Kodak puts emphasis on delivering profit for printers

While talk about the sale of its inkjet division dominates, Kodak is introducing no fewer than 20 products and updates at the show

Kodak is not in position at Drupa to name a purchaser for its Enterprise Inkjet Division, having announced that this would be sold earlier this year. According to CEO Jeff Clarke, as a business with sales of $1.8 billion Kodak lacked the resources to develop the technology and to take it to market in the way Prosper and its new brother Ultrastream deserved. Resources are better directed towards the plates and packaging operations which are delivering increasing sales and profits for the company.

The first stage of the sales process has been completed however, with expressions of interest lodged with Kodak’s advisers on the sale. Discussions are now underway with the 20 or so corporations that might be interested Clarke says. The process has not stopped Investment in the division however, with Prosper dominating the Kodak stand and with other presses using the technology at the show. A second Prosper line feeding a Manroland Web FoldLine is on the Manroland stand and a new Matti machine, using Prosper inkjet heads for low cost, high speed statement printing is on that company’s stand.

At Kodak there is emphasis on the Ultrastream, a new implementation of its continuous inkjet technology capable of printing at 600x1800dpi and available as a print head to integrate into fixed heads or scanning heads at prices that compete with piezo equivalents.

Nor is Kodak quitting digital printing. It continues with the Versamark technology, which has been overshadowed by Prosper, and with the Nexpress. A new Max platform has been announced as a next generation of the toner press. It has a new 1200dpi writing head with 12-bit colour depth which is the most data intensive writing head available and should result in the smoothest print quality of any toner press.

Max will also print to a maximum format of 356x1219mm on substrates to 610 microns. With an opaque white and the ability to change the sequence of the printing colours, this opens the way to packaging print as well as commercial print applications at up to 152ppm.

In the meantime the Nexpress ZX3900 includes the white option as well as refinements to costing and the operating System.

The bulk of revenues are coming from consumables where Kodak is addding press room chemicals under the Aqua Image brand to its growing plate portfolio. The process-free Sonora plate continues as the star of the show and has a version suited to UV printing to capture the interest of commercial printers switching to LED Operation. “We are concentrating on the printing industry for the long term,” says Clarke. “Almost all our R&D is focused exclusively on print.” This has included investment in Sonora plate lines in the US and Germany, and as a result Sonora is responsible for 16% of Kodak’s revenues.

“Over the next four years, pretty much the whole industry will shift to using process-free plates,” says Brad Krutchen, head of the printing Division. “Process-free saves a huge amount of water and chemistry.” The contrast of the just imaged plate has been increased to improve visibility for users and enhancements to the platesetters accompany the changes in the plate range,

The Trendsetter and Achieve platesetters can be fitted with up to four cassette plate loaders, each with 120 plates loaded, and a new Imaging head option for Trendsetter takes this to 75 B1 plates an hour throughput.

“It is part of our commitment to the industry,” he continues, “to help printers be more successful and more proitable and to improve the sustainability of the industry.”