Kodak’s Prosper inkjet technology is going to be used to print disposable nappies and other personal hygiene products following a partnership with Italian machinery company GDM.
The company is a leading provider of converting and packaging lines for disposable hygiene products. Under the terms of the new agreement GDM will be able to integrate Kodak’s Prosper and Prosper S print heads, raising the possibility of nappy products personalised by an infant’s name, or customised by retailers or brands and for other ways to enhance the design of infant and adult diapers as well as other disposable hygiene products.
In announcing the partnership, a statement says the inkjet technology would be used to print “decorative designs, marketing messages and instructions for use during the manufacturing process of the entire range of disposable hygiene products”.
Kodak’s technology is ideally suited to this as the water based inks have been certified as safe for direct skin contact by authorities in Europe and the US. The inks have had to be optimised for the application to ensure that there is good adhesion between the ink and the material, using percolating fluids where necessary.
The size of the printheads poses no problem for an integration while speeds up to 600m/min will keep up with the productivity of the GDM lines. This is the first application for Prosper heads at this speed, previous graphic art applications such as newspaper printing, have been limited to a maximum of 300m/min. Printing nappies does not have the same resolution limitations.
Each line will require multiple print heads, considerably more than for an imprinting function a conventional printing press, to offer the flexibility and printing in either mono or four colours. These run up to 450m/min producing as many as 500 items a minute in different styles.
The infant nappy market is reckoned to be worth $47.3 billion globally, divided between baby pants and open nappies. While the market is stable in the West, the fastest growing markets are in Nigeria, India and Indonesia where higher birth rates and increasing prosperity are coming together to increase demand.
“Combining Kodak’s continuous inkjet and sustainable ink technologies with GDM’s expertise in material handling will deliver a wide range of opportunities for our customers,” says GDM market development manager Marco Rosani. “Our customers will get increased flexibility, cost optimisation and a more sustainable approach thanks to this inline integration.”
