At its Dscoop Edge gathering, HP has previewed its huge drupa showing - it has the entirety of Hall 17 - by announcing the new HP Indigo 120K Digital Press, the B2 18K Digital Press, a new approach to security printing with the new HP Indigo 7K Secure Digital Press, standards for end-to-end automation using artificial intelligence and robotics and improvements to its PageWide portfolio to solve production challenges and unlock growth opportunities for the printing industry.
HP has revealed the latest lineup of HP digital printing presses and intelligent solutions designed to address today’s production challenges in the commercial printing and labels and packaging industries.
Printing businesses face challenges such as inflation, labor shortages, material scarcity, and environmental concerns. To sustainably grow their business, offset players need to access new growth opportunities by embracing digital printing and an intelligent production floor.
Haim Levit, SVP and Division President of HP Industrial Print says: "We're committed to unlocking profitable and sustainable growth for our customers. Our LEP, LEPx, and inkjet technologies have improved in terms of quality, versatility, productivity, sustainability, and economics and our commitment and significant investment into continuous innovation has enabled over 8,000 printers and converters to expand their businesses and grow sustainably. HP has been a digital transformation leader for more than 30 years, and our digital printing technology has established the gold standard in commercial print and labels and packaging production."
Addressing High-Volume Production Challenges
HP says that today’s printing businesses are navigating increasing production challenges. Supply chain disruption, energy supply concerns and worsening sector labor shortages reinforce the need for greater efficiency, speed and reliability across the production floor.
The HP Indigo 120K Digital Press announced at Dscoop sets a 'new standard' for high-volume production and automation, the company claims, while enabling printers to move jobs from analog to digital more intuitively and economically to meet demanding customer needs. Optimizing production floors by combining analog and digital technologies, the HP Indigo 120K reduces human touchpoints and enables multi-press operation by a single operator. The new press delivers offset-matching image quality, flexible job routing between offset and digital, and an ECO mode option that reduces the press's carbon footprint by 11%, supporting sustainability goals.
Unlocking Profitable Growth
The next-generation of HP's best selling B2 sheet-fed digital press, the HP Indigo 18K Digital Press takes versatility, efficiency, and user-friendliness to new heights. As the commercial printing sector tackles significant competitive transformation, the need for presses and solutions that help printers enrich their offering and sustainably grow their business is critical.
The new HP Indigo 18K Digital Press handles the widest range of print applications ever produced with a single B2 digital press4 , accommodating diverse substrates and job types seamlessly. Advanced AI features like auto recovery and proactive alerts enhance productivity and simplify the entire production process, achieving up to 80% press availability5 within a single shift. Aligning with HP’s sustainability commitment, the Indigo 18K supports Enhanced Productivity Mode (EPM), delivering 24% energy savings per sheet.
Innovating for Restricted Digital Security Printing
HP has also introduced the 'groundbreaking' HP Indigo 7K Secure Digital Press, for restricted digital security printing by executing security-focused print jobs in a single pass. Collaborating with Jura JSP, the 7K sheet-fed press enables workflows tailor-made for security production lines, so customers can diversify their offerings, cater to a comprehensive range of security needs, and acquire new customers to grow their business.
Noam Zilbershtain, VP and GM, HP Indigo and Scitex says: "As the printing industry embraces automation and digitalization, HP Indigo empowers customers with unprecedented levels of productivity, efficiency, versatility, quality, and cost-effectiveness. Our portfolio defines the industry standard for automation and sustainability, reflecting HP's vision for the print production floor.”
He continues: “We’re also excited to announce that today HP will roll out general commercial availability of the HP Indigo V12 Digital Press, the fastest narrow web digital press on the market and first press to utilize new innovative LEPx technology. Commercial availability comes after successful beta site installations in the USA."
Paving the Way for Success with Intelligent Factory Floors
HP says it is defining the industry approach to automation through AI and robotics, launching a comprehensive print production automation ecosystem. Based on internal studies, customers who leverage automated processes achieve 51% higher volume and 80% more jobs per press compared to less automated customers. These customers also grow at an average of 27% year-over-year which is higher than the industry average. HP's holistic approach combines effective presses with intelligent features from job submission to delivery.
HP doesn't have a 'booth' at drupa - it has an entire Hall, all 8,300 sqm of it! drupa 2016 photo
Specific efficiency innovations include:
- PrintOS Production Beat Support for analog printing and finishing equipment, to enable customers to monitor their entire production floor, not only HP presses, capturing data in real time from analog equipment and digitalizing the entire production.
- HP Indigo PQ Maestro, offering an intelligent start-of-day wizard that optimizes press performance.
- Preflight, an AI-based decision-making tool that automatically predicts the suitability of the best-fit print mode by learning customers preferences.
- AAA 2.0 (Auto Alert Agent) advanced, a machine-learning algorithm that increases print productivity with zero human intervention8.
“By using AAA 2.0 we experience a significant reduction in production time, saving 1 hour for every 80,000 impressions. This not only enhances our operational efficiency, but also drastically reduces customer complaints and returns by 5-7%” highlighted Andreas Organzidis Head of Color Digital Printing, Elanders.
As the industry moves towards a more productive production floor, HP introduces Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) in collaboration with Movigo to automate media transfer, saving up to two hours per day, per press.
The enhancements to HP PageWide Plus Package include the following:
- Performance Economy Color (EC) Mode: Delivering print quality customers require for faster turnaround with less color ink and a 60% increase in productivity up to 800 fpm (244 mpm)10.
- General availability of Smart Workcell Controller: Offering significant advancements in intelligent automation and productivity improvements of up to a factor of 15x11.
- On Press Color Profiling: Automation transforms color profiling into a less than 5 minutes job, a tenth of what it normally takes12.
At drupa 2024, the global print community will be able to see firsthand eight automated production lines equipped with the latest innovation across HP Industrial, involving over 25 partner companies and incorporating more than 20 unique automation solutions.
All this and more will be in Hall 17 at drupa 2024, from 28th May until 7th June in Duesseldorf, Germany.
