New Products - Machinery - Kodak shows Stream color inkjet

Kodak shows Stream color inkjet

Kodak unveiled its long-awaited Stream four-color inkjet web-fed press last week. A 20-in.-wide demonstration version of the Prosper Color XL, as the 650-fpm press is formally known, was shown to analysts at the company's inkjet development and manufacturing center in Dayton, OH. A 25-in. production model will be installed by Madison, WI-based Webcrafters later this year.

Stream inkjet technology, already in commercial application in the 1,000-fpm Prosper S10 monochrome imprinting heads integrated to an offset press line at Deerfield Beach, FL-based Wilen Direct, is the result of a lengthy research and development cycle that involved creation of a new style of continuous inkjet printheads and inks. The imprinting heads, which measure 4.16-in. wide, were first shown at drupa and Graph Expo last year.

The color version also requires some adaptation of papers optimized for high-speed commercial inkjet printing. The S10 monochrome imprinting heads can keep pace with personalization of a 1,000-fpm web offset press. When stitched together into a dedicated inkjet web press line with a 25-in.-wide printing swath—either monochrome, for book applications, or color for general commercial work—the press will operate at up to 650 fpm.  

Each Stream inkjet head weighs about three lbs. The same heads are used both for the Prosper S10 imprinting devices, and for the black and color versions of the Prosper commercial press. The printing heads deliver a pigmented ink with nano-milled colorants suspended  in a fast drying polymeric fluid. Dryers operating at near infrared frequency cure the moving web between stations and at delivery.

Ink is fed from 55-gal drums. The heads stream ink continuously, hence the name. When a non-print area of the substrate moves by, a combination of thermal valves and diverters shunts unwanted ink back to a refiltering system for recycling back to the printing heads. The press can be integrated to automated finishing systems.

posted on: 07/26/2009