Ryobi secures first customer for Kodak hybrid litho press

The world's first example of a "fully integrated hybrid sheetfed press" - combining a B2 Ryobi machine with Kodak inkjet heads - has been installed at a Japanese commercial printer.

The Ryobi hybrid 750 Series comes factory fitted with Prosper S5 imprinting heads.

Komatsu General Print Co, based in Tokyo, has signed for the 10,000sph machine. It consists of four standard litho units, while unit five features two of the Kodak S5s, unit six houses a third S5, seven an NIR dryer, unit eight is dedicated to spot colours and unit nine is a UV coater.

Komatsu, which specialises in direct mail production, can use the two Prosper print heads in unit five to cover an A4 area of the full sheet, imaging a large amount of personalised data. A full B2-format marketing piece can be folded and glued to create the final mailer. 

The deal between Kodak and Ryobi was sealed at Drupa, aiming to offer the "first fully integrated hybrid sheetfed press".

The technology partnership will allow sheetfed jobs with variable information to be printed in a single pass, eliminating the costly and time-consuming need to use laser printers, according to Kodak.

Hybrid printing produces "faster job turnaround times, lower costs and higher productivity for imprinting applications when compared to sheetfed laser printing", the company added. 

This article originally appeared at printweek.com