The first Kodak Prosper Ultra 520 inkjet press is Europe is heading to Weidenberg in Bavaria later this year.
The press was the highlight of the Kodak stand at Drupa where Kodak announced it had received five strong letters of intent for the press from a single customer. Now it has confirmed that the first European customer is SDV Medien+Service, a direct mail printer, marketing agency and omnichannel communications provider. It specialises in personalised mailings, producing more than 250 million for a range of clients including Sky in the last year.
The company operates from two sites, one in Weidenberg which houses its inkjet presses, and a plant in Dresden where it has sheetfed offset machines. It also operates the agency and data business from the Saxony city, employing 250 in all. It installed its first high speed inkjet web press in 2019 and a further machine in 2021. It bought its first digital press in 1998.
The Ultra 520 is a continuous inkjet press that runs at 152 metres a minute at full resolution, which will make the machine the fastest digital press in its stable when installed later this year. It runs on all paper types and has been specified with Kodachrome water based pigment inks.
CEO Sven Schmöle says: “The Ultra 520, with its particular combination of stunning output quality and high productivity, is the right solution for a larger proportion of our jobs.”
The press will handle personalised direct mail pieces, short run versioned jobs and will produce short run litho jobs where the performance of the inkjet press can be more effective than offset litho. The customers span automotive, retail, finance, insurance and telecoms.
Head of central services Jochen Schreib adds: “Our new digital press from Kodak will enable us to produce client jobs much faster and more efficiently, will increase the paper efficiency and establish a more sustainable digital manufacturing.”
