Visitors to PacPrint will see HP on at least half a dozen stands, as the influence scope and size of the company continues to grow.
For the first time ever the Currie Co stand ahs more digital presses than offset, with no less that five HP Indigo printers on the 1000sqm stand. Currie is the exclusive supplier of HP Indigo, and is aiming to take the number of Australian installations past the 100 market in the near future.Visitors to PacPrint saw the new high volume HP Indigo 7000 I action for the first time. Aimed at the high volume market of more than a million pages a month the 7000 runs at 120ppm regardless of stock, and is about 1.67 times more productive than the Indigo 5500, which will remain the top seller for HP.
The first 7000 has already been sold, to On Demand in Melbourne. Hp claims a massive 74 per cent market share for Indigo in its class. The new press will print onto a stock range from 60-350gsm, with the number of stocks increasing each month, among the latest is the new Tudor RP 100 per cent recycled.
Also in the Currie stand was the new ws6000 label printing Indigo, capable of producing 30 linear metres a minute in four colour mode, double that in two colour. With a small footprint and an ability to print onto stock down to 12 micron Currie Co is aiming to impress all 250 of Australia’s label printers with the new machine, which is twice as productive as the machine it supercedes.
HP was also much in evidence on the CPI stand, thanks to its new agreement with CPI to become the exclusive distributor for the HP Scitex range of industrial printing machines. Patrick Turner has moved from HP to CPI to become national sales manager for the printers.
On the CPI stand was a new HP Scitex XP2750 roll to roll machine which is also available with a flatbed option. Based on the Nur Expedia series the XP2750 is aimed at the high volume print market.
Gerard Wintle, national manager for CPI machinery says, “Inkjet will clearly play a big part of print in the future, with HP certain to be leading the field. Many of CPI’s print customers have virtually everything they need to start up in wide format printing, so it made sense for us to enter the market.”
Wintel quipped that he had been talking to wide format manufacturers for several years but every time he got close to a deal HP bought them.
The new HP Latex LS 6550 wide format inkjet printer was on both the GBC and Celmac stands, with its environmental credentials to the fore. Celmac has just signed up its first customer, Retail Solutions in Melbourne. The LS6550 is a water based printer that can produce work for both the indoor and outdoor markets at up to 90sqm an hour.
