Kodak printers streamline direct mail production

German full print services provider, Kern Druck, has invested in three new Kodak Prosper S10 Imprinting Systems.

German full print services provider, Kern Druck, has invested in three new Kodak Prosper S10 Imprinting Systems.

The Bexbach-based company has installed the machines in what is claimed to be a unique configuration, enabling the company to automate its workflow processes and streamline its direct mail production.

Kern produces complex commercial direct marketing material and mailers in sheetfed offset, frequently featuring spot inks and special coatings.

The company has 35 staff and a branch just across the border in Sarreguemines, France.

Today Kern prints direct mail and self-mailers for cosmetics retail chains, consumer goods manufacturers, tour operators and insurance companies, typically in runs from 10,000 up to one million.

Andre Kern, the joint managing director at Kern, said: 'It was our mailer business that originally stirred our interest in hybrid printing.

Output is produced in sheetfed offset on five-colour, six-colour, and eight-colour presses - mainly in 3B format - before imprinting the variable data digitally in one colour.

After trying out simple inkjet printheads, the company switched to laser printers because of its customers' exacting quality specifications, he added.

Kern furtherexplained: 'We were forever thinking about how we could meet the exemplary standards demanded by our clients using a more affordable inkjet system.

We wanted to completely re-launch the mailer side of our operation with a complete system that would give us maximum flexibility regarding formats and paper types.

The Prosper S10 Imprinting Systems fit perfectly with this concept.

Kodak said that the Prosper S10 Imprinting System is the first product to implement the company's Stream inkjet technology, and was launched in 2009 as a monochrome imprinting system for producing claimed offset-class variable data applications at up to 1,000 feet per minute (305 metres per minute).

Each printhead is designed for an imprint width of 105.6mm.

The Prosper S10 system uses pigment-based inks with micro-milled pigments, and has a claimed resolution of 600 dots per inch (dpi) x 600dpi.

The system's ability to handle a variety of uncoated, coated and glossy substrates was an important consideration for Kern, added Kodak.

Kern's variable imprinting and personalisation applications call for diverse materials - from 60gsm NCR paper through 80gsm offset paper to matte-coated art paper weighing 250gsm Kern commented: 'At high printing speeds, the inkjet quality on all of these materials is at least as good as laser, Ccrucially, however, the costs for inks and operation are much lower.

In a joint engineering venture involving Popp Maschinenbau, Heidelberg, and Kodak, an imprinting and finishing system was installed at Kern, enabling variable data to be imprinted on pre-printed colour offset sheets.

The system handles sheets up to 700mm x 1,000mm in size and supports two-sided variable data printing with the Kodak Prosper S10 Imprinting Systems.

A Heidelberg folder-continuous feeder feeds the sheets to the first Popp vacuum drive table, on which two Prosper S10 Imprinting Systems are mounted side by side.

The sheets are printed continuously at high speed, and dried using an IR dryer before being transferred to a second perpendicular vacuum drive table via a sheet turning unit.

Before the reverse side is printed with the third Prosper S10, a camera barcode reader checks the content to ensure it matches the variable data printed on the front.

The printed sheets can either be supplied to a delivery or finished directly in-line in folding machines.

If required, Kern can also mount all three Prosper S10 Systems on one table and print variable data on just one side of the sheet across a width of more than 316mm.

Kern commented: 'The Kodak Inkjet Imprinting Systems combine laser quality with low costs per print, regardless of the substrate.

They also give us the flexibility we've always longed for in terms of format, materials and options for use, allowing us to meet even the most unusual customer requirements.

Kodak added that the advantages of the Prosper S10 systems are not restricted to mailers.

Kern anticipates using the machines for other applications, such as variable editorial content for customer magazines.

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