Issue
Your GT-Jet 108 has a print width of 4.25” but your ink costs $61 a liter if I buy 200 liters. It runs 75 m/min (~250 fpm) at 600×600 dpi and 150 m/min (~500 fpm) at 600×300 dpi.
Kodak has a 4.16” head that runs a water-based ink that only costs $25 a liter. It runs 500 fpm (Prosper S5) or 1’000 fpm (Prosper S10), Versamark is another option at 300 dpi.
Your ink costs $36 more per liter, your inkjet is half as fast, why should I even buy your inkjet ?
Let’s check out the ink cost
Firstly, the ink price depends on volume. Please, check your exact volume to make a comparison.
Secondly, our inkjet and the inks are new. We expect the ink price to drop as volumes ramp up. We know the ink manufacturing prices will fall and we will follow them.
Let’s check out the equipment cost
4.25” of print width cost at Kodak around $180k, our cost is $81.9k (includes mount and cleaning station).
A customer that needs 32 liters a month to print 16 million bank checks would have to buy $98,100/$36 = 2,750 liters or wait 7 years (at 32 liters a month) before you recoup the difference in equipment.
17” of print width cost at Kodak around $720k, our cost is $229.6k (includes mount and cleaning station)
A customer that needs 32 liters a month to print 16 million bank checks would have to buy $490,400/$36 = 13,622 liters or wait 35.4 years (at 32 liters a month) before you recoup the difference in equipment.
Let’s check out the speed
Graph-Tech thinks that 250 and 500 fpm are perfectly suited for most applications. Why would you buy more speed and not use it ?
For applications that need more speed, Graph-Tech offers a double-speed option. Basically, it is 2 print modules printing odd/even. You can even buy a single speed printer and add the double speed later.
Let’s check out the refurbish costs
A new exchange print engine of 4.25” costs $15,000, replace the head in 30 minutes or less. How much do you pay for a new print engine with Kodak ?
Kodak offers refurbished print engines, that is second hand equipment. We don’t offer at this time second hand print engines.
Let’s check out the quality
Our inkjet prints native at 600 dpi. But it has 3 or 4 drop sizes, which means that the perceived resolution is 1040 dpi (3 drop sizes) or 1200 dpi (4 drop sizes).
The Kodak inkjet is native 600 dpi and the drop size is set.
Let’s check out the reliability
The technology in Kodak inkjets is continuous inkjet, that is, the ink is running constantly through the nozzles. The Kyocera technology is Drop-On-Demand, that is, the ink is only jetted out the nozzle, when needed.
We have reasons to believe that DOD technology is more reliable than continuous inkjet technology. Our 2.4” DOD inkjet outperformed a continuous inkjet printing election ballot barcodes 24/7 for 10 days by 30%, that is, it printed 30% more products !
If only one jet in a continuous inkjet is skewed, you have to stop production, possibly repair the head because the operation of the head is not possible (HT trips or continuous line on paper). With a DOD inkjet, you can continue printing.