New plates from Kodak at drupa
Printing plates may be a relatively mature technology but there is plenty of innovation left in the process.
A five-year project to refresh the entire Kodak offset plate line-up is bearing fruit with new iterations of some of the industry benchmark products. Already a new Trillian SP processless plate is on the market with more Thermal Direct products to be launched at next year’s drupa in Germany.
According to Richard Rindo (pictured) Kodak director of global offset solutions marketing, the revamp of the entire plate range will improve quality and keep up with the advances in press speeds.
“Most plates are what we term ‘mainstream’ that takes in 80% of print performance. For the rest we have specialised products for niche print processes,” he said.
The amiable Kodak executive was touring the region to talk with customers and channels. “I’m here mainly to listen to what people want from us. There are nuances in every market in the different parts of the world,” he said.
The level of production efficiency from Australian and New Zealand customers impressed him. “They are focused on production efficiency, getting the most out of the system,” he said.
He promoted Kodak’s new intelligent prepress management system, which is a complete system of consumables and output to optimise the production system. “It is the way of the future and no one else is able to offer the complete solution. We make every component from the plate to the imaging device. It produces good financial results for efficient printers,’ said Rindo.
“Most plates are what we term ‘mainstream’ that takes in 80% of print performance. For the rest we have specialised products for niche print processes,” he said.