Page 46 - Print21 Jan-Feb 2020

Textile Printing
Quadient and HP
“We have a range of both transfer paper and direct-to-print fabric here, so we are able to print out of Ergosoft through the HP Stitch and then calendar those finished results, so customers are able to take away a finished print. At a trade show, we are often limited just to be able to demo on a machine without showing the complete workflow,” he said.
According to Brew, HP’s first entry into the dye sublimation market is aimed at providing applications that its existing Latex range couldn’t produce. “We saw the textile market was growing rapidly, and we had customers who were doing a great job printing textile
on their Latex devices. However,
we also saw that there was a huge chunk of the textile market that wasn’t able to be delivered with Latex, which is a space that dye sub addresses perfectly. So we entered the dye sub market with HP Stitch, and we’re really excited to see where it goes,” he said.
Brew highlighted Stitch’s capability to print either direct or to transfer paper – with the same ink set for each – as a key feature that makes it attractive to wide format printers who need flexibility.
“Business changes over time. Today I might be printing soft signage, and then down the track that might evolve a little bit into interior décor. That may mean that I need to evolve from direct
to transfer – and with Stitch, we allow you straight out of the box to address either.
“We have heard from customers in the market loud and clear that they want to be a one stop shop, and choosing a printer that can only print direct to fabric or only print transfer has often been a limiting factor.
“Creating a printer that’s able to do both means that you no longer need to shut off a wide section of the market or a wide section of application versatility, just based on the dollars that you have available at the time of acquiring new equipment,” he said.
The HP Stitch S series is available from Quadient in three models: the entry-level S300; the mid-range S500; and the top-end 3.2-metre S1000. 21
Above Strong partnership:
Morgan Quinn, Neopost (left),
and Jeremy Brew, HP, demonstrate the capabilities of the 1.6m Stitch S500 dye sublimation printer
go end-to-end with Stitch
Quadient (formerly Neopost) teamed up with HP to show off the new Stitch S series of dye sublimation printers at open house events in Sydney and Melbourne. Jake Nelson was there.
The open house events at Quadient’s showrooms saw HP and its distributor demonstrate the capability of the HP Stitch S500
capability to print both direct to fabric and onto transfer paper, and produce the vibrant colour that results when sublimated with a Transmatic 7460 calender unit.
According to Morgan Quinn, national sales manager for wide format at Quadient, visitors – and customers around the world – have been impressed with what they have seen.
“We have been giving customers
a bit of an introduction to what the technology is and how it works, and then doing some live demos, just showing them the process. We have also been going through some of the onboard colour management smarts that HP has built into the machine.
“The customers have been happy with the high speed; the colour management capabilities; and the colour quality. Colour has been a
big thing – customers are really impressed, especially existing dye sub customers, with the colour output that we are achieving,” he said.
46 Print21 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020
Quinn highlights soft signage, an area which the Stitch serves, as a key vertical for Quadient. “It’s a market we know quite well, which has a lot of synergies to our existing customers and what they are currently doing.
“Interior décor has been another area of interest – customers are now wanting to do things like custom curtains, couch covers, cushions, and similar applications,” he said.
“We’ve heard from customers in the market loud and clear that they want to be a one stop shop.” – Jeremy Brew
Jeremy Brew, large format application specialist at HP, said
that stock has begun to arrive for
the Stitch S series on Australian shores, and expected that HP and Quadient would be able to make announcements regarding sales soon.
“This open house is the first time where we have been able to show the entire workflow end to end
with HP Stitch. Quadient, as part
of its initiative in bringing Stitch to market, is supplying the Transmatic calender units.