RechargRussia Expo 2009 held successfully in Moscow!

From July 15 to 17, 2009, the new edition of RechargRussia Expo took place in Moscow, Russia. The expo is the most significant and outstanding event in the aftermarket of imaging supplies in Russia and CIS countries. For local cartridge remanufacturing companies, distributors of printing supplies and service centers the show has become the traditional meeting point important for finding serious and reliable suppliers, for acquiring practical hands-on skills and for learning the latest news from the industry. The exhibition was hosted by the prestigious Building of the Moscow Government. Its reputation, venue and growth of the remanufacturing industry in the region made the expo a huge success.

Attracting visitors from the regions of the Russian Federation and CIS countries, the expo also gathers well-known international companies willing to penetrate local markets through local partners, promote its products and meet potential and existing customers. Therefore, the show is so popular with Asian and West European manufacturers and distributors of parts, supplies and raw material. This year 46 companies from 12 countries took an active part in the exhibition as exhibitors. The prevailing number of the participants came from China (21 companies); 11 companies from Russia followed; Germany had 3 companies; the USA and Turkey were represented by 2 companies each; companies from Ukraine, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Bulgaria, Japan, Korea were also amongst the exhibitors. The product range offered by the exhibitors covered almost all segments of the aftermarket of imaging supplies: supplies (parts, toner, ink), ready-for-sale no-logo cartridges, chips, packaging solutions, etc.


The organizers of the expo registered over 2400 visits during the 3 exhibition days, the most important being the first two days. The visitors came from 21 countries. The great majority of the visitors represented Russia. Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan were also heavily presented at the show. Companies from the Baltic states, Moldova, Poland, Germany, Georgia, Armenia were also visiting the Moscow show. Drawing a general conclusion about the visitors' profile, the result is: 95% of them represented the aftermarket industry (management and technical personnel), the rest being mainly from large companies or forwarding agencies.

The educational technical program of the 2009 show consisted of a practical course on remanufacturing and repairing the most popular models of color and monochrome printers (based on Samsung and HP models). Besides it, the two-day course include a short intro and a detailed overview of service techniques for Konica Minolta copiers.

The expo also hosted an international networking VIP forum, which gathered managers and owners of local and foreign companies. During the 4-hour presentation and question-answer sessions organized by the U.S.-based company Raven, a lot of questions touching upon the local markets were discussed and given answers to.

At the market level, the presentation of local companies about the state of the market drew a particular attention. According to the statistical information the local aftermarket is growing despite the severe economic crisis in the region. The explanation to it lies in the fact that in the price-sensitive markets (Russia and CIS countries) users do not cut on printing habits, but they cut on the price for printing supplies by switching to more cost-efficient alternative supplies.



In the opinion of a large majority of the exhibitors, the expo was successful. As many participants mentioned, it exceeded expectations in terms of target visitors. Visitors were also glad to have so many various suppliers offering competing products at accessible prices.

Carlos Cardona,Uninet, USA: We believe that the Russian market has a lot of potential, especially the color printing segment. The same trend has been seen in Americas during the last 5-6 years. So, we are very enthusiastic about the market and we will definitely come here next year.

Pavel Starikov, MVKP, RUSSIA: It was our first expo. We are very excited about it, especially after finding new prospects and perspective clients.

Stanislav Malinsky, Business-Inform, RUSSIA: We are happy to have been invited to participate. We've got 200 new contacts during the expo. We are glad to get in touch with companies from the regions and other countries, like Ukraine and Belarus.

Oleg Sharyghin, Digital Systems, RUSSIA: Our participation in the expo gave us the possibility to further develop our partners' network in the country. The expo met all our expectations.

Cao Guozhu, Zhuhai Printmax, CHINA: We came to the exhibition to find reliable local partners. To us the Russian market is really huge, and we will explore it carefully.

WWM, UKRAINE: Participation in RechargRussia Expo 2009 is a very important event for our company, which is over 15 years in the business of printing supplies manufacturing and distribution. At the show we had a great chance to present our products to the Russian market. We met a lot of perspective partners and had multiple fruitful discussions.

Yurii Egorov, Lintek, RUSSIA: The exhibition was a success. We liked the first two days when it was packed with visitors. We believe the expo will have a promising future.

About RechargRussia Expos:
RechargRussia expos are organized by RechargEast and RechargRussia Magazines, published in English and Russian and focused on the cartridge remanufacturing industry in Eastern Europe and Russia. The expos are held annually in Moscow.

www.rechargrussiaexpo.com

How Xerox goes green

Green solutions offered by a company to its customers is a good way to show the eco-advantages. Another good way bring in good dividends with the public opinion would be the green practices adapted by the company in its office and manufactures.

Following this logic, Xerox employees around the world initiated twenty projects meant to help the company make waste and energy savings. As a result, Xerox saved $7.3 million, eliminate 1.3 million pounds of waste and reduce energy use by 500,000 kilowatt hours.

Here are some of the examples of Xerox green practices:

The Webster Consumables Manufacturing Plant in Webster, New York, found ways to reuse or recycle much of the packaging that came with incoming parts, including 800,000 foam sheets, 200,000 pieces of tag board, 60,000 plastic bags, 57,000 corrugated cartons and 6,900 plastic skids.

A team in Wilsonville, Ore., USA, made the cleaning process faster, made it more environmentally responsible, eliminated 400 pounds of landfill waste a year and cut labor costs by $37,000 by using an alternative material for equipment cleaning.

A project from Venray, Netherlands, replaced an old chilled water system with one that uses ammonia, a natural refrigerant, which reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 130,000 kg in six months. The
project is expected to also reduce energy use by 300,000 kilowatt hours a year and save $15,000 a year.

A Rio, Brazil, team replaced one-time use cloths with washable cloths, replaced metal barrels with reusable bags, started composting cafeteria waste and found a new use for the more than 10 tons of toner waste it generates, sending the toner to be used as product for roadways.

Source: www.greenbiz.com

Key words: Xerox, green practices, environment

Lexmark to follow HP’s touch screen printers

Lexmark was quick enough to react to HP’s Photosmart Premium printers feature the hit touchscreen technology. The company announced the launch of 8 web-connected all-in-one printers coming with 4.3” screens. According to what Lexmark said in the press- release about the new models equipped with touch screens, the company believes touch screens are a must for all all-in-one printers and the company will support this trend.

The main difference between Lexmark and HP touchscreened printers is that HP targets home users fond of stylish and well-designedall-in-ones, whereas Lexmark (with its MyTouch technology) focuses on
corporate clients. But the entry level systems used in the new Lexmark printers put them in the same range with HP touch screeners.

Aside from conventional features like ID card copy and RSS feeds, the new Lexmark printers come standard with innovative features, which include:

Vizix Print Technology enhancing speed and print quality. The technology is based on separate ink cartridges used in dependence of the user’s current printing needs;

WiFi 802.11n networks connect printer in wireless mode;

Power saving Eco Mode allows printing on both sides of the paper sheet;

Business card Scan can load the information from scanned business cards into the user’s address book;

Lexmark informed these printers will be in the USD199-399 range and will hit markets in September, 2009.

Picture from www.gadgetreview.com

Key words: Lexmark, touchscreen printers, new products, all-in-one

Results of RechargRussia Expo 2009

Last Friday, July 17, the 2009 edition of RechargRussia Expo was successfully completed. During the 3 exhibition days the organizers registered 2400 visits. The visitors came from 21 countries, mainly from the CIS countries. The number of the exhibiting companies and their partners was over 50.

In the participants’ and visitors’ opinion, the expo was a success and it even exceeded expectations. “In the conditions of the global economic crisis we have not expected such an interest to the industry and so many visitors from Russia and abroad,”, - said the exhibitors we had chance to speak with during the exhibition.

The detailed overview of the exhibition with the participants’ opinions will be available in the coming issues of RechargRussia and RechargEast Magazines and online at www.rechargrussiaexpo.com.

See you at RechargRussia Expo 2010!

Key words: RechargRussia Expo 2009, Moscow

RechargRussia Expo 2009 - DAY II

The 2nd exhibition day turned to be not only productive. It proved that the Russian market of office and home printing is in a constant growth despite the economic crisis, which hit the global economy last year. But let's see the details of what have happened today...


Traditionally, the second exhibition day is the most important, full of various events and heavily visited. That was the case of all the former expos, that was the case today, July 16. In addition to yesterday's visitors we met a lot of specialists coming from the outside of Moscow. They came from Tomsk, Izhevsk, Yekaterinburg as well as from Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Estonia, Lithuania and Kazakhstan. Coming from so far and having limited time to spend, such visitors had to hurry all over the expo floor to be able to go over all the booths, visit the seminars and take part in the VIP forum. By the way, the forum is worth being mentioned separately.


RechargRussia Expos are not only about exhibiting products, they are also about knowledge sharing. The VIP forum organized within the expo today gathered the key people from the local and international companies present at the exhibition. The main question of What to expect from the aftermarket of imaging supplies in Russia and abroad? was touched upon. The forum was sponsored by the U.S.-based company RAVEN, which offered to create a friendly and comforting atmosphere for the participants to have a detailed and open discussion. And the discussion was there. The presenters coming from OCP, Raven, Uninet gave their standpoints about the state of matters at the printing market globally and in their countries. The speech of Stanislav Malinsky from Business-Inform, the leading market research agency in the field in Russia, was a real hit. Stanislav provided statistical information about the market of laser printing in Russia and gave some conclusions based on the data. According to his words, the local market is not in stagnation - it continues growing despite all financial difficulties the local consumer may be facing. The data were a real find for the participants.


At the same time the seminar rooms were living their own life: the technical hands-on seminars about cartridge remanufacturing techniques and methods was overcrowded with technicians willing to get new skills or discuss the most urgent issues with others. In the neighboring seminar rooms were held presentations about toner and its manufacturing.

According to the opinions expressed by a number of exhibitors, the expo is an interesting and useflu event. After the first two days the impressions are: OCP from Germany is content with the new contacts they made; the Korean Park & OPC also confirmed the company got some perspective contacts; and the Chinese Menston, manufacturer of inkjet cartridges, told they would probably need to switch to laser cartridges due to the information they got at the expo from the visitors, presenters and other exhibitors in Moscow. The exhibitors and visitors were also satisfied immensely with the new venue of the exhibition. This tells that the organizers had made a good choice coming to the Moscow Government building to hold this year's expo here.

The second exhibition day was fresh and successful in spite of the hot Moscow weather. Tomorrow the expo will be drawing to its close.

Key words: RechargRussia Expo 2009, Moscow

RechargRussia Expo 2009 - DAY I

From the early morning on July 15 groups of people were seen to enter the building of the Moscow Government: some of them had nothing to carry, other had heavy baggage in the hand. There were just a couple of minutes left till the expo began...Everybody was in a hurry to get to the exhibition floor and cast a last eye at the booth to be able to see and eliminate all drawbacks and inconveniences or add some attractive details. The exhibitors were in place and they were expecting the first visitors to show up. By 9 am the registration was ready with piles of badges and advertising packs expecting again the first visitor to be seen. We were all waiting for the show to begin...And it began at 10 am. The first visitors came to the registration desk and, then, continued to the exhibition hall with the exhibition guide in the hand to lead them through.



The first-day visitors had to face a lot of choice: over 50 companies representing all the segments of the aftermarket of printing supplies were there to exhibit their products. Chip fiends were able to see the newly developed products from local and international manufacturers. Companies needing spare parts, toner and inks could freely browse through the multiple booths of exhibitors and get to know the product range, delivery conditions and prices of each manufacturer or distributor. Besides the "pure" supplies, visitors could see ready-for-use compatible cartridges and refilling machines as well as get to know the latest packaging solutions. The exhibitors were eager to show their latest and newest products to attract local visitors, who come from 9 countries (according to the registration information for the first day).

Touring around the booths during the first exhibition day we were amused by the great number of Chinese companies present at the expo. But there is no surprise in it since the Chinese government is heavily subsidizing every single perspective industry and the printing industry is one of them. The subsidies go as far as to cover trip expenses for a company taking part in a leading exhibition. But politics aside...We can just say that the Chinese companies are really topping the number of the exhibitors. They take over not by their power, but the quantity. Their quality is remarkable, too, as the visitors and competition confessed.


Whereas the Chinese companies tend to cover a wide range of products, the European and U.S. companies, taking part in the expo, focus their effort on specific market niches. The visitors could see this trend after visiting the booths of the companies from Germany, the USA, Turkey.


The Russian and CIS exhibitors were also in the highlight. They surprised the public by their innovative products and breakthrough equipment responding to the local market's needs.


In the afternoon the educational program started. The seminar room were all filled by people thirsty of new theoretical and practical knowledge.

In a nutshell, the first exhibition day was very successful!

In the end, let' s give some statistical data: over 500 people visited the first exhibition day. In addition, over 100 representatives of the exhibiting companies were also pre-registered. With these on July 15 the exhibition floor hosted people from 18 countries, from 3 continents.

The expo has begun and there are two more hot days ahead! We will be glad to see you there too!

Key words: RechargRussia Expo 2009, Moscow

July'09 Issue of RechargEast

READ IN THE JULY'09 ISSUE:

» Remanufacturing the Samsung ML-4550/4551 Toner Cartridge
» Konica Minolta Bizhub 130f – the Heart of Your Office (Part 1)

» Solid Foundations, Great Flexibility

» What Does the Crisis Have in Store for the Printing Market?
» Printers Market is Slowing Down
» Spotlight on Zhuhai – The World Capital of Printer Consumables

Full page e-version of the magazine is also available here:

Download the JULY'09 issue.

Key words: remanufacturing in Eastern Europe, chips, cartridges, toner, inks, compatible cartridges, inkjet, supplies, markets

Think Zink

Zink, known for its innovative inkless printing technology, decided to address its fans to design new models of the printing equipment with the zink technology inside.

In the beginning the inkless Zink (zink = zero ink) was considered as a breakthrough novelty promising reduced expenses on printing ink. Once the new zink was in place, embedding it in gadgets turned to be a challenge. To solve the issue the company launched its Zero Boundaries contest earlier in 2009, challenging product designers to create new designs. The winners were promised cash rewards totaling $25,000.

Of the submitted designs there are some worth paying attention to. For instance, a Zink pad looking like a notebook, but being a printer. Or small plastic gadgets you can put in the pocket, carry around and use whenever need for printing arises.

Such contest when companies ask the general public to do their work is not new. But in this case the quality of the presented designs is great. To have a look at the finalists and vote for one of them, internet users can access this webpage: http://zinkzeroboundaries.com/vote.html. The voting is done through July 13.

Key words: Zink, design, new printers

Konica Minolta doubles sales in 3 years

In its press interview Konica Minolta stated it is aiming to double sales of its digital commercial printers in 3 years and reach the turnover value of USD2 billion. To attain the goal the company is extending its product line. Moreover, the company is reinforcing its presence in emerging markets.

Digital commercial printers, used to print documents such as product manuals and direct mail in large volume, are seen as a segment with strong growth potential at a time when the market for office printing equipment and copiers is gradually declining.

Revenues at Konica Minolta's digital commercial printer operations came to USD 860 million in the year that ended in March. It plans to boost sales in the coming years by launching new machines with advanced printing capacity and focusing on growing demand in emerging economies such as China, India and South America.

Source: guardian.co.uk

Touch-screened printer from HP

HP decided to use its winning touch screen approach to boost sales of its inkjet printers by introducing its new all-in-one touch screen printer. The new inkjet can connect directly to the Internet and print coupons, maps, news, weather information, etc. without being plugged into a computer.

On the other hand, HP took on the success of mobile devices and applications used in them. The company’s latest printer comes with HP applications pre-installed. These can be accessed directly via the touch screen panel. The interesting thing comes with the fact that other apps can be uploaded to printer.

HP executives mentioned that by giving users access to the content they might want to customize their printing experience and create their own apps. HP is driving a significant shift in how people will be printing in the future.

The new smart printer is called HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web. The printer has a 4.3-inch LCD touch screen and it can print, fax, copy and scan. It can also print directly from Wi-Fi-enabled PCs, Bluetooth-enabled devices, iPhone and the iPod touch. With all that its price is far from being accessible – it is over USD400.

In a nutshell, HP is making an interesting effort to reinvent printing by boosting printers with features particular to computers and mobile devices.

Key words: HP, touch screen, printers, new, TouchSmart Web, Photosmart

European Union introduces new energy efficiency rules for PCs and printers

New energy efficiency standards come into force in Europe from July. These standards put copiers, printers and computers under a closer look. At the same time energy savings incurred by the application of the new ruling may save enough energy over 1 year to power Ireland for that same year.

Energy Star standards for computers and imaging equipment agreed earlier by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the European Commission have become law today, on July 1, in the EU.

According to the new energy star standards electronics manufacturers worldwide are required to make office equipment up to 14 percent more energy efficient than current models without having to make separate products for different standards in their two biggest markets, the U.S. and the EU.

The European Commission said better efficiency standards could save Europe up to 22 terawatt hours of electricity over four to six years.

If all imaging products sold in the U.S. met the new standards, U.S. consumers would save nearly $500 million a year in energy costs and prevent greenhouse gas emissions that would be released by more than 500,000 cars.

The EU is aiming to cut energy use by a fifth by 2020 as part of its ambitious goals to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent.

Source: Associated Press

Key words: EU, European Union, printers, copiers, energy efficiency, 2009

Xerox introduces two new MFUs

Xerox unveiled two new multifunctional printers WorkCentre 3210 and 3220 combining printing, copying, scanning and faxing. The new printers feature a 360 MHz processor, 128 MB of memory and USB port. They can scan directly to or print from a USB memory drive.

WorkCentre 3210 and 3220 can print at speeds of up to 24 ppm and 30 ppm, respectively. The WorkCentre 3220 comes with Adobe PostScript 3 and other features such as fax forward to e-mail and automatic two-sided printing to reduce paper consumption.

As Rick Dastin, President of Xerox Global Product Delivery Group, stated: “Small businesses typically operate on small budgets, especially when it comes to technology investments. These new MFPs have a great mix of features that deliver high performance and 'big-budget' technology to SMBs working on a shoestring.”

Source: www.xerox.com

Key words: Xerox, printers, new, MFUs

A new stream jet technology from Kodak

Kodak came up with a new ink-printing technology promising to push laser printing in the market. The new Stream Inkjet Technology was announced in 2008, but no printing devices used it until June, 2009. The Kodak Prosper S10 Imprinting System, using this technology, was released a couple of weeks ago. It represents a monochrome continuous inkjet printhead designed for inline digital printing on high-speed web devices.

The commercial introduction of the Kodak Prosper S10 Imprinting System follows the worldwide customer beta installations that demonstrated the technological and commercial benefits of Stream Inkjet Technology. Kodak stated that all its stream-based products will go under the Kodak Prosper name, as if showing the new opportunities the new technology can bring to corporate clients.

The Kodak Prosper S10 Imprinting System integrates seamlessly with web offset presses and web finishing equipment to add variable data to offset printed materials. Operating at 1,000 fpm (305 mpm) with a resolution of 600 dpi, it allows users to print variable data inline, saving time and money over a traditional, two-step process that combines offset pre-printed forms and offline laser imprinting.
With a print width of 4.16 inches (10.56 centimeters) and pigment-based inks that offer fade, scratch and water resistance, the S10 Imprinting System increases throughput and eliminates the need for additional standalone print devices.

Source: www.kodak.com

Key words: Kodak, ink streaming, printers, cartridges, inkjet, markets