing and integrating that not only meets customers’ requirements but also add value to the solutions,” says Iyer. He believes that there is a difference between building a machine and building technology. “For building a good machine it takes skill, but building technology one needs knowledge, vision and efforts.”
Iyer insists that he wants to make a difference in doing projects, highlighting the fact that FCP and its team have gained a lot of confidence in live execution of the machines. The whole team is so enthusiast that it went on doing research so that it can bring forth better technology, products, and solutions. He informs that FCP has successfully launched its XBM and KB series of belt printers running with Kyocera and Ricoh heads using pigment and reactive inks. For this, the company was working with an OEM for past three years. The OEM is actually making specific models of digital machines for FCP.
According to him, the XBM series is an industrial high-speed inkjet printer for economic, efficient, and eco-friendly textile printing. In comparison with traditional textile printing technology, the XBM series has no limits for the number of colours, no needs for making screens or cylinders, no work for colour separations, no requirement for minimum print run, and the ability to easily print complex designs.
As a result of the compatibility with water-based dye and pigment inks, the XBM series is not only suited for artificial fibers, but also used for natural fibers. The digital prints with the characteristics of abrasion-resistance, water-resistance, and colour-fastness are widely used in clothing, home textiles, and soft signage industries.
“Equipped with industrial gray scale print heads of 300dpi or 600dpi native resolution, the XBM series achieves 8-colour printing easily, which is commonly used in digital textile printing. In addition, spot and light colour can be also perfectly reproduced to fit for various applications. The XBM series is the ideal choice to satisfy the increasing demands for proofing, short run, and medium run jobs. The linear print speed is in the range of 60-120 meters/hr,” elaborates Iyer.
He further informs that another addition is the KB series belt printer i.e. Kyocera based belt printer which is a high quality & high performance inkjet printer comes equipped with Kyocera Inkjet print heads and can attain a speed as high as 200sqm/hr for a wide print width of 72 inches. Measuring 200×36×68.5mm, the KJ4B-0300 printer has been designed to work with Water-based disperse-, acid-, reactive- and pigment inks. With 2,656 number of nozzles, the printer produces an image with 300dpi standard resolution.
“We are now launching series of high speed sublimation printers with Kyocera & Ricoh Heads followed with various options of T-shirt printers with Ricoh and Kyocera heads. These machines can do 50-100 t-shirts per hour in black. The entry level T-shirt printer that can be suitable for small production but yet its robust with Ricoh GEN4 heads which give good quality,” he suggests.
He further adds, “Meanwhile, we are in the process of establishing a beta site with our new Flag and banner printer which is 3.2 meter with Kyocera heads and Ricoh heads, good speed and well-priced. These machines will be capable of attaining a speed of around 300-400 sqft/hr. Besides, there are many models that come with options to upgrade to higher speeds by adding more heads. Also, we are working on quite a few applications and plan to keep launching new innovations at frequent intervals.”
Speaking about his future plan, Iyer shares that Fortuna is looking to using all its experience and provide total solutions to clients to be able to win business today. “When everyone has same heads and same printers the only way to lead is knowledge which is what we believe we have! We do have full range of chemicals for textile industry from pre coating, washing to softeners and providing a turnkey solution.”