Kodak receiving Pinnacle InterTech Award 2021 for advancing sustainable printing
Kodakis honored with the Pinnacle InterTech Award for its Kodak Sonora Xtra process free plates, which improve sustainability and profitability for even the most demanding printing operations. The Pinnacle InterTech Awards are sponsored by Printing United Alliance and recognize innovative technologies which are expected to have a major impact on graphic communications and related industries.
Kodak Sonora Xtra process free plates combine all of the sustainability, quality, and performance of the company’s field-proven process free plate technology, but with faster imaging speeds, dramatically improved image contrast and more robust handling. This gives printers a decisive sustainability advantage along with superior performance across a wider range of press types and print applications.
“The judges found it compelling that the undeniable benefits of process free plates are now available to mainstream printers without compromising quality or run length,” said Jim Workman, Vice President, Technology & Research at Printing United Alliance. “There’s little excuse for printers not to consider process free plates now.”
Kodak’s process free plates sustainability benefits
Kodak Sonora Xtra process free plates
The company’s process free plates require no chemicals, water, or energy to be developed. In addition to these sustainability benefits in prepress, Kodak Sonora Xtra process free plates also lead to significant cost savings for business owners in the pressroom, up to US$ 315,000 for a large-sized printer. These cost savings are made possible by less press downtime for plate remakes, fewer instances of a failed make ready, and overall waste reductions.
“More and more printers are now switching to process free plates because of increasing interest in protecting the environment, constant pressure in the industry to cut costs and the desire for more efficient workflows and faster prepress processes,” said John O’Grady, senior Vice President, Traditional Print, at Eastman Company. “Now, with the improved performance and speed of Kodak Sonora Xtra process free plates, there is no reason not to switch to process free plates.”
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
