In an exclusive interview, Eric Owen, vice-president of worldwide customer development in digital printing solutions, said that “dozens” of installations of colour or B&W Prosper presses will take place around the world this year.
“As my chief executive [Antonio Perez] has said, dozens of presses will be installed this year, and that number is accurate for both colour and B&W.
“I can absolutely positively assure you that Australia is on that list,” said Owen (pictured).
He said that “Australia is very interested in this product” and the vendor had a lot of activity going on across the country in preparation for the Prosper roll-out.
“Potentially you could see an announcement in Australia before the end of the calendar year,” added Owen.
Ipex marks the official launch of the Prosper press, based on Kodak’s Stream inkjet technology, and the 5000XL colour version has been a huge drawcard at its booth.
The continuous-feed machine range comprises the 5000XL on show at Ipex and the B&W version, the Prosper 1000. The first colour machine recently went into Rotomail in Italy.
Kodak has not revealed a definite shipping schedule for the Prosper range.
But Owen said that the “unreal” level of interest in the press meant that demand far outpaced supply.
“Hundreds of people are in active pursuit of the device but the actual roll-out will only be in the dozens,” he said.
According to Kodak, the 5000XL can offers “offset-class” productivity and 3,600 A4 pages per minute. It can produce around 120 million A4 pages per month, though Owen said “the economics of the device support volumes when they start to run in excess of 20 million”.
“From a running cost, amortising the expense of the capital into the business operations, as long as they can put 20 million a month into it, even though there’s additional capacity, at least they’ve been able to accommodate the basic cost of owning and operating the device.”
Steven Kiernan is at Ipex.
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