The company will demonstrate its innovative flexible CTP and Digital Printing Solutions. Its booth will be dedicated to addressing the varied requirements of newspaper and semi-commercial newspaper printers, such as fully automated online computer-to-plate plate systems with flexible plate formats offering minimal operator effort, monitoring and intervention.
At the forefront of any successful business strategy is improving productivity and capital costs. This is why the company’s R&D has focused on advantages of thermal over violet technology. Visitors to the booth will see how its thermal systems have addressed the common environmental issues as well as enhanced sustainability through low chemistry and true chemistry-free production.
It will also highlight future development activities with a plate technology demonstration for high volume applications. Improvements are focused on reduced environmental impact including elimination of preheat, reduced water consumption, low chemistry consumption and smaller processing footprint while maintaining or improving the current benefits of robustness and speed.
Non process thermal technology completely eliminates the need for the processor and processing chemistry and all associated costs and processing steps. Non process thermal technology is used by newspaper printers today and, as the technology further improves, the application in the newspaper segment is growing.
The company will introduce the second generation non process newspaper printing plate at the expo. It has already achieved great success with the first generation plate, which is used in over 100 accounts today. Non process technology reduces environmental impact without the need of a processor. It doesn’t need chemistry, chemicals, or cleanout solutions or water to mix with chemistry or wash out the plate.
It also doesn’t require additional energy to run processors, cleanout units or a debris removal system. It eliminates disposal of contaminated water/waste and containers, is compatible with most thermal platesetters and offers 36 micron stochastic screening capabilities at up to 200 000 impressions in typical coldset web applications. It can also be read by the human eye as well latest inline camera systems.
The company is also showcasing its Colorflow Pro Software with its Ink Optimising Solution option within the Prinergy Workflow System. This innovative solution can significantly help reduce ink consumption while improving print quality through greater press stability. Colorflow Software can be introduced into virtually any operation, providing print service providers with a complete colour management solution.
The Kodak Generation News Platesetter, updated with new features, enable up to four different plate formats to be online, increasing flexibility and uptime for newspaper printers. Significant changes to the platesetter’s interface simplify connectivity to existing and new workflow systems. The platesetter provides job and device status information in an easy to integrate and customisable XML format, saving time and eliminating the need for special modifications to the workflow. The interface has been qualified by all of the major workflow providers.
Customers can now remotely monitor their plate line equipment including the CTP device, processor, and punch/bender, both from Kodak and third party manufacturers via the its Intelligent Prepress Manager (IPM). It is now available for plate lines with the Generation News Platesetter. The IPM sends alerts via email or SMS message to operators when the equipment needs attention, so the operators can focus their attention elsewhere without having to continually check on equipment to make sure it is running as scheduled, to maximise efficiency and uptime. In addition, the IPM enables managers to make data-driven decisions in prepress using standard and customisable reports on plate line activity.
