Page 34 - Packaging News Magazine May-June 2020

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PACK & LABEL PRINTING | www.packagingnews.com.au | May-June 2020
Digital driver in graphic arts
HP Indigo has revamped its entire press lineup with new solutions for labels, cartons, and flexibles.
HP HAS announced what it says are the “most exciting launches in the history of Indigo”: a raft of new print solutions for labels, packag- ing, and commercial presses. The company has launched eight new presses for labels, flexibles, and cartons. HP has also launched
software that enables these presses to hit any spot colour in three minutes.
Phillip Rennell, sales and market- ing director at ANZ distributor Currie Group, said HP Indigo had shown leadership in the graphic arts market.
“HP Indigo has produced an enhanced portfolio for our customers, continuing to deliver digital print solutions for today and showing how they are creating the future. Again,” Rennell said.
Alon Bar-Shany, general manager at HP Indigo, said the new press line-up is designed to work in what he calls “the new normal” of the online world where same-day deliv- ery, no minimum orders, evidential sustainability, and consumers will- ing to pay premium prices for out- standing experiences were facts of life. He said the current coronavirus crisis is an opportunity to look at things in new ways.
“The world is full of good news and bad news. Our job is to turn that into opportunity, which the new range of print solutions does,” Bar-Shany said.
Santi Morera, general manager and global head of graphics solutions
business at HP, said the new print systems would offer “high growth opportunities to printers”.
HP AT DRUPA
HP will have the largest booth at mega print show drupa next year, again occupying the whole of Hall 17. It will run a Possibility City to show what can be produced, with 30 HP Indigo presses for demonstration.
“Over the past four years, HP cus- tomers have almost doubled busi- ness, generating US$15bn in revenue in the last year alone from 100 mil- lion print orders. We believe the dra- matic innovations in our drupa port- folio will usher in a new era that will drive continued growth for custom- ers over the next decade and beyond,” Bar-Shany said.
Bar-Shany emphasised that all the print solutions that were shown at drupa 2016 were ready for commer- cial uptake, and the same will be the case next time around.
LABELS AND PACKAGING ON THE UP
The commercial print market is declining while the labels and pack- aging markets are rising; Bar-Shany said both offer opportunities. In commercial printing HP has two new B2 presses: the new 6000sph HP Indigo 100K, designed for non-stop printing, and the HP Indigo 15K, which is aimed at the premium printing market.
Beyond the presses, HP is develop- ing its PrintOSX cloud-platform applications with an AI-driven ser- vice and support infrastructure to enable printers to get the most out of their press investment.
Based on PrintOSX advanced technology, tools, and know-how, HP says printers can start building the “print factory of the future” and reach operational excellence, auto- mate production, and innovate with high-value applications.
Some 12,000 HP customers are now connected on HP PrintOS, which was launched at drupa 2016.
FAST LABEL PRESS ON THE HORIZON
With the labels and packaging mar- ket set for continued growth, HP is launching new presses for labels, flexibles, and cartons, including a narrow web digital press – the V12 – which will compete on speed with analogue presses, running at 120 metres per minute.
At the launch of the new presses in March, Bar-Shany said the digital labels and packaging market is growing and evolving as converters move to support market needs for on-demand production, SKU diver- sification, customisation, and print- ing with reduced waste.
“Labels and packaging converters using HP Indigo are growing their Indigo volume four times faster than the market and are consistently gen- erating new opportunities,” he said.
“The new labels and packaging portfolio unveiled here is a