PAGEWIDE ADVANTAGE ENHANCED BY HP

At Hunkeler Innovationdays currently taking place in Switzerland, HP is unveiling its latest innovations to the HP PageWide Advantage 2200, and previewing what is to come later in the year.

 

HP says the press now offers the ‘highest print quality mode’ at full-colour speed. In addition, HP is introducing its Smart Workcell Controller advancements in automation, its Advanced Color Suite, and HP ColorPro paper mill partner expansions in inkjet coated, treated stocks.

At Hunkeler Innovationdays 2023, HP said that that PageWide commercial customers have achieved a new milestone of 825 billion pages printed. “We are thrilled for our customers’ accomplishments. This milestone is a testament to our customers’ ingenuity to implement the versatility and productivity advantages of digital printing. We are happy to support their growth with our PageWide platforms,” said Annette Friskopp, global head and general manager at HP PageWide.

The presentations in Lucerne feature Solimar Chemistry, a modular and configurable platform of workflow software solutions that HP says takes the guesswork out of high-volume print and electronic production and delivery, and Spencer Metrics, a data collection and productivity reporting software.

Additionally, HP workflow solutions is being demonstrated, including HP’s new Smart Workcell Controller, HP Site Flow, and SmartStream Production Elite solutions, that provide the image rendering and near-press workflow functions driving PageWide press quality and performance.

The PageWide Advantage 2200 is now printing in quality mode at full 152 metres a minute. “We are excited to show the HP PageWide Advantage 2200 for the first time in Europe. HP continues to be committed to delivering high-quality, high-colour, high-value print for the commercial market, helping printers to win new business while maximising the production capacity of their print shop. In fact, many customers around the world have already introduced the new PageWide Advantage press into their workflows and have seen its true quality and speed,” said Friskopp.

The demonstration of the PageWide Advantage shown at Hunkeler Innovationdays includes a two-dryer configuration that HP says is energy-conscious and highly efficient. It uses up to an estimated 20 per cent less energy than the three-dryer configuration at maximum power, while printing a wide variety of samples. This includes a range of Burgo, UPM, CVG, Mondi, Sappi, Navigator, and Arctic stocks, both coated and uncoated, standard offset and newly announced ColorPro treated coated stocks.

One customer who has invested in the PageWide Advantage 2200 to further the company’s sustainability and innovation journey is Elanders, a German-based, leading-edge supply chain management company for print and packaging solutions. “HP has always stood for high quality, and continues to be the benchmark for the entire industry. With HP’s PageWide Advantage 2200 we can now print on standard offset material, including heavy stock, allowing us to take on more profitable jobs,” said Sven Burkhard, president of the Print & Packaging Elanders Group.

HP says its Smart Workcell Controller brings intelligent sorting, batching, and imposition to locally optimise the press, finishing efficiency and throughput. This enhancement to HP’s SmartStream Production Elite Print Server automatically sets up an integrated unwind-press-finishing workcell, reducing or even eliminating makeready stops and slowdowns for higher ROI and less waste for ultra-short-run publishing and commercial print jobs.

Additionally, HP is showing an advanced colour suite of solutions that automate and simplify the creation of ICC profiles. This includes solution partners X-Rite and CGS Oris, and HP innovations like easy-to-use spot colour features and an on-press colour profiling solution that delivers a faster and easier way to create ICC profiles. HP says that with the advanced colour suite of solutions, customers can achieve accurate colour reproduction of images and brand colours, while benefitting from a simplified, streamlined process.

With the push of a button, users will have the ability to read colour patches and produce ICC colour profiles without the hassle of taking print elsewhere to be read and analysed. This allows the customer to reduce waste, while saving time and money. HP says this innovative, on-press feature provides an efficient way to accurately reproduce brand colours, target specific colour spaces, and create ink reduction profiles across the variety of paper stocks that printers must work with today when creatively using available paper allocations. This on-press profiling feature will be available later in the year.