Future of the 43 Wide Proofer??

[cnorris]

In a unprofessional and backwards way we have found out that Kodak is going to discontinue service and support for the 43 wide format proofer. Is this news to anyone else? Has anyone figured a way to still obtain ink and paper? I guess they are going to push a hybrid of an Epson. Just wondering if this catches anyone else off guard. Thanks to any and all responses

[Phil]

I knew Kodak was ditching Brisque support, but why the 43Wide? What's next, Trendsetters? Where did you hear this? I'm still using Brisque and like some things about it like Presstouch for post rip edits and being able to open CTs in Photoshop. Do you use Prinery, and if so, does it have these capabilities?

[jetzerm]

Mutoh, the OEM for the 43wide has ended it's support for the device (parts, etc.) That's the way I understand it.

[PantherMac]

If I'm not mistaken, it's a Mutoh printer?
2-sided proofing's a 40-thousand dollar question if you can't pick one up on eBay or through a used equipment dealer (check there first).

- Mac

[bdorsey]

If anybody is looking for possible replacement 43 Wide printers or for parts please contact me at brett@printingpartners.net. We have 2 43 wide printers that we are looking at getting rid of, I would like to see someone in need of parts or a back up have these than worry about them getting scrapped. Both printers currently work one has a slight leak in the ink system but prints wonderfully.

Thank you

Brett Dorsey
Printing Partners
IT Administrator
929 W 16th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202
ph 317.635.2282
fax 317.635.2312
brett@printingpartners.net

[cnorris]

Thanks to all that responded. Yes, I believe it is a Mutoh printer that they are no longer making or supporting. We would like to keep ours as long as we can locate alternative ink and paper supplies. We were told when supplies at our vendor are gone we are dead in the water. Anybody else facing this issue?

Phil, we are using Prinergy Evo and all alterations are done to PDFS in Acrobat with a Pitstop plugin. You can still open images in Photoshop.

Thanks again

[spectrecom]

Yes, Those were Mutoh's with modified Epson 9000 cartridges. We figuared it out and sell the cartridges much less than Kodak. Anyone need some??

[Charlie Manson]

Good day.

A short introduction

My name is Charlie Manson (yes, yes LOL), and I am the the Inkjet and Proofing Escalation and Technical Application Group manager for Kodak Graphic Communication Group.

To to clarify a few points

The Iris 43 and 62 Wide imposition proofers are indeed based on the Mutoh engine. The exact model name they have is the Mutoh Falcon 1.

Last year Mutoh approached us and told us that a business decision had been made by them to stop manufacturing and supporting parts for this product. They actually stopped selling the proofer as a whole several years ago.

We then undertook a project to make a last time buy from them and also to look around for other vendors.
We managed to buy enough parts from Mutoh to take us through to the end of March.
We did not find any vendor that either had an existing relationship, or was willing to undertake a partnership with Mutoh.

We did not receive our final inventory of last time buy parts until late 2007 and only then once we had actual parts in hand could we work out how much longer would could actually continue to service these machines at current burn rate.

This and some other unforseen actions meant the letters informing all customers was delayed, but this issue has now been resolved.

We also approached several third party service providers but because of the lack of availability of parts I am not aware of anyone who was willing to undertake future support needs.

I can assure you that as a qualified engineer and a long time employee and advocate of proofing within Iris, Scitex, Creo and now Kodak there are no 'hidden' agenda's behind this activity. The XWide proofers have proven to be an excellent tool for our customers and have LONG outlived their projected shelf life.

It may be that at the end of all this we might have an excess of some parts. If any of you would like to contact me I would be happy to maintain list of interested parties.

There may also be one or two newly refurbished machines available at the end of this March that we can pass on to interested companies.

If I can be of any further assistance please feel free to respond to this thread or email me directly at

charlie.manson@kodak.com

Thank you

Charlie

[pmhapp]

Does Kodak have any recommendations for an automatic double-sided proofer?
Does anyone else have any feedback on them?

[HiTech_Monkeyboy]

Oddly enough, Kodak IS pushing a replacement. A version of the Epson 9880 with some sort of dimetrodon (sail back dinosaur) fin attached to it for making two sided proofs. I have not seen one or even seen a picture. Bigfoot seems to have been photographed more often. The description didn't give me the warm and fuzzies since it would seem that the laws of physics may be against them. If anyone finds a pic, please post it.

Monkey