In Melbourne last month at PacPrint 09, HP highlighted two new Indigo presses: the HP Indigo 7000 and the new industrial press, the HP Indigo ws6000
Displayed on the Currie Group stand with AM International (New Zealand), the presses were put through their paces, impressing the large number of visitors who were keen to see the latest developments in the groundbreaking Indigo range.HP introduced colour digital printing to the graphics arts industry more than 15 years ago. Today, the company continues to focus on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of existing print solutions, as well as uncovering profitable new revenue channels for its customers.
At PacPrint, one of the innovative products on show was the HP Smartstream Digital Workflow Portfolio, which helps customers create digital printing production solutions to meet a broad range of market segments and application needs.
This new Portfolio emphasises HP’s continued commitment and leadership in helping customers grow their business with powerful workflow solutions that are simple and accessible, and which ensure high quality and high productivity. Future additions to HP SmartStream will offer workflow components for other HP Graphic Arts products, including HP Scitex and Designjet printers and HP Inkjet web presses.
PacPrint09 followed China Print held earlier in May in Beijing. At the HP Infotrends event held in conjunction with China Print, HP Indigo vice president Alon Bar Shany told a gathering of more than 700 digital printers from the Asia Pacific region that digital print would be a 100 billion pages business in 2016. He backed this statement with the fact that in the past eight years, since 2000, digitally printed pages had grown tenfold from one billion pages a year to 10 billion.
This growth trend is reflected in the New Zealand market where Troy Wood from AM International says that despite economic conditions, impressions are still growing strongly year on year.
Wood says, “The New Zealand HP Indigo install base continues to produce solid growth in the number of impressions produced month on month and year on year. There is no doubt digital print technology will continue to take pages from analogue processes such as litho and flexography due to short run cost effectiveness, better customer responsiveness and the value of variable data printing.”
Wood explains that year on year, 2007 to 2008, the growth in impressions was 56 per cent with average impressions per press up by 21 per cent. He adds, “These figures factor additional presses in the market place. Even with more presses, the average impression rate per machine has increased markedly. This is a clear indication the market for high quality digital print in New Zealand is forging ahead.”
HP SmartStream Digital Workflow Portfolio
The HP SmartStream Portfolio provides end-to-end workflow management, from job creation to fulfillment. By combining HP SmartStream and partner components, print service providers can customise products for their own clients through streamlined, efficient, and high-powered workflow solutions.
Designed as an open environment, this new Portfolio enables print service providers to expand into additional market segments, including general commercial printing, direct marketing, publications printing, photo merchandise, and labels and packaging.
The backbone of the portfolio is the recently released HP SmartStream Director. Powered by the latest version of PressSense iWay, it provides full storefront and web-to print capability with highly sophisticated workflow and automation features allowing print service providers to create highly efficient, low cost web based channels to market and highly automated production flows within their plant.
The HP Indigo 7000 makes personalisation a breeze
This new addition to the Indigo range delivers fast production speeds printing 120 four-colour A4 pages per minute with offset quality.
“This press is designed to print large numbers of static jobs with run lengths ranging from one copy into the thousands,” says Wood, adding that its ability to produce large quantities of variable data work is another outstanding benefit.
Shane Lucas, director of Graphic Arts South Pacific HP, concurs, commenting that the market for personalisation of marketing collateral and communication materials is increasing rapidly. He says, “The HP Indigo is the ideal press to cost effectively produce high quality variable data print jobs that contain varied images, text and numerical information. This versatility makes the HP Indigo a powerful production partner for any print business.”
InfoTrends research indicates personalisation of marketing collateral improves repeat orders by 48 per cent, response rates by 36 per cent, response time by 34 per cent and overall revenue/profits by 32 per cent.
Digital print solution
The HP Indigo 7000 produces the same high print quality as the successful HP Indigo press 5500. The press offers up to seven-colour printing, providing the widest digital colour gamut with four, six or seven colour Pantone emulation including Pantone Goe, and off-press mixing of true spot colours.
Wood says, “This press really delivers a one-of-a-kind digital solution for those businesses engaged in general commercial, direct-marketing, photo merchandise, and book and publications printing. The productivity, combined with the ability to produce corporate colours with genuine offset quality, makes the 7000 the most powerful digital printing solution in the New Zealand market.”
Unlike previous models, the 7000 does not come with an onboard digital front end. Customers choose from two new stand alone print servers (DFE’s) from the HP SmartStream family to drive the press via the new PrintLink protocol that separates the prepress tasks from printing. This allows the press operator to concentrate on printing operations, boosting pressroom productivity to maximum levels. On-press and off-press diagnostics and troubleshooting tools enable optimum use of uptime and facilitate continuous printing. Wood comments, “People tend to forget that variable data and every page is different printing can require some serious computing power to process files quickly enough to keep the press fed. But with HP’s powerful and scalable print server solutions we can ensure pre-press production bottlenecks don’t occur.”
The HP Indigo 7000 digital press cares about the environment with on-press oil recycling; lower electricity consumption per printed page; long consumables life resulting in reduced waste; the ability to print on recycled paper; elimination of make-ready waste, as compared to conventional; and the ability to print the precise quantity required.
HP Indigo ws6000 digital press
The HP Indigo ws6000 is a high-volume digital press designed for the label and packaging markets.
Combining speed, size format and a streamlined digital workflow, the HP Indigo ws6000 offers distinct advantages over conventional analogue printing including cost effective production of short runs, personalisation of labels and security enhancements.
The ws6000 model addresses longer-run converting needs on jobs up to approximately 4,000 linear metres, while the HP Indigo press ws4500 targets shorter-run converting work. Also designed for higher-volume users, the HP Indigo ws6000 press offers total cost of ownership advantages on average monthly volume usage in excess of 300,000 linear metres per month.
Wood comments, “We are excited that this new press is now available to the New Zealand market. The number of new features on this press means print service providers can print on substrates from 12 to 450 microns, allowing them to offer more print applications and pursue new business opportunities in the areas of flexible packaging and folding cartons as well as self adhesive labels.”
Designed to increase print productivity by approximately 100 per cent, the HP Indigo ws6000’s new features include the innovative built-in web camera for real-time remote monitoring and troubleshooting as part of an integrated HP Indigo print care solution.
The new HP SmartStream Labels and Packaging solutions, powered by EskoArtwork, including a new digital front end, drives the HP Indigo ws6000. This HP SmartStream solution enables efficient file processing, outstanding colour capabilities, step-and-repeat work and variable data applications.
As well as the ability to print spot colours, the press can automatically emulate Pantone colours from an expanded base gamut of seven colours, the usual CMYK plus orange, violet and green. An improved white ink for printing on clear or metallic label stock as well as flexible packaging is also a new feature.
The press prints at 30 metres per minute in four colours and a staggering 60 metres a minute in one or two colours. Featuring the same high quality that gives HP Indigo label and packaging presses such prominence, the ws6000 boasts a repeat length of 980mm, permitting greater productivity and lower costs per label.
HP customers win at Pride In
A number of HP customers won awards at this year’s Pride In Print Awards in May
In the Digital Smaller than A2 Category, two HP Indigo customers – DPOD and Kinetic 121 (with their production for Momento Photobooks) – took out gold awards. Of the seven highly commended entries in this category, six were produced on HP Indigo presses.
Kinetic 121 also won the only gold medal awarded in the Personalisation Category for a job produced on the HP Indigo for New Zealand Post – New Zealand Post Postcode and Addressing Standards.
The overall winner of the Digital Category, and a finalist in the Supreme Award, is also an HP customer – Big Colour Imaging who won for their work produced on the HP Scitex FB910 flatbed printer.
