HP Unveils Portfolio of New Products

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL—HP began its pre-Drupa Press and Analyst Summit here March 9-12, hosting more than 100 journalists, analysts, partners and customers to an unveiling of several new technologies and products.

In HP’s most extensive graphic arts push to date, the pre-Drupa rollout included the introduction of the HP Ink-jet Web Press, Latex Inks, SmartStream Digital Workflow Portfolio and three new Indigo digital presses.

These latest offerings—which span high-speed ink-jet production and liquid electrophotographic printing, as well as wide-format printing—will debut (excluding the web press) at Drupa in HP’s mega booth in Hall 8A.

Causing quite a stir among the debuted products was the HP Ink-jet Web Press—the world’s first 30˝ digital ink-jet web press designed for high-volume production of books, transpromo mail, direct marketing materials and newspapers. The new web press, which prints at 600 dpi at speeds up to 400 fpm, will be available by summer 2009.

However, it was HP Indigo press that took center stage at the four-day event, with attendees witnessing firsthand the HP Indigo’s diverse printing capabilities. Press kits, postcards, name badges and hotel key cards, wine bottle labels and even bongo drums—all printed and personalized on Indigo presses for each guest—illustrated Indigo’s reach across an extreme range of printing substrates and applications.

Front and center was the new HP Indigo 7000, a cost-efficient digital press that produces top (photo) quality material at speeds to 120 four-color A4-size ppm, and prints on a wide range of media. The 7000 will be available in June.

Also new is the HP Indigo W7200, a high-quality commercial press designed for publishing, direct mail and transpromo applications. The new HP Indigo WS6000 label and packaging press, claims HP, “offers twice the productivity of the HP Indigo ws45000 press.” Both the W7200 and WS6000 are slated for availability in early 2009.

These three new presses are the first to be built with a next-generation print engine using HP’s liquid electrophotographic process. They will also be the first generation of machines to employ the new HP SmartStream digital workflow portfolio—an open-environment technology designed to meet a wide range of applications and provide workflow management from job creation to fulfillment.

Journalists toured HP’s new, state-of-the-art press manufacturing facility and ink production plant in Kiryat Gat, and attended a product fair at HP Indigo headquarters in Rehovot.

At the product fair, guests got to see the new 7000, WS6000 and W7200 presses in action, as well as observe enhancements to HP’s best-selling digital press, the Indigo 5500. These include an additional feeder, in-line connection to the HP Indigo UV Coater and a kit for printing on thicker media.

There was also a tech demo and product fair involving HP’s growing portfolio of wide-format products, which took place at HP’s new Scitex manufacturing facility in Caesarea. The event featured five new superwide-format industrial printers in the HP Scitex XP line (added as the result of the product integration of NUR Macroprinters) that covered the technology gamut, including piezo, thermal, water-based, solvent, UV curable and HP’s new Latex inks—which are water-based, produce near-odorless prints, and offer high quality and consistent performance on a broad range of media.