HP has completed installations of the first HP Indigo 10000 Digital Press beta systems at US-based Sandy Alexander, Israel-based Old City Press, and U.K.-based Precision Printing. The press is the first offset-quality digital press in a larger format (750 x 530mm; 29.5 x 20.9in) suitable for printing nearly any size commercial offset job.
Continued HP Indigo customer momentum has driven strong sales of the new HP Indigo Digital Press portfolio, while increased productivity and application versatility has helped drive consistently higher print volume among the more than 4000 HP Indigo customer sites worldwide. HP now has installed more than 6000 HP Indigo Digital Presses worldwide, and year-over-year page volume has increased about 20 per cent every quarter for more than two years.
Additionally, the company has installed more than 80 HP Inkjet Web Presses worldwide which have produced a cumulative total of more than 18 billion pages. Currently, customers using HP Inkjet Web Presses produce a total of about 45 million pages each day.
HP also introduced a new colour-proofing bundled solution for the HP Inkjet Web Press family which allows print service providers to check colour quality offline without stopping the high-speed press and interrupting the production process.
HP made the announcements at Graph Expo 2012, which also marked the North American debut of two new HP Indigo Digital Presses, the HP Indigo 7600 and 5600 models introduced in March 2012, and now commercially available worldwide.
In todays economy, customers are constantly looking to improve productivity, add new capabilities and diversify applications so they can deliver more value to their clients, said Christopher Morgan, senior vice president, Graphics Solutions Business, HP. With our billion-dollar investment in new technology since 2008, we have added new presses and workflow solutions for higher throughput, flexibility and colour quality to help PSPs grow their business.
Beta-testing underway for HP Indigo 10000
Precision Printing Ltd, a leading direct mail and commercial print provider, successfully installed the HP Indigo 10000 and SmartStream Production Pro print server in the companys printing facility in London, UK. It plans to use the new press to expand its business through offering new options for one-to-one marketing.
Additional beta sites include Consolidated Graphics (United States), Courier (United States), Elanders (Germany), Prol Gráfica (Brazil), Pureprint Group (U.K.) and Wing Hung Group (Hong Kong). All beta installations are expected to be complete by November 2012.
In addition to the beta users, HP has experienced strong interest in the HP Indigo 10000 among leading companies such as Avery Dennison, Consolidated Graphics and The Matlet Group, which plan to install the system when it becomes available next year.
Because of its larger size and high productivity, the HP Indigo 10000 will help customers transition more work from offset to digital printing. It prints 3450 sheets per hour in standard production mode, or 4600 colour sheets per hour using HP Indigos unique Enhanced Productivity Mode (EPM).
SmartStacker from Japan-based Horizon International Inc. is on display in the Standard Finishing Systems (stand 1244). It is a new B2-format cutter/slitter/stacker digital finishing system that can work in-line or near-line to the HP Indigo 10000.
HP reports strong market acceptance of the HP Indigo 7600 and 5600 Digital Presses released earlier in the year, with hundreds of orders received worldwide for the presses in the past three months. Customers are taking advantage of new features for greater versatility and productivity of the presses and improved automation.
The HP Indigo 7600 has a top speed of 160 pages per minute (ppm) in EPM – a 33 per cent increase over the previous top speed, making it the fastest two-page digital sheet-fed press available on the market. The HP Indigo 5600 is the enhanced version of the HP Indigo 5500, with a higher top speed of 90ppm in EPM and new features for handling a broader range of applications.
New solutions to power digital workflows
New workflow solutions for HP Indigo presses that streamline image processing and production floor management include:
- HP SmartStream Designer 6.0, the next generation of HP Indigos leading variable data tool. SmartStream Designer seamlessly integrates with Adobe Creative Suite 6 for the creation of sophisticated high-value pages. Available now, new features include drag-and-drop imposition and page selection, layer rules in fast mode, and built-in QR and 2D barcode generation.
- HP SmartStream Director 2.0, a web-to-print system for small-to-medium commercial PSPs, combines template-driven storefront creation with powerful JDF backend production automation to efficiently capture a wide variety of job orders with the highest level of end-to-end workflow automation. The new version, available in November, includes performance improvements and several new features including support for mobile devices.
- A new version of HP SmartStream Production Pro designed to meet the demanding production requirements of the HP Indigo 10000 Digital Press will be available in 2013. It features a new, intuitive user interface that simplifies the operation of the press.
- An updated version of HP SmartStream Production Analyser, a multi-press, multi-site monitoring tool for HP Indigo presses that provides real time status, historical production data.
- HP SmartStream Production Center, a new workflow management system that addresses the challenges of producing and delivering high volumes of short run jobs, reducing turnaround time and increasing profitability. It will be available in the first half of 2013.
HP also now offers HP Hiflex cloud-based software solutions that address most application areas, including commercial printing, sign and display, publishing, and direct mail.
Momentum with high-speed colour inkjet printing
Since entering the market in 2009 with the first commercially available HP Inkjet Web Press, HP has helped leading book, transactional statement and direct mail PSPs improve productivity, reduce costs and streamline their supply chain.
