Kodak installs world’s largest CTP system

Print Solutions Pre-press Solutions

Kodak has completed the installation of the first Magnus Q4800 platesetter at the WKS Group in Essen, Germany. Equipped with an XPL pallet loading system with four pallet stations for four different plate formats, the overall configuration of the Magnus Q4800 is almost 19 metres (62 feet) long and 3.5 metres (11.5 feet) wide. That makes it the biggest CTP system ever to be installed anywhere in the world!

WKS Group comprises nine companies at six sites across Germany. Advanced production facilities enable printing projects to be executed ranging from print runs of one to enormous quantities in the high volume segment. The company provides web and sheetfed offset as well as digital printing and finishing. Fulfillment and cross media expertise round off the portfolio of services.

The fully automatic Magnus Q4800 went into operation as planned at the WKS Group’s web offset site in December 2021. Yet before that could happen, the Kodak team had to overcome daunting logistical challenges for a CTP project. Fifteen large shipping crates had to be taken by truck from the CTP development and production center in Vancouver, Canada, to Chicago. The journey then continued by air to Frankfurt, Germany, where they were subsequently transferred to the WKS Group’s Essen facility on four semitrailers. On arrival, the crates had to be lifted to the fourth floor by crane – a full 16 metres – for installation.

The platesetter offers outstanding speed and productivity for extra large format (XLF) platemaking. It supports plate sizes up to 2.86 metres wide and uses Kodak Squarespot imaging technology, providing stability, accuracy, and reliability for maximum efficiency and superior print quality. The Magnus Q4800 configuration installed at WKS Group provides fully automatic XLF plate loading from four pallets with up to 4800 plates online, which enables over 10,000 m2 of plates to run before reloading.

‘The investment in such a huge CTP equipment configuration makes sense because it perfectly meets the current and future requirements of our Essen high volume production site in terms of plate sizes, throughput and fully automated operation,’ said Frank Döding, business and operations manager of WKS Group’s Essen site. ‘The Magnus Q4800 platesetter places the plate imaging capability for our web offset presses on a new technological foundation. It allowed us to switch from UV to thermal plate imaging, and it gives us the much higher plate making capacity we need. We are delighted that Kodak managed to install our new CTP solution right on schedule, especially during the continued difficult situation due to the Covid-19 pandemic.’