Kodak raises newspaper speed

 Kodak has announced enhancements to its thermal CTP portfolio for newspaper.
 
Kodak says it has successfully introduced a 16 per cent laser power improvement for both the Kodak Generation News and the Kodak Trendsetter News platesetters. The company says the additional laser power has increased the Generation News platesetter Z-speed version from 258 to 277 Kodak Sonora News process free plates per hour while the Trendsetter News platesetter V-speed version has risen from 116 to 129 plates. Kodak intends to make this enhancement commercially available as a standard feature in the first quarter of 2017.
 
Brad Kruchten, president of Kodak’s print systems division, says, “These newest enhancements to our CTP solutions are further evidence of Kodak’s faith in the future of newspaper and coldset web offset printing. They enable our customers in the newspaper industry to adapt the productivity, efficiency, and sustainability of their platemaking process to the demands of today’s markets.”
 
The company adds that an optional addition, the imaging technology christened W speed, when used with the Sonora News process free plate and the autoloader option, boosts the throughput of the platesetter from 150 to 240 plates per hour, or in the configuration with the single-cassette unit, from 116 to 150 plates. Kodak offers otional single or dual plate rotation. It will release the W-speed option in Q2 2017.
 
Kodak has also announced recently the mobile CTP Control app specifically designed for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. This app lets Kodak customers monitor multiple CTP systems and to receive immediate feedback on their platemaking process via the internet anywhere in the world. It will become commercially available early 2017.
 
The company says the Kodak Trendsetter News platesetter features a new cooling system that improves power savings by an additional 30 per cent compared to the initial design, down to as low as 770 watts while imaging. It also comes with a new, shorter unload table which reduces the footprint of the CTP configuration.
 
Since the inception of Kodak’s thermal plate imaging technology 21 years ago, the company has shipped over 21,000 CTP units worldwide, with over 2500 of these for newspaper CTP’s.