Kodak tries to print future with 'Stream' technology
KETTERING - Kodak houses its Inkjet Printing Solutions Group in a large-but-quiet facility tucked unobtrusively off Research Boulevard.
There, the company employs 700 people, has an annual payroll of $35 million and spends some $43 million with local suppliers every year - all while shepherding what group leaders say may be the "most powerful technology" with the potential to change printing.
Developed at Rochester N.Y. and at Kodak's Miami Valley Research Park campus, the company is touting what it calls "Stream Inkjet Technology." Using an inkjet printing system that controls how ink is dropped or spaced on paper, Kodak says the technology offers the reliability and speed of offset printing with the flexibility of digital printing for high-volume commercial purposes.
Stream technology was "developed here with the intent of changing the printing industry forever," said Isidre Rosello, general manager of Kodak's Inkjet Printing Solutions Group.
"It's that ambitious," he said.
A Kodak spokeswoman and others say they hope the new technology will mean new jobs for Kodak's Kettering site, but nobody offered possible hiring numbers. A Stream print head will be available in early 2009 while a color press will be available later in the year or 2010, the company says.