Kodak celebrates milestone with 20000th Kodak
SquareSpot thermal imaging head
Xeikon receives prestigious 2014 InterTech Technology Award for ICE Toner
K
odak has reached the installation of its 20000th
Kodak SquareSpot Thermal Imaging Head. As the
developers of thermal CTP technology, Kodak makes
the only CTP Systems that utilise Kodak SquareSpot
Imaging Technology, giving customers the competitive
advantage needed to reach a higher level of stability, ac-
curacy and reliability within their operation.
SquareSpot Imaging Technology has been a success-
ful and long-lasting part of Kodak’s portfolio, and the print
industry, for almost 20 years. The technology was first
introduced as the viable alternative to visible-light CTP
systems and today remains the first choice for printers
looking for superior imaging technology capable of pre-
miumoffset print quality. Kodak Trendsetter,Magnus, and
Generation News Platesetters with SquareSpot Imaging
Technology help to reduce chemistry usage, plate waste,
remakes and makeready times supporting customers’
sustainability goals.
Edwards Brothers Malloy, headquartered in Ann Ar-
bor, Michigan, offers both offset and digital book printing
and binding, delivering more than 60 million high-quality
books and journals a year.Withmore than 700 employees
at facilities across the U.S and Europe, Edwards Brothers
Malloy has selected the Kodak Magnus VLF Platesetter
for its diverse organization in order to increase stability
and accuracy on both short and long runs.
‘We’ve benefited firsthand from Kodak’s technology
in both our offset and digital operations. By selecting the
MAGNUS VLF Platesetter with SQUARESPOT Imaging
Technology, we have been able to capitalise on our diver-
sitywhile reducing our operational complexity,’ said Peter
Shima, director of Digital and Prepress Operations, Ed-
wards Brothers Malloy. ‘Our business is based on agility
and adaptability and Kodak helps us keep the quality bar
high, productivity streamlined and our customers happy.’
SquareSpot Imaging Technology is adaptable to vari-
ous Kodak Platesetters, providing customers with mul-
tiple size, imaging and automation options. Accuracy in
imaging is critical for consistent, repeatable high quality
printing and wide colour gamut. SQUARESPOT Technolo-
gy delivers 10,000 dpi laser-imaging for commercial print-
ing and 5,000 dpi laser-imaging for newspaper printing to
provide the most accurate imaging. Competitive imaging
technology is typically in the 1,600 dpi range.
‘The announcement of the 20000th Kodak SquareS-
pot Thermal Imaging Head installation further validates
this technology in the industry and places it in the ‘hall
of fame’ of print technology,’ said Rich Rindo, general
manager,Worldwide GraphicsMarketing, and Vice Presi-
dent, Graphics, Entertainment & Commercial Film (GECF).
‘SquareSpot Technology remains one of our most durable
technologies, continuing to add value to customers and
delivering measurable results.’
X
eikon has announced that it has received the pres-
tigious 2014 InterTech Technology Award from the
Printing Industries of America (PIA) for its break-
through ICE toner, which is specifically designed for
heat-sensitive substrates, such as Polyethylene (PE) face
stocks, thermal transfer labels and InMold labels (IML).
The InterTech Technology Awards recognise ground-
breaking technologies that are predicted to have a major
impact on the graphic arts and related industries. Accord-
ing to PIA, more than 80 percent of the technologies that
have received this award experience continued commer-
cial success in the marketplace. The PIA is the largest
graphical arts trade association, representing an industry
with about 1 million employees and thousands of mem-
ber companies.
Xeikon’s ICE toner was selected based on its innova-
tive attributes for printing on heat-sensitive substrates
and the likelihood of advancing the performance of the
graphic communications industry. InterTech Award recipi-
ents will be recognised at the Premier Print Awards and
InterTech Technology Awards gala on 28 September, in
Chicago, IL.
Xeikon has received the InterTech Award multiple
times in the past. Most recently, Xeikon had received the
award in 2012 for its Xeikon X-800 VariLane technology,
which allows label converters to create digital imposi-
tion templates for labels of different SKUs, and different
sizes, within the same print run, thereby reducingmaterial
waste and increasing productivity.
‘This is a great honor and a huge credit to our entire
organization, from research and development to sales,’
said Todd Blumsack, Xeikon’s VP of Sales and Marketing
–North America. ‘All of our innovations, including the ICE
toner, are customer-driven. Label converters wanted dry
toner technology to be capable of printing on heat sen-
sitive substrates, while retaining our 1200x3600 dpi im-
aging resolution, full rotary imaging, food safety and the
capability to print on conventional substrates without the
needforanypre-treatment.We’reextremelyhappytosee
that the judges have recognized our efforts.’
Based on Xeikon’s proven QA toner technology, the
ICE toner is perfectly compatiblewith all the pressmodels
of the Xeikon 3000 Series of label and packaging presses.
Ricoh SA launches MDS division
R
icoh SA has launched its managed document servic-
es (MDS) division locally as it accelerates its shift to
a services business model as a key growth strategy.
Effective document management saves companies
potentially millions of rands while also furnishing them
the opportunity to grow their revenues.
‘The savings and growth opportunities include ob-
served costs, such as printing, as well as unobserved
costs connected to IT support, documents and records
management, environmental, regulatory compliance and
end-user productivity,’ said Richard Pinker, MD of Ricoh
SA. ‘In the past three years, during which Ricoh globally
has invested more than $300 million in MDS infrastruc-
ture, Ricoh’s MDS services offering has matured based
on numerous international, as well as local, implementa-
tions.’
Sharon Reid, who leads the newdivision, said Ricoh’s
development and implementation model is a develop-
ment of the industry-standard Prosci’s ADKAR and ITIL
methodologies. It incorporates five key pillars: under-
stand, improve, transform, govern and optimise. Those sit
above an organisational change management layer that
itself rides two components in a third layer: project and
service management. Delving deeper, Ricoh’s methodol-
ogy considers eight further aspects: environment, output,
process and changemanagement, services, optimisation,
security and remote management, vendor and consuma-
bles management, asset management, and service desk
integration.
The strategic integration of mobile computing with
back-end systems and data analysis will have a profound
impact on themajority of organisations and their business
processes. Acceleration of intelligent workers (iWorkers)
may be connected to the growing consequences of inef-
fectiveinformationsharing.Whenaskedtoranktheareas
that have been impacted themost, business leaders cited
lost revenues in first place (49 percent), followed by lost
customers (43 percent) and a lack of customer insight
(27 percent) in third, according to research by Coleman-
Parkes conducted on behalf of Ricoh.
‘Harnessing the power of information contained in
documents and processes as a core company asset is
critical since the way organisations communicate and
conduct business is changing at an unprecedented pace,’
said Reid. ‘Our accelerated shift to services, with a strong
focus on MDS, will help customers to become more re-
sponsive to the continual flow of information as they ad-
dress the changes in their industries.
‘Global workforce trends, new technologies and the
economy are transforming the way our customers must
approach document management,’ she said. ‘CIOs have
to know their businesses are ready to meet the chal-
lenges they present, which is why we have invested in
secure information infrastructure solutions that help their
businessestobecomemoreagile,responsiveandproduc-
tive. Our onsite and off-site support keeps them focused
on revenue-generating activities while we optimise the
flow of information.’
Sharon Reid, headMDS division at Ricoh SA
Printed on supplied by
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