Kodak introduces Kodak Prosper 7000 Turbo press

new inkjet web press offering speed of up to 410 mpm (1,345 fpm) or up to 5,523 A4 ppm

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Kodak
Kodak Prosper 7000 Turbo inkjet press. Photo Kodak

Kodak has introduced Kodak Prosper 7000 Turbo Press at its inkjet facility in Dayton, Ohio. Kodak’s new inkjet web press uses Kodak stream inkjet technology offering printing speeds of up to 410 mpm (1,345 fpm) or up to 5,523 A4 ppm, which is almost 35% faster than its nearest competitor. It enables commercial, publishing, and newspaper printers to compete more effectively with offset and to shift more long-run jobs from conventional printing processes to inkjet. Kodak is setting unprecedented standards in speed and productivity with its new full-color perfecting inkjet press.

Turbo productivity in a variety of applications

Prosper 7000 Turbo not only impresses with its printing speed but also with its vast application and substrate versatility. It supports a maximum web width of 648 mm (25.5 inches) with a variable cutoff length up to 1,372 mm (54 inches) while printing on a wide range of coated and uncoated stocks, newsprint, specialty papers as well as recycled papers.

Offering three optimized print modes, the Propser 7000 Turbo press meets the specific requirements of different applications. This allows printers to optimize their production process to always print at the best combination of speed and resolution. The quality mode, which is roughly comparable to offset printing using a 200 lpi (80 L/cm) screen, is best for direct mailings, catalogs, and magazines. The performance mode (offset equivalent 133 lpi / 52 L/cm) is ideal for textbooks, fiction books, and other medium ink coverage applications, and the Turbo mode (85-100 lpi / <40 L/cm) is ideal for newspaper printing with low ink coverage.

The Prosper 7000 Turbo press uses eco-friendly, water-based Kodak nanoparticulate pigment CMYK inks. The inks offer a wide color gamut and, due to their proprietary ink formulations, support efficient drying even at peak press speeds. Prosper 7000 Turbo features interstation drying using near-infrared (NIR) technology. This drying solution enables the press to keep up with any of the print modes to ensure the highest quality output at the given speed.

To safeguard consistently high quality, even with the longest print runs, the new press features the Kodak intelligent print system. This patented solution automatically takes care of monitoring and optimization of stitching, color-to-color, and front-to-back registration.

“The game-changing speed of the Propser 7000 Turbo will help commercial, publishing, and newspaper printers increase efficiency by shifting more long-run jobs from conventional printing processes to inkjet,” said Jim Continenza, Kodak’s executive chairman and chief executive officer. “We believe digital technology will grow in importance as a complement to offset as ongoing supply chain issues continue to increase the cost of prepress. This new press reflects our continued commitment to investing in innovation that helps our customers succeed as the industry evolves.”

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.

– Naresh Khanna

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