Dayton Serves as Key Stop On Production Inkjet Trail

DAYTON, Ohio—Competition in the high-speed production inkjet color printing space is fierce, but Kodak believes its Stream continuous inkjet technology is unrivaled from a standpoint of speed, quality, substrate flexibility and total cost of ownership. It recently set out to prove just that during a recent tour of its operations here, which serves as the headquarters, manufacturing and R&D facility, print head refurbishment and customer demonstration center for Kodak’s Enterprise Inkjet Systems (EIS) division.

“We’re financially strong and making a good entry back into the marketplace,” notes Vahaaj Khan, vice president of sales and marketing for the Americas, in reference to its corporate parent’s Chapter 11 filing in 2012. That may have hampered Prosper press sales in the U.S. due to concerns of long-term viability, but he’s convinced Kodak’s technology leadership and renewed commitment will grow market share.

“When we get invited to the party [when in the running by a printer making a high-speed inkjet press purchase], very often we get the win,” he adds. Current Prosper 5000/6000 customers like Japs-Olson, Mercury Print Productions, Wilen Direct, Webcrafters and Be Printers are strong believers, too.

As of May 2015, 48 billion pages have been printed worldwide on Prosper systems, with some clients outputting 60 to 70 million pages per month, according to Khan.

Will Mansfield, director, WW sales and marketing – inkjet, says the sweet spot for Stream color inkjet technology is glossy, high-quality catalogs, magazines, direct mail, books and similar products, especially with the introduction of the Prosper 6000C (commercial, high ink coverage, interstation drying) and 6000P (publishing, low- to medium-ink coverage) press platforms. Their clean-sheet press designs incorporate 20 patent-pending innovations, new nano pigment inks, the Intelligent Print System (IPS) for on-the-fly adustments and Kodak’s 700 Print Manager 4.0 DFE, amid other features.

Now that Kodak, as a company, has regained its financial footing and adopted an inkjet divisional structure based in Dayton to streamline decision-making, it’s poised to excel with platforms centered on Stream continuous inkjet technology. PI