Toppan Forms Acquires Three Kodak Prosper 5000XL Presses for Book Publishing

TOKYO—Nov. 30, 2011—Toppan Forms Co., one of Japan’s preeminent companies and a technology leader in business forms and data printing services, uses three Kodak Prosper 5000XL presses to print books for the education market and to fuel its expansion into new markets. The company will be shifting some of its offset and digital print volume to its new inkjet presses.

Toppan Forms has developed an innovative solution to address the Japanese education publishing market’s evolving needs for high-speed, digital, variable print. The company built a system that allows the print buyers to use a fully digital workflow to cost effectively and efficiently move orders from client to completion. The Prosper 5000XL Presses play a key role in this seamless workflow.

Toppan Forms is also using the Prosper 5000XL Presses to expand the range of printing services it offers and to address a wider set of customer requirements. Toppan Forms believes this will allow it to attract new customers and is confident that the flexibility of the PROSPER Press will support this growth.

“Our experience shows that the Kodak Prosper 5000XL Presses handle a staggering volume of work and produce extremely high-quality results,” said Toshiro Masuda, senior managing director, Toppan Forms Co. “All of this is at a low cost. The potential is huge; we’re confident that we can achieve almost 40 percent more throughput on the presses than we’re producing now. We have three color presses running in full production and we are considering additional investments.”

Toppan Forms says customer reaction to the Prosper Press output has been extremely positive and that the company recently closed several contracts for work specifically designed for the presses. The company plans to increase its offerings in direct mail and advertising, leveraging its expertise in variable-data optimization and further differentiating its service offerings.

“The true potential of Kodak’s technology and the Prosper 5000XL Press is most clearly demonstrated when our customers use it to break into new markets or to redefine the ones that they currently service,” said Lois Lebegue, vice president of Commercial & Consumer Sales, Asia Pacific Region, Eastman Kodak. “We are collaborating with our customers to produce truly innovative and inspiring solutions.”

“Toppan Forms is one of Japan’s leading information solution companies, and its investment in the Prosper 5000XL Presses, Kodak’s flagship inkjet printing system, is a testament to the technology’s high productivity, offset-class quality, and sophisticated variable-printing capabilities,” said Hiroshi Fujiwara, Managing Director of Commercial & Consumer Div., Kodak Japan Ltd. “The Prosper 5000XL Presses meet Toppan Forms’ one-to-one marketing needs and will definitely contribute to the future expansion of Toppan Forms’ information-centered business.”

Kodak is the worldwide market leader in color web inkjet presses. The Kodak Prosper 5000XL Press brings offset-class output approaching 175 lines per inch with roll-fed speeds of up to 650 feet (or 200 meters) per minute. The press features a monthly duty cycle of up to 90 million A4 pages and is able to handle both coated and uncoated papers, including glossy coated, with basis weights ranging from 45 gsm–300 gsm (30 lbs–200 lbs). This combination of speed and superior quality makes the Prosper 5000XL Press one of the most productive inkjet web presses on the market for 8-, 12- and 16-page signatures.

About Kodak
As the world’s foremost imaging innovator, Kodak helps consumers, businesses, and creative professionals unleash the power of images, information, and printing to enrich their lives.

In the graphic communications industry, Kodak serves customers in the printing, publishing, packaging and enterprise markets with intelligent solutions for competitive advantage and greater return on investment.

Source: Kodak.