Kodak Shows Stream Color Inkjet
Webcrafters has ordered the first Prosper Color XL press, using Kodak Stream color inkjet technology
By Bill Esler, Editor in Chief -- Graphic Arts Online, July 24, 2009
Kodak unveiled its long-awaited Stream four-color inkjet web press this week. A 20-inch wide demonstration version of the
. A 25-inch production model will be installed by
Madison, WI-based Webcrafters later this year
.
Stream inkjet technology, already in commercial application in the 1,000 fpm Prosper
S10 monochrome imprinting heads integrated to an offset press line at
Deerfield Beach, FL-based Wilen Direct
, is the result of a lengthy research and development cycle that involved creation of a new style of continuous inkjet print heads and inks. The imprinting heads, which measure 4.16-inch wide, were first shown at drupa and Graph Expo last year.
The color version also requires some adaptation of papers optimized for high-speed commercial inkjet printing. The S10 monochrome imprinting heads can keep pace with personalization of a 1,000 fpm web offset press. When stitched together into a dedicated inkjet web press line with a 25-inch wide printing swath—either monochrome, for book applications, or color for general commercial work—the press will operate at up to 650 fpm.
Each Stream inkjet head weighs about three pounds. The same heads are used both for the Prosper S10 imprinting devices, and for the black and color versions of the Prosper commercial press. The printing heads deliver a pigmented ink with nano-milled colorants suspended in a fast drying polymeric fluid. Dryers operating at near infrared frequency cure the moving web between
In July 2009 GAM
stations and at delivery.
Ink is fed from 55 gallon drums. The heads stream ink continuously, hence the name. When a non-print area of the substrate moves by, a combination of thermal valves and diverters shunts unwanted ink back to a refiltering system for recycling back to the printing heads. The press can be integrated to automated finishing systems, such as book finishing devices from Muller Martini.
Kodak estimates there are 77 trillion pages printed commercially each year; about 880 billion are printed digitally either electrophotographically or by inkjet, mostly for mailings and corporate communications. Kevin Joyce, Kodak's worldwide VP sales and marketing for digital printing solutions, says his company's goal is to capture 1 trillion pages of print volume for Stream-based printing engines by 2015.
