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Technology Stocks : Presstek -- Stock of the Decade?? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: NEIL MACK who wrote (9982)	9/22/1998 6:17:00 PM
From: NEIL MACK	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11098

From IPEX, KBA/Scitex 74 Karat Plate.... SCITEX/KBA 74 KARAT The 74 Karat digital press can already be counted as one of the most influential presses at Ipex. The declaration that KBA and Scitex had collaborated on a B2 offset press with plates that are imaged in the press has had other press manufacturers defining their positions against this development. So, Heidelberg will come up with a Speedmaster 74 which is digitally imaged and, conversely, MAN Roland has declared that it sees no market for such a machine. However, with 5,000 printers across the globe signing up to be kept abreast of developments on the 74 Karat, this might be one call where Roland has made a mistake. Karat looks like no other offset press on the market today, although its split plate cylinder design is remarkably like that patented by Heath Custom Press. (Presstek owned) It is a four-colour machine with a single impression cylinder with three sets of grippers. Each sheet is held in place for two revolutions of the impression cylinder. The first picks up the first two colours from the two plate cylinders and as it passes a second time, the sheet is overprinted with the third and fourth colours. There is a direct, almost keyless, inking train developed by KBA and temperature-controlled rollers to ensure the consistency of the waterless ink as it reaches the plate. These are currently Presstek Pearl plates, aluminium not polyester, for want of any other supplier that has a 'no-process' offset plate. That is set to change. Setting the lays for the next job is console-controlled as are all settings. The feeder pile height is restricted, but this is not a problem in the Karat concept. This is a press is intended for short-run printing with the co-developers talking about a maximum 15-minute makeready. There is a top speed of 10,000sph, meaning that a 5,000-run job is on and off the press in less than an hour. This is the proposition upon which the 74 Karat is based. There is no attempt to discuss issues like personalisation which are the province of the Indigos, Xeikons and ink-jet engines. So Karat should be evaluated against a conventional four-colour press fitted with every time-saving device known and backed by an investment in a computer-to-plate system. Karat Digital Press intends making the price of the press the equivalent of a four-colour machine so the capital outlay will not be much different. However, this has been designed to make printing a matter of pushing a button. And because it combines pre-press and printing in a single one-man operation, the savings will come from a huge drop in the labour requirement. It's this that makes the 74 Karat a key product for Ipex. Continues........next post. Neil