Page 18 - Print21 May-June 2020

Cover Story
HP: 120 metres a min digital label press on horizon
With the labels and packaging market 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 a minute.
Launching the presses, HP Indigo general manager Alon 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 diversification, customisation and printing with reduced waste.
Bar-Shany cited five key drivers in
HP Indigo’s thinking for labels and packaging: the dramatically shrinking time from concept to market, the huge rise of craft food and beverage producers, the need for higher shelf appeal, the demand for sustainable packaging, and the need for brand protection.
He said, “Colour is critical, workflows need to be automated, and sustainability is a necessity. The new HP Indigo label and packaging presses deliver these.”
In label presses the company is launching the new HP Indigo 6K and HP Indigo
8K. The HP Indigo 6K will have inline varnishing. The HP Indigo 6K Digital Press is the new model of the highly successful, high-versatility HP Indigo 6000 series. The press can deliver more applications using higher opacity white for shrink sleeves, new inks including silver, fluorescents, invisible red and green for brand protection applications and new varnishes from leading partners for higher durability. The HP Indigo 8K offers increased productivity, reduced waste and easier transitioning between media types and jobs.
Disrupting labels
According to HP, the new HP Indigo
V12 Digital Press is poised to disrupt
the label market ecosystem by making significant production volumes a reality for operators with HP Indigo’s well- known quality and flexibility. The press will run on a new LEPX technology. It will be available in two years’ time.
Bar-Shany said, “The V12 is the biggest breakthrough in digital printing since the launch of Indigo in 1993. It will run at 120 metres per minute at 1600dpi with 12 colours in a 340mm web width.”
It has inline priming, with printing coming via six inline imaging engines and a central blanket rather than the conventional central impression drum, to offer 120m/min in six-colours on substrates from 12mic film to
450gsm board.
120 metres a minute: Narrow web digital label printing
Cartons
There are now two main carton presses; the HP Indigo 35K and the HP Indigo 90K, The 35K succeeds the 30000, while the 90K is for B1+ sized carton printing, with a reel to sheet pathway, and which HP says will open up new applications such as photo posters and wallpaper, in addition to its core carton printing capability.
The new portfolio significantly extends HP Indigo folding carton capabilities, offering enhanced productivity, wider application range and expanded colour capabilities.
The portfolio includes the new sheetfed B2 HP Indigo 35K for high-value folding cartons, the new sheetfed B2 HP Indigo 15K for mixed commercial print and packaging production, and the new B1 HP Indigo 90K roll-to-sheet solution with an inline water-based/UV coater and sheeter.
Daws said, “HP Indigo’s release of
the 35K and 90K enables folding carton solutions we haven’t seen before, and this gives us and our customers an opportunity to drive the market in new ways”
Colour matching
HP is also launching a new colour automation solution, Spot Master, which Bar-Shany said will enable converters
to reach brand colours within three minutes, making it one of the industry’s fastest time-to-colour solution.
The company says Spot Master enables converters to deliver high colour consistency and uniformity across the entire print frame using a new, patented algorithm for fast and accurate colour matching, This ensures every package looks the same no matter when or where it was printed.
Spot Master will be available for the HP Indigo 35K, HP Indigo 25K, HP Indigo 6K and HP Indigo 8K presses. 21
Due for release in two years’ time the V12 is not a concept, Bar-Shany said, “We have built three models, which are currently in beta testing.”
Key benefits to be offered by the HP Indigo V12 Digital Press include print up to six colours at 120 linear metres per minute, using six inline imaging engines running simultaneously.
It will produce up to 130,000 linear metres per day with one operator. A
new high definition HD Imaging System on press offers native to 1600 dpi resolution. You can change inks on the fly and create any combination of colours.
It will print on one of the industry’s largest range of digital label printing range of substrates, from 12-micron film to 450-micron (18pt) board. It supports pressure-sensitive, sleeves, flexible packaging, tubes, and IMLs. One-pass, high-speed finishing capabilities will be provided by AB Graphics.
Mark Daws, labels and packaging director at ANZ distributor Currie Group said, “With this announcement, HP Indigo has delivered label printers a digital future with new release products and set forward the future direction for digital printing of labels.”
Flexibles
In flexible printing, HP is launching the HP Indigo 25K, which supersedes the 20000. HP says it provides improved total cost of ownership to help labels and flexible packaging converters grow profitably, delivering on-demand flexible packaging.
The new HP Indigo 25K digital press is designed to help converters meet brand needs with an attractive total cost of ownership, a wider media range to deliver compostable and recyclable pouches and more choices to create a digital pouch factory.
18 Print21 MAY/JUNE 2020