With biggest and busiest stand at drupa, measuring 6200sqm, HP has unveiled a raft of forward looking technology and solutions. Showing solutions at drupa: Steve Donegal (l), HP Asia Pacific manager and Phillip Rennell, sales director for Currie Group Craig Paul, general manager for Currie Group New Zealand’s HP Indigo supplier, says, “The word we are getting back from our team in drupa is that Kiwi printers are lapping up the solutions on display at the HP stand. as booked out the entire 6,200sqm, and is thought to be approaching a monumental $400m drupa sales figure. Phillip Rennell, sales director at Currie Group and Steve Donegal, HP Asia Pacific manager, both visited New Zealand prior to drupa. Rennell says, “At this drupa, HP is demonstrating not just what the machine will do, but how to optimise productivity, with software, integration, and automation playing a big part in that.”
Showing solutions at drupa: Steve Donegal (l), HP Asia Pacific manager and Phillip Rennell, sales director for Currie Group
Donegal adds, “Connection is crucial, whether that is by platform, by press, by geography, by application. Segmentation is receding; printers are looking to produce a wider range of applications. HP is moving forward, as is the print industry, developing ways to produce more, and more efficiently. Today for HP only 30 per cent of the conversation is about the machine, 70 per cent is about maximising utilisation.†Among the new launches, the HP Indigo 12000 B2 press, which we might see here next year. It has several enhancements to the existing HP Indigo 10000; however the 10000 can be upgraded in the field to the 12000. Donegal says, “HP is determined to protect a printer’s investment. We have an upgrade strategy that does not involve fork lift trucks.†Also launching its PrintOS, HP calls it an operating system for a business. Paul says, “Our customers can use this platform to draw on knowledge and software as they need or want it. Printers can connect online to their production centres, and to use any number of a host of apps as they need them to help in their business. For example, Siteflow, a workflow app was created to optimise scheduling by Precision Printing but is now available to all HP users. “Currie Group is not just selling HP Indigo kit. We are positioning ourselves as a strategic partner for print businesses. It is not just selling a piece of kit, which is tactical; it is about the sales, the scheduling, the prepress, technology, the productivity, the finishing, and the substrates. This is strategic, and this is what HP and Currie can offer.†Two innovations to watch out for in the future include the new HP PageWide C500 Press, a flexible and robust industrial post-print corrugated solution powered by HP PageWide Technology, and the new HP Indigo Digital Combination Press, enabling HP Indigo print and digital embellishments in a single pass. HP says the new HP PageWide C500 Press introduces a highly versatile, offset-quality cost effective solution for corrugated direct-to-board printing. The company says it can integrate into a standard production environment, from large integrated packaging converters with centralised or distributed printing, to small, independent sheet plants, enabling printers to affordably adopt digital technology for mainstream production and reinvent a segment ripe with opportunity. Digital printing, the fastest growing segment in packaging, has a projected annual growth rate of 17 percent in a market expected to be worth US$19bn by 2019. For combination labels’ production, the HP Indigo Digital Combination Press concept will incorporate HP Indigo print and digital embellishments in one press, creating a fully-digital, single-pass solution to deliver high-value labels and packaging production. Developed in alliance with JetFX, HP says it will enable streamlined production of digital spot and tactile varnishes, digital foils, as well as embellishments of virtually unlimited designs made possible using HP SmartStream Mosaic. IT provides a single point-of-control for all functions to the digital-front-end of an HP Indigo WS6800 or 8000 Digital Press.
