Business News

KODAK NEXPRESS SX Digital Production Color Platform Builds on Proven Performance, Adds New Features

Tuesday 05. October 2010 - New family of presses opens doors to new revenue and profit opportunities

With significant new quality and productivity capabilities, the new KODAK NEXPRESS SX Digital Production Color Platform with Print Genius is designed to meet the needs of commercial printers, in-plant printers, data centers, and photo printers. The newest features include speeds up to 131 ppm, a longer sheet size (26 inch/661mm), smaller ink particle size, denser black ink, new Fifth Imaging Unit Solution Light Black, and a new matte printing effect option. As always, most existing NEXPRESS Press users can easily upgrade to take full advantage of these new capabilities.
The long sheet option, which is being shown at Graph Expo, at 26 inches—delivers 27 percent more printable area. The benefits of this longer sheet include reduced waste and increased productivity, while enabling new applications such as six-page brochures, posters, larger dust jackets for books, and a variety of labels.
“Our customers continue to amaze us with the innovative ways they use the technology and the unique applications they are producing,” says Stephen Fletcher, General Manager, Electrophotographic Printing Solutions, Kodak. “The new features of the SX will open even more doors for growth. And because of the upgradeability, customers can grow at their own pace.”
New, smaller ink particles are designed to reduce grain, provide smoother continuous tones for photo-quality output, and use less ink. In addition, light black dry ink, which is now available for the Fifth Imaging Unit, utilizes proprietary algorithms to substitute the light black for specific colors, resulting in smoother skin tones while maintaining superb detail. The matte effect is a new option, completed in line, that produces a matte look for printed pages or photos.
Featuring a monthly duty cycle of more than 4 million pages and print speeds of 91, 109, or 131 ppm when using the longest sheet, the NEXPRESS SX Platform prints on more than 600 standard offset substrates including coated, uncoated, FSC, plastics, magnets, linens, static clings, micro-perforated, substrates with embedded ID cards or magnets, and more.
The Fifth Imaging Unit enables watermarking, protection coating, glossing, MICR printing, gamut expansion, raised printing, or red fluorescing ink for security applications. In addition, high-quality glossing is possible using KODAK NEXPRESS Clear Dry Ink in conjunction with the near-line KODAK NEXPRESS Glossing Unit.
“From variable data printing to dimensional printing to security printing and everything in between, the entire NEXPRESS Platform puts the control in the hands of the operator,” added Fletcher. “Based on the needs of their existing clients and the potential in their local markets, they can decide which features are right for them, and know that the results will be outstanding. They are certainly differentiating themselves from the competition with these devices.”
The second generation KODAK NEXPRESS Intelligent Calibration System (ICS) delivers consistent high quality that minimizes downtime and costs by minimizing parts replacement. The ICS is at the core of a closed-loop quality control system that maintains accurate color reproduction and increases image quality. In addition, the system uses industry-leading LED imaging heads, an inline scanner, and software based on Kodak’s proprietary image science to allow for automatic color management while the press is printing.
Like all NEXPRESS Presses, the NEXPRESS SX Platform is designed to reduce environmental impact. Prints are de-inkable using standard industry processes, and Dry Inks do not contain lead or phthalates above limits for children’s products established by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008.
The NEXPRESS SX Platform—like all NEXPRESS Presses—features Print Genius, a suite of productivity and quality control tools and options that automate and help you manage and maintain peak quality throughout your production run. The Print Genius quality suite encompasses hardware, software and material science innovations to optimize quality and consistency from the first sheet to the last, day after day.
With many of the same new quality and productivity features, Kodak recently announced the KODAK NEXPRESS Photo Press. It features outstanding photo quality output with exceptional productivity for the production of printed photo products, including hard and soft cover photo books, calendars, greeting cards, 4×6 prints, magnets, and other photo products. Designed to deliver unique effects such as raised printing and matte or gloss coating, the NEXPRESS Photo Press is ideal for photo specialty printers, photo labs, commercial printers, and others who serve customers in the photo space.