Kodak has developed and tested a new inkjet head using a version of its Versamark continuous inkjet technology.
The Ultrastream head delivers a 3.75pl droplet for a resolution of 1800 x 600dpi of aqueous ink at a speed up to 150m/minute. This is enough for a B2 press to run at 12,000sph according to Kodak senior vice president of Eastman Kodak and president of the enterprise inkjet division Philip Cullimore. As yet there is no B2 press for this to be put to the test.
The aim is to present the head and output samples at Drupa in order to open up talks with partners about using the CIJ head as an alternative to piezo of thermal drop on demand print heads. “We only put the head on a paper transport three weeks ago,” he says. Samples on a coated web offset paper with a pre treatment are already good enough to show.
At Drupa Kodak will show a four colour system printing on a narrow web to represent a label printing application and to demonstrate the quality it can achieve.
Other than this, Kodak will not be building its own print platforms but wants to link up with companies in web printing, wide format and potentially sheetfed printing. The head is light and can be configured as single 200mm wide heads on a moving carriage for flatbed printing for example, or as a wide array, up to 2.5 metres, for a single pass application. Each head will sell for $5,000, which Cullimore says is competitive with the piezo inkjet heads. Kodak will supply heads, the ink and the ink delivery system.
“We are looking for a range of OEM partners to develop with us a range of printing devices during 2018 for launch on the market in 2019,” he says
The Ultrastream technology is positioned as a higher quality but slower speed technology than the Stream technology used in Prosper heads. Kodak has shipped more than 1300 of these since launch in 2008 and has 60 Prosper presses in the field. Stream uses heat to create droplets and air to blow smaller unwanted ink into a collection trap for recirculation; Ultrastream revives the idea of using charge plates to deflect ink droplets, allowing them to be smaller and thus deliver the higher quality. Whereas the older generation had individual plates per nozzle, Ultrastream has a single electrode.
However, like Prosper and Versamark heads of old, these are limited in life. Kodak reckons that an Ultrastream head will be good for 3 trillion droplets – equivalent to 2,000 hours use. The head will then be refurbished by Kodak while the user clips another into place.
Kodak is still testing the attributes of the printhead, such as how far it would need to be from substrate, and throughput speeds can be achieved without affecting quality. Cullimore points to the key advantage of CIJ in that the continuously firing nozzles do not block easily and that there is no satellite splatter from droplets. He now has to convince OEMs that may have been considering an alternative approach that Ultrastream is as important for their futures as it is for Kodak’s.
Kodak reckons that packaging is prime territory for inkjet printing, either on narrow web presses, on corrugated or for carton printing. The Ultrastream print head will enable further higher quality applications to be developed by OEM partners.
