Philip Cullimore, enterprise inkjet systems division president
Kodak will unveil a next-generation continuous inkjet technology, which it dubs Ultrastream at drupa 2016, which it will make available to a wide range of partners in addition to using in its own products. By Barney Cox at drupa media week in Düsseldorf.
It is part of a dramatic widening of the application range for the firms’ inkjet technology to include flexible packaging, interior décor and wide-format.
The fourth-generation technology will offer lower acquisition and operating costs than comparable drop-on-demand technology, according to enterprise inkjet systems division president Philip Cullimore.
The firm will also offer the technology for partners to incorporate into scanning systems for the first time, in addition to single-pass arrays, which will open it up to the wide-format market.
Supporting the push of its technology into packaging it will show a twin-head eight-colour system running an extended gamut CMYK plus orange, green and violet plus digital varnish system (XGV) printing onto film and foil using its food-safe water-based inks.
Mr Cullimore added the firm was working on the development of white ink necessary for many of these applications but that there were still some fundamental challenges.
The firm will use drupa to identify OEMs to work with in commercialising products based on its core technology rather than attempting to develop everything itself. The first product announcements are expected in 2018 followed by availability in 2019. It gave the example of the printing modules for a B2 sheetfed inkjet press capable of 12,000 sheets per hour in CMYK, which would cost $100,000 for a partner to buy.
Mr Cullimore concluded, ‘In addition to the printing system we could also supply the ink system and DFE, which means we can be a great partner both for companies just starting out and for more experienced suppliers.’
