Hunkeler – Hunkeler is a 20 year old medium sized family owned Swiss company employing 250 staff with a turnover of €40 million. It specializes in paper finishing systems predominantly for digital printing systems. It showed its full range of finishing products working with a range of different digital printing systems. It launched a number of new products including the following two.

The first of these is the WI6 Web Inspection System that was shown fully integrated into an Infoprint 5000 color press. This is designed for monitoring print quality and checking for faulty elements within documents. The system operates with high-resolution video technology to monitor the printed web during production. Quality defects are identified in text, linear elements (bar codes, lines, etc0, logos and halftone images. Identified faulty documents are logged to the central Site Manager that in turn triggers repeat printing of the faulty document. The system can be supplied inline, post-process or stand alone versions.

Hunkeler showed the latest implementation of its digital newspaper production system with its new POPP7 platform for handling web widths up 660 mm. This utilizes a new DC7 collator that collects the cut four page flat signatures, spot glues them before passing these sheets to the systems folder to produce the finished newspaper. This new 660 mm platform is also used for book production.

Kodak –  The new products from Kodak were covered in depth in whattheythink.com on Tuesday February 17. A brief summary however follows. The Kodak Versamark VL2000 drop on demand printing system is extended to add new models in either single or dual engine configurations. The Versamark VL4000 is a product that runs at 125 meters/min with a reduced quality and resolution of 600 x 360 dpi. The Versamark VL6000 is the new high-speed press working with additional printheads to give a speed of 150 meters/min with a 600 x 600 dpi. It also offers higher resolutions at a speed from 75 meters/min.
Kodak also launched the Nexpress Dimension Printing System that was previewed at drupa. This is the use of a clear toner printed from the fifth imaging station that provides a relief image that gives a realistic feel to print.

Infoprint Solutions – Infoprint Solutions introduced an upgrade to the Infoprint 5000 press to allow it to run at a speed of 128 meters/min instead of the normal speed of 64 meters/min. This is done by reducing the resolution of the press to print at a reduced quality at 720 x 360 dpi. This upgrade has been expected since Screen introduced this change to the Truepress Jet520 press at drupa.

Océ –  Océ showed enhancements to both its electrophographic and inkjet continuous feed color presses. The ColorStream 10000 electrophotographic press is now available with a fifth color printing unit allowing for printing additional CustomTone applications. The JetStream product line is also offered with a fifth printhead to allow for printing MICR ink formulations. This approach differs from the new MICR facility offered on the Kodak Versamark VL2000/4000/6000 range where a MICR print unit OEM’d from another supplier is linked into the system.