HP kicked off its World Tour media event in China this week, launching its Scitex FB10000 Industrial Press and Latex 3000 Printer. Nicholas Pond, Print21’s deputy publisher, is in Beijing as a guest of HP. He sat down with Gido van Praag, HP Asia Pacific Graphics Solutions Business vice president, to find out what it all means.
The graphics and technology giant's push into industrial printing was given high priority in the corporate strategy with both Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer, and Bill Veghte, the company’s chief operating officer, making time to attend the event. The technology launches come ahead of this week's FESPA in London where the machines will actually go on display. But the Chinese market is too big to ignore these days.
- Gido van Praag, HP’s vice president and general manager for Graphics Solutions Business, Printing and Personal Systems Group, Asia Pacific and Japan.
The Latex 3000 Printer is expected to be available in the Asia Pacific region by 15 August this year, while the Scitex FB10000 Industrial Press is expected to be available 1 November.
The company also announced the rebranding of its Designjet and Scitex latex printers and supplies, with the new sub-brand for the product range being changed to HP Latex.
For Gido van Praag (pictured), HP’s vice president and general manager for Graphics Solutions Business, in the region, the new releases and the Latex rebranding represent an economic advantage for printers trying to make their way in a rapidly-changing market landscape.
“Industrial printing companies are facing ever shrinking timelines and tighter budgets for projects,” said van Praag. “Increasingly many find themselves taking on more short print runs as buyers look to generate greater marketing impact.
“The new large-format printing technologies that we are announcing today [24 June] will give our customers a unique advantage to cost-effectively address these challenges and expand on their business with new levels of productivity, quality and application versatility,” he said.
- Meg Whitman (left), HP president and chief executive officer, and Bill Veghte (R), the company’s chief operating officer, attended the second day of the event.
HP says that the new Scitex FB10000 Press, which features a six-colour HDR (High Dynamic Range) Printing System, delivers high quality and industrial productivity at the same time with dynamic dot size control. Using the HDR printing technology, the Scitex FB10000 combines 16 gray-level printing with the ability to produce 1,000 B1 sheets in less than two hours.
According to HP, the new press will allow printing companies to meet peak demand with print capacity up to 625 m2/hour and direct-to-board printing. The HP Scitex HDR Printing Technology provides precision control over colour and tone for clarity of image detail. The company says that the HDR technology uses combinations of light and dark inks and three-drop volumes, achieving the quality required for high-impact graphics.
Although the new Scitex has been given the 10000 name (as did the B2-sized Indigo 10000), van Praag says that there is no deliberate branding link between the two. In fact, he concedes that he doesn’t know why the branding overlap between the two 10000 machines occurred. “I don’t know why they did that, and I don’t really think it’s very clever,” he said.
Meanwhile, HP said it was redefining the Latex printing category with the new Latex 3000 Printer, which has already seen the company receive early orders from Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand for the new printer.
- HP's Asia Pacific and Japan team onstage at the event in Beijing.
HP Latex Printing Technologies were introduced in 2008 as a water-based alternative to solvent ink technologies. Since then, HP has shipped more than 15,000 Latex printers worldwide. HP said its Latex 3000 Printer launch will help drive this growth, allowing a broader range of sign and display customers to shift pages from traditional solvent and UV-curable technologies to HP Latex Printing Technologies.
Van Praag said the Latex printers were targeted at large format, sign and display users, with Latex comprising roughly 10 per cent of HP’s print business – a figure that looks set to triple over the next three years if van Praag has his way.
"We have a huge install base of sign and display equipment, as well as the install base of the Indigo,” he said.
The new printer offers broader media versatility, including heat-sensitive substrates, with the HP Latex Optimizer, while its new ink solution ensures consistent image quality at high speeds as well as efficient curing at lower temperatures and with less energy than previous HP Latex solutions.
Third-generation HP 881 Latex Inks also provide a scratch resistance comparable to hard-solvent inks on certain substrates,making them ideal for applications including retail displays, outdoor advertising, vehicle graphics and interior décor.
The printer’s increased production capacity lets high-volume customers meet tight deadlines, producing 77 m2/hr for indoor applicationsand 120 m2/hr for outdoor applications.Standard carbon-fibre, dual-roll spindles also help reduce media loading times and the need for operator intervention.
HP suggested that the two new digital printing platforms from would ‘further disrupt’ the economics of traditional printing, enable printing companies to improve profitability and take on higher value print applications.