Described as a science fantasy black comedy, Poor Things was produced and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and released in September 2023, gathering both critical acclaim and awards including a Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival, two Golden Globe awards, BAFTA nominations and is shortlisted for the Academy Awards (‘Oscars’). It was shot on a combination of Kodak Ektachrome, Vision3 500T and Eastman Double-X Black & White 35mm film stocks, as part of the director’s intention to create ‘a unique and memorable visual setting’ for the fantastical story of the film. 

Kodak acted on the opportunity to complement the film with printed materials, resulting in the production of an 11-panel postcard set that features images captured on set by photographer Atsushi Nishijima. The photos were also shot on Kodak film, Professional Porta 400 in this case.

To support the global launch of the film across territories including the US, UK and EMEA region. 110,000 postcard sets were printed three-up on the Prosper Ultra 520 web press, on 185gsm Pixelle Enhanced HiBrite inkjet paper, running at speeds of up to152m/min. Once printed, the sets were cut, perforated and fan-folded for distribution.

‘The Poor Things postcard collection is not just a promotional endeavour; it’s a celebration of the craftsmanship and artistry that goes into creating memorable cinematic experiences. This joint project has shown that the Prosper Ultra 520 Press is ideally suited to efficiently producing high-quality, high-ink coverage work with short lead times,’ commented Denisse Goldbarg, Kodak’s chief marketing officer and head of EAMER Sales.

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The open house event at the company’s Customer Experience Centre in Telford, Shropshire, was attended by some 65 UK customers and included presentations of the recently launched Pro C7500 and Pro C9500 toner presses, Ricoh’s software and workflow portfolio and a demonstration of the new Auto Color Adjuster.

The latter is designed to de-skill colour management by providing a simple one-touch approach to measuring calibration charts for ICC profile building, or printed samples in order to provide accurate matching of existing work, across multiple print devices and over time. The floor-standing unit has a built-in spectrophotometer and auto-feed that can read a patch chart in around 20 seconds.

It offer three modes: Quick Adjust which checks press calibration and compensates for colour deviation; Verify, which enables test charts containing Fogra Media Wedges to be generated and measured, with pass/fail certification; and Spot Colour which allows for matching of existing samples by scanning the sample to be matched, plus a ‘raw’ print from the press in question and automatically generating a device-link CMYK-to-CMYK correction profile to make subsequent new prints match the sample.

Ricoh’s commercial print sales director Tim Carter spoke to Digital Printer and revealed that the announcement of a UK customer site for the company’s long heralded Pro Z75 inkjet press is due ‘within the next few weeks’;  installation at a French site is presently underway, with one to follow in the Netherlands, and a fourth is expected by the end of the current financial year. Mr Carter said that the fourth machine could possibly also be placed in the UK.

‘We are scaling manufacturing in Japan and getting the spares, support and infrastructure in place to ramp up installations significantly,’ he confirmed. Describing the target customer for the B2 press, he explained, ‘It has been designed to have the broadest appeal possible, for general commercial printers moving standard offset pages to digital.’ Target businesses include online printers and gifting/greetings cards producers; Mr Carter also noted that the press’s ability to handle stock up to 600microns thick would suit some packaging applications – helped by its water-based inks – and said that it has been designed to ‘open up and expand opportunities both for Ricoh and its customers’.

There is an optional primer for the Pro Z75, he added, ‘but the aim aim is to not to have to use it, as the press prints on silk, matt and coated papers without it’, and the primer was intended for use with speciality media or some types of uncoated stock. He also explained that the dryer, critical to presenting flat dry sheets in duplexing work, uses a patent-applied-for directed heat technique that focuses on the imaged area.

Reference was also made during a general presentation to a forthcoming ‘new [inkjet] platform’ that would use AI and automation to ‘match offset productivity’. Few further details were given but Mr Carter likened the next step to the difference between Ricoh’s VC60000 and VC70000 models (both of which have evolved since their introduction) and implied that speed, quality and substrate flexibility were all in line to be further improved. More information about this is expected in a month or so. Both this and the Pro Z75 will be on display at drupa 2024.

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Branded as Kodak Ektacolor Inks and Kodak Optimax Primers, the new products are part of a wider launch that reflects the company’s heritage in advanced materials and chemicals as well as in colour capture and reproduction.

The Inks used in the Stream-based print family, including the Prosper 7000 Turbo, Prosper 6000 and Prosper Imprinting Systems, are formulated to yield brighter, clearer, punchier print at speeds ‘faster than any other commercial inkjet system on the market’. Ektacolor Inks are available for both pigment and dye-based applications (Prosper Imprinting Systems only), for versatility.

Like the recently announced Kodachrome inks for the high-quality Ultrastream Technology systems, including the Prosper Ultra 520, the Ektacolor Inks are manufactured using Kodak’s proprietary pigment micro-milling process, which creates extremely fine nanoparticle pigments with a very narrow size distribution. The finer pigments make the ink easier to jet, reduce light scatter and deliver ultra-thin dried ink layers as well as a ‘superior’ colour gamut. Lower levels of humectants  result in faster drying, even when printing at coverage on difficult substrates.

The use of Optimax primers allows users of Kodak inkjet presses to avoid the need for inkjet-treated papers and other speciality substrates. The primers are said to improve ink receptivity, ink adhesion, rub resistance and image quality across a wide range of substrates, including paper, cardboard, plastic, film, and even metallised materials.

The Optimax Primers are further claimed to facilitate the recyclability of printed products by improving deinkability. They are offered as anEnhanced Primer for coated papers and a Standard Primer for uncoated papers.

Jim Continenza, executive chairman and CEO, Kodak, commented, ‘Along with our high-speed continuous inkjet technologies, these inks and primers create a complete inkjet ecosystem with perfectly matched components, all developed and manufactured in-house by Kodak. This helps printers produce a huge variety of applications efficiently, productively and profitably.’

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Built on the established ProStream platform, the new ProStream 3000 series is said to deliver consistent offset-equivalent print quality and brings a wider selection of substrates, including heavyweight papers, up to higher print speeds, enabling faster digital production of a broader range of commercial print jobs.

The extended media capability is claimed to makes it easier for print providers – including general commercial and online printers, book producers and photo product specialists – to migrate high-volume high-value work from offset and other ‘legacy’ technologies. According to Canon, ProStream now offers the full end-to-end productivity benefits of inkjet production across the majority of applications, from direct mail and books to postcards, posters and calendars.

Available in two versions – the 80m/min ProStream 3080 and the 133m/min ProStream 3133 – the new press series prints web widths up to 558mm and page ‘lengths’ up to 1524mm. In terms of sheet-fed format productivity, the new ProStream models  can print up to 11,300 4/4 B2sph or 1790 A4-size 4/4ppm, equating to 58 million A4 impressions per month, on a wide range of substrates and weights, including standard offset coated, uncoated and inkjet-optimised papers up to 300gsm, without slowing down significantly for heavier media.

To achieve this, the 3000 series incorporates an enhanced drying system, based on that used in the ProStream 1000 series, which uses air floatation, but adding a new asymmetric design which is said to dry all jobs evenly and in a controlled way without coming into contact with the paper. Image quality with ‘accurate, vibrant colour’ is delivered by native 1200dpi piezo drop-on-demand print heads used with Canon’s water-based polymer pigment inks. The extended media capability comes from Smart ColorGrip, a new version of Canon’s jetted primer. Now also available as an option for the ProStream 1000 series, this allows the amount of ColorGrip solution to be varied across the page to adjust for heavy or light ink coverage.

Jennifer Kolloczek, European Planning, Marketing & Innovation senior director, Production Print at Canon Europe, commented, ‘With the launch of the new ProStream 3000 series, we’re further expanding this successful platform, delivering the speed, efficiency and media versatility printers need to energise their growth. The enhanced productivity on a number of applications means that users can now confidently migrate even more offset and other print work to digital on-demand.’

The first ProStream 3000 will be installed at Pixartprinting Group in Italy, joining the company’s existing three ProStream 1800 presses, which have been used to bridge the ‘margin maximisation gap’ between the company’s existing offset and digital B2 toner presses.

On the sheet-fed inkjet side, Canon is launching a new software release R4.3, which it says ‘delivers an exceptional level of image quality, efficiency and productivity’ and extends the applications of the VarioPrint iX series to premium direct mail and high quality image-rich books. This is achieved through a new automatic image quality verification system, which scans every sheet to check the quality and dynamically adjusts system parameters as needed.

Other performance advances include an automatic customer media validation process for the easy set-up of new media, as well as improved detection of potential multi-sheet feeds in the paper input module. The update also brings a number of workflow benefits with the Canon PrismaSync controller such as SMB hot-folder support, subset support via JDF, media handling for two-sided media with different front/back treatment and improved encrypted disk support. The software update will be available in March 2023.

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Over the years, Hunkeler’s eponymous Innovationdays event has become an important platform for the continuous feed digital printing industry to coalesce around, attracting all the major press manufacturers as well as a variety of software developers, and providing a highly focused gathering for this part of the digital printing industry.

Almost 100 partners will also present their latest products in all areas of digital printing and processing in Halls 1 and 2 at the Messe Luzern. These partners include all the major manufacturers of printing and finishing systems, software developers and providers of finishing materials and consumables. As in previous years, many of the exhibitors will use the event to offer a European or global premiere of their latest innovations. A selection of these is listed below.

Exhibitor highlights

Mailroom automation for transactional print and direct mail will be the focus of the Bowe Systec stand, with a particular focus on the Fusion Speed inserting system, which will have its first ever live demonstration in Lucerne. The inserter can process up to 30,000 envelopes per hour and will be demonstrated in conjunction with Bowe’s Boxit system for automatic filling of postal trays. The company will also explain how upstream and downstream stages can be streamlined as part of an end-to-end automation concept.

Canon is playing its cards close to its chest but has promised two product news announcements at the event which ‘build on Canon’s expertise in inkjet’. Topics to be discussed also include the company’s strategy and how technology and business innovation can be harnessed together help ‘future-proof’ PSPs’ operations; the focus will be on publishing, promotion and business communications.

Another premiere at Innovationdays will be on HP’s stand, where the recently-launched PageWide Advantage 2200 digital web press will make it first European appearance. During the four days of the event, HP will be printing different applications such as postcards, leaflets, catalogues and books on a variety of substrates on the 150m/min press. In addition, the US company will showcase automation and services solutions.

Hybrid Software Group will feature its technologies for industrial print manufacturing processes which use inkjet and other printing techniques, showcasing all its brands covering the full stack of core technologies needed for inkjet. These include colour management, high-speed Digital Front Ends and Rips, pre-press software for labels and packaging and printhead drive electronics. All the group brands will be represented: ColorLogic; Global Graphics Software; Hybrid Software; iC3D; Meteor Inkjet and Xitron.

Converting and high quality embellishment will be the theme of the Kama stand, which will feature the Servo generation of the ProCut 76 Foil. The machine suits a range of applications from die-cutting, creasing and perforating to embellishment with hot foil, hologram and relief for commercial jobs and folding cartons. It will be shown with the AutoRegister AR3, which uses two cameras to bring each sheet into position at full speed.

Kern will present the new Kern 3200 Flash, a modular multi-format inserting system designed for flexible and complex inserting jobs in the medium- to high-output range. Different configuration options make it suitable for use in transactional and direct mail. A newly-developed inserting module is said to be the only system in this performance class that can be equipped with more than one envelope magazine, allowing the system to process different envelopes job by job, without the operator having to make a physical change. The 3200 Flash can be combined with a choice of modules, including roll and single sheet feeding. It is also possible to integrate up to 16 inserting stations.

Kodak’s Prosper Ultra 520 will get its first European showing

Another European first will be the Prosper Ultra 520 web press from Kodak. To be shown with a Hunkeler unwinder and rewinder, along with the Hunkeler WI8 web inspection system, the press will print live three versions of a ‘magalog’ (blend of magazine and catalogue) with different editorial and marketing content. The application will demonstrate the Ultra 520’s ability to print heavy ink coverage on standard offset paper at 150m/min. Other finished samples from the Ultra 520 and from the Prosper 7000 Turbo press, which runs at up to 410m/min, will also be presented, along with Kodak’s Prinergy On Demand workflow software.

Kyocera will feature its TaskAlfa Pro 15000C sheet-fed inkjet press, with a focus on its sustainability credentials, productivity, output quality and media flexibility. One-to-one demonstrations are being offered. More information may also be available about the graphic-arts focused version that is understood to be in development.

Another world first in Lucerne is the arrival of the Prinova Digital Saddle stitcher from Müller Martini. The highly automated 9000 cycles per hour unit supports both digital and hybrid print production and brings Müller’s Smart Factory concept to magazines, brochures and catalogues. Developments to the Vareo Pro perfect binding line will also be shown, including a mixed mode that allows softcover books and hardcover book blocks to be produced in the same run, complemented by a new de-stacker and sorting for subsequent InfiniTrim cutting. A variety of live jobs, including all-digital and hybrid printed products, will be featured, along with the supporting Connex workflow.

Workflow developer OneVision will explain how its software allows for ‘a complete integration of company processes’ by being configured to suit existing systems. The modular middleware can automate the production process from file input through printing and embellishment and finishing, while connecting to existing print and finishing hardware and software such as MIS or ERP.

Ricoh will be making the first public showing of its Pro VC70000e inkjet press that includes a number of hardware and software features and updates which collectively increase ease of use through automation, while providing greater media and applications flexibility via pre-coating. This will be complemented by the introduction of TotalFlow Producer, which the company describes as a ‘vendor agnostic automated job onboarding solution’. The new workflow software designed to automate job intake and consolidation from multiple sources, to run automatic pre-flighting and to support personalised job upload and status portals for print clients.

Riso will feature its newest additions to the SRA3 Valezus sheet-fed inkjet line, which are targeted at production print job demands that are difficult to handle efficiently on continuous-feed presses. The twin-engined Valezus T2200 is capable of duplex printing at 330ppm. The single-engine Valezus T1200 is aimed at both short and long-run full-colour transactional printing at 165ppm. Both are equipped with feeder/stacker units for a maximum capacity of 8000 sheets on the T2200, and half that on the T2100. Both models support uncoated papers only, from 46 to 210gsm.

The Smart High Definition technology from Scodix will appear in the premiere of the Ultra 6000 embellishment press

Also making a first European appearance will be the Ultra 6000 digital embellishment press from Scodix with SHD (smart high definition) capability. It will be used to demonstrate embellishment of B1 and B2 sheets for a variety of book covers, from paperbacks to high-end jackets and Scodix says it embodies the economics and productivity to replace analogue embellishment technology whilst offering publishers greater flexibility. Examples of the SHD technology will also be shown.

Staff from Solimar Systems will demonstrate how its workflow-enhancing post-composition solutions support production printing on both cut-sheet and continuous feed devices, finishing, mailing, e-delivery and document archiving. The company is partnering with HP to show how direct mailers can save significant sums and with Screen to demonstrate dashboard tracking of incoming work and device-level ink and media consumption reporting via Screen’s Equios workflow.

W+D will use the event to launch its new BB820+, a new flagship inserter which the company says allows for the widest range of direct mail sizes, from C6 envelopes up to B4 flat packages up to 15mm thick, and which can insert at up to 20,000 piece per hour, 25% faster than the model it replaces. The new machine comes with a new rotary feeder for consistent feeding at the higher speeds and an additional servo axis for flexible and size-dependent motion control of collating track, envelope gripper transport andinsert finger.

Short-run book printing using the Sirius dry toner technology will form a major part of the Xeikon exhibit, centred on the roll-fed duplex Xeikon SX30000 press, which is also getting its first public European showing. Three high-end applications will be shown – a coffee-table travel book, a full colour tourist guide and a highly illustrated book on architecture. The SX30000 roll-fed press will be running in line with a Hunkeler Gen8 roll-to-stack solution, producing book blocks which to be bound on an offline Muller Martini Vareo Pro with InfiniTrim.

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All Truepress Jet 520HD presses  will now be equipped with the MyIro (‘iro’ is Japanese for colour) automatic colour calibration software and auto-scanning spectrophotometer from Konica Minolta, replacing manual colour calibration processes that required skilled staff and could take several hours. The new system integrates all steps in the calibration process software, guiding users through the density adjustment, linearisation and ICC profiling.

The new auto-scan spectrophotometer is said to speed the measuring processes by some four times compared to the previously-used measuring table, with the entire calibration process now taking 30 to 45 minutes, representing a time saving of between 90 minutes to two hours per machine setup.

‘Colour calibration is the essential, final step in the setup of a printing process,’ said Markus Hitzler, technical sales manager Graphic Arts at Konica Minolta Sensing Europe. ‘This step ultimately determines whether the qualities of the press, paper and ink can be fully utilised. It also has a significant influence on commercial aspects, such as ink consumption.’

‘The big difference with our previous system will be the standard built-in quality control, complying to common industry standards such as Fogra PSD, G7 Verify and ISO validation print, because this is what our customers will use every day,’ noted Taishi Motoshige, marketing director at Screen Europe. ‘Thanks to the spectrophotometer, our customers will detect colour differences before the human eye can see them, earlier than before, and in much more detail.’

There will also be options to adopt the new software and spectrophotometer for existing Truepress Jet 520HD customers.

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The HP Latex 2700 family offers 3.2m width roll printing at up to 89sqm/hr via a double printhead arrangement, using fourth-generation Latex inks to achieve what is described as a ‘30% wider [colour] gamut’ across a range of media types that includes thin films, vinyl and paper. There are also variants of the Latex 2700 which add white ink, claimed to be the whitest on the market, and offer speeds of up to 54sqm/hr; automatic ink recirculation and the ability to store the white printheads in a rotating offline chamber to eliminate waste between jobs that use white ink.

The Latex inks carry a number of environmental and safety certifications, allowing their use on direct-contact items such as toys and wallpapers, and are supplied in recyclable cardboard-based cartridges that also use recycled plastics from HP.

HP’s Professional Print Service Plans are available in two levels, Basic and Plus, each containing a portfolio of service and software solutions. New and enhanced features include Print Beat Live Production, which gives users a single real-time view of all jobs queued and in production across multiple sites, including on HP Indigo presses, and Print Beat Jobs API, which shares printer data – including from non-HP hardware – with external ERP/MIS systems for process automation and business insights. HP Learn is a digital learning platform with free and premium training modules according to service plan, while the Enhanced HP Service Centre offers proactive troubleshooting and smart diagnostics.

‘To reach higher margins, PSPs are always on the hunt for efficiency gains, and technology that allows them to say yes to more jobs with the confidence to deliver exceptional results,’ said Daniel Martinez, general manager, HP Large Format. ‘Our latest offerings are designed to enable this. The HP Latex 2700 family delivers increased print quality, raw speed and white ink capabilities that will amaze customers. Meanwhile, our new Professional Print Service Plans give PSPs a range of ways to manage fleets and operations – improving workflow and maximising the potential of their business.’

Both the Latex 2700 printers and the Print Service plans are available immediately.

On the PageWide side of the business, HP has introduced the T485 HD, a 1.06m (42-in) web inkjet that runs at up to 244m/min in mono or colour Performance mode (slower at higher quality), equivalent to over 7300ppm. The new press uses HP’s Brilliant Ink to give a wider colour gamut on supported papers, which include both coated and uncoated offset types, and is said by HP to be suitable for producing commercial print items including brochures, catalogues and newspapers in addition to direct mail and books. Existing T400-series models may be upgraded to T485 specification. It is expected to be available in the first half of 2023.

The existing T250 HD model has also been upgraded, with a new 244m/min mono mode, representing a 60% increase in productivity, allowing the production of 1250 300-page 6 x 9-in book blocks per hour.

HP also reported the first installation of its PageWide Advantage 2200, announced in early September 2020. This is at DataOne, part of Groupe Diffusion Plus in France, a customer communication management company which provides solutions for transactional and targeted marketing programmes. Loïc Lefebvre, development director, DataOne/Groupe Diffusion Plus said, ‘This new investment is decisive for our group, as we have decided to accelerate our ‘eco-responsible strategy for a sustainable customer relationship.’ ‘

The HP PageWide commercial press platform is reported to have passed the 750 billion pages printed milestone. Additionally, HP has increased the flexibility of its HP SmartStream Elite print server family to support the needs of printers producing direct mail and transactional applications, via expanded support for common file types including IPDS and AFP as well as PostScript and PDF.

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The Nozomi 18000+ LED is a 1.8m width single-pass printer designed for the sign and display graphics market, based on the technologies in the corrugated printer of the same name. EFI claims that at up to 1000 sheets or 1.2 x 1.4m boards per hour, equivalent to between 3000 and 5000sqm/hr, it is three to five times faster than scanning head alternatives and can handle both synthetic and paper-based media.

Announced in 2021, the 18000+ offers manual or fully automated feeding and stacking, a hybrid aqueous/UV primer for difficult materials and optional pre-white coating for reflective or coloured substrates and/or post UV coating for durability and weather protection. EFI contends that its ‘unparalleled throughput helps users drive profitability in a wide range of high-volume signage applications’.

That argument seems to have been taken on board at Delta Group, which has ordered the new press for delivery in the third quarter of 2022, making it the second customer site for the 18000+ and the first outside North America. 

‘We have had remarkable success as an early adopter of EFI’s single-pass technology on our first Nozomi solution, an EFI Nozomi C18000 corrugated board printer that we use to produce high-quality displays,’ said Delta Group COO Martin Shipp. ‘The new 18000+ model for signage and display graphics will be a welcome development for our customers. The range of applications this printer enables, printing on paper, styrene, corrugated plastic and more at very high speeds, keeps Delta Group ahead in its ability to meet every customer need in the display graphics space.’

A preview was given at Fespa of the EFI Reggiani EcoTerra, a new all-in-one ‘eco-friendly’ pigment-based textile roll printer that requires neither pre- not post-treatment for the fabrics it prints, thus reducing its footprint, energy and water usage. The EcoTerra offers a seven-colour ink set (CMYK plus blue, red and green) for expanded colour gamut and is claimed to achieve excellent wet and dry colour fastness with sharp detail and high durability. An enhanced polymerisation and finishing unit is said to give a softer hand feel to finished printed fabrics. An analytics application, Query, for monitoring and reporting, is also in development, and Reggiani demonstrated a partnership with textile RIP software developer Inèdit at the show in Berlin.

EFI also used Fespa to confirm the availability of Fiery Impress, an ‘affordable ready-to-go’ DFE that should suit smaller OEM customers, announced at its Connect event in January 2022. ‘This isn’t some RIP trying to be an industrial digital front end,’ said EFI Fiery VP of Sales and Marketing John Henze, ‘This is the market-leading industrial Fiery DFE taking inkjet printing to the next level and making market adoption easier.’

Also now available are the Prep-It nesting software and IQ production monitoring and analysis suite for wide format applications. No availability date was given for the EcoTerra direct-to-fabric printer. 

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The Lucerne-based high speed digital printing and finishing event, which until 2019 had been held biennially, will now run from 27 February to 2 March 2023, resuming what would have been its normal schedule, and like drupa, missing an instalment entirely. According to Hunkeler, the 2022 space was almost fully booked, with increasing demand; all existing bookings are being transferred to the 2023 event.

‘The decision was made in close consultation with our largest exhibitors and business partners,’ stated Stefan Hunkeler, president of the Board of Directors and responsible for Innovationdays. ‘Our goal is to hold a successful event. The unclear Covid-19 developments in various countries continue to restrict travel. The rules and regulations around the pandemic are dynamic and, in some cases, locally regulated. They continue to make international passenger travel difficult. In addition, various exhibitors are confronted with the globally known supply chain problems, which make it even more difficult to hold such an event.’

The 2022 event would have coincided with the company’s hundredth anniversary.

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Executive chairman Jim Continenza spoke of the ‘new Kodak‘ that was now in a better financial position than for 20 years, ‘easier to do business with’ and fully focused on print, films and chemicals. He said that the company is ‘doubling down on digital because the future is digital print’.

Prosper Ultra 520 inkjet press

Aimed at mid-volume production, the Prosper Ultra 520 is a 150m/min 520mm width roll-fed inkjet that brings Kodak’s Ultrastream continuous flow inkjet technology to the commercial print market. Senior VP of Kodak’s Digital Print business Randy Vandagriff extolled the benefits of Ultrastream, whose uniformly sized and shaped 3.75pl drops of water based-ink allow for accurate placement in a wide range of applications, and said that the new press was ‘closing the offset quality gap’ with quality that was ‘virtually indistinguishable from offset’.

The Ultra 520 will be offered in commercial and publishing variants, with the main difference being the drying system, with the former requiring more capacity to reflect high coverage levels. Both will print CMYK at 600x1800dpi, equivalent to a 200line screen in offset printing, and can handle stock from 45 to 270gsm, including glossy papers with high coverage – an inline priming system is used where necessary, or pre-primed stock can be used. Throughput is 2000 duplex A4 pages a minute, and monthly duty cycle is around the 10 million mark. Mr Vandagriff claimed the press has the lowest running costs in its class, especially with heavy coverage at high volume, and that its water-based inks were immune to rising solvent costs. It is driven by a Kodak DFE that’s based on Adobe’s APPE 5 RIP technology.

The Prosper Ultra 520 is expected to cost around US $2 million, around half the price of the existing Prosper 6000, which continues for higher volume (20 million impression per month) and less quality intensive requirements. Applications for the Ultra 520 include general commercial print, direct mail, periodical publishing, books and manuals. Beta testing will being later this year and commercial availability is expected in 2021. A single-sided application for carton print is a possibility, as this can be done in the Prosper 6000. Discussion with partners re a possible corrugated version are in progress and when asked if there would be a cut-sheet version, Mr Continenza said, ‘we’re working on it’.

Prinergy on Demand

Having moved components of its long established Prinergy workflow online in the last couple of years, Kodak is now going fully Cloud-based with a scalable, monthly subscription based version, Prinergy on Demand, that supports a wide range of other hardware and software vendors’ offerings as well as Kodak’s. VP of the Digital Print business Todd Bigger emphasised the security aspect, with the software hosted on Microsoft Azure servers; the ‘always on’ nature of the software regardless of local events; reduced cost of ownership through proactive monitoring and maintenance; and data analytics capabilities that will help find bottlenecks and errors in production flows. AI capabilities are to be added to this in the near future.

Mr Bigger said that the printing structure is based on the server and managed services, with all licenses included in the monthly subscription cost, which can be varied to meet production requirements, saying the entry point is ‘now much easier, it’s operational expenditure, not capital expenditure’. The Cloud-based service is available immediately, with multi-tenant (shared) options to be added later this year.

Nexfinity relaunched

Kodak is also relaunching its flagship cut-sheet toner press, the Nexfinity, which was introduced in early 2018. The press, which builds on the success of the Nexpress line, now offers 152ppm top speed (though this is when print in 1300mm long sheet mode for six-page A4 products or similar), putting it at the top end of cut-sheet toner productivity. Jeff Zellmer, VP for global sales and strategy, also emphasised the solid build quality, based like its predecessors on a Heidelberg chassis – ‘it’s built like a press, not like a laser printer’ – and its lead edge perfecting and ‘spot on’ registration compared to alternatives.

Another attribute of the Nexfinity he mentioned is the flexibility offered by the fifth colour station, which can be changed over in minutes. Mr Zellmer admitted to Digital Printer that Kodak had not sold ‘as many as we would have liked’ of the Nexfinity since its introduction two years ago; the only UK installation of which we are aware is at Matthews the Printers in London. He spoke also of various internal improvements that had been made to increase the life of consumable parts and how the Nexfinity’s profitability increases with throughput: ‘between half a million and a million impression a month, the more you do, the more profitable it is,’ he said.

Packaging and offset

Kodak is also introducing with Uteco a 1.25m width version of the Uteco Sapphire Evo press for flexible packaging. Also based on Ultrastream technology with water-based inks, the new Evo model is expected to compete with flexo and gravure print; running at between 25 and 50m/min, Mr Continenza said ‘there’s nothing digital at that width’.

Enhancements to the Sonora range of processes offset plates and the Magnus line of platesetters were also announced.

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