Kodak to offer digital finishing

CHICAGO - Kodak plans to introduce a newspaper-oriented inkjet printer equipped with an inline finishing system at this year’s IfraExpo.

The vendor’s existing VX5000 printer will be meshed with an inline finishing system from Hunkeler AG, said W. Park Rayfield, director of business development at Kodak Versamark.

Rayfield said the combination printer-postpress system, to be commercially available in 2007, will be aimed at newspapers that want the capability of producing short-run, full-color variable print products.

“It will have the look and feel of ink-on-paper,” he said at Inland Press Association’s press and postpress seminar. The printer-postpress system uses continuous inkjet technology to ensure more reliable performance, and can produce up to 1,000 40-page newspapers per hour. It’s well-suited for remote production, Rayfield said.

The Hunkeler postpress system, meantime, can cut, collect and fold both tab and broadsheet products and can switch formats automatically.