HP has announced a new drupa portfolio for HP Indigo digital labels and packaging designed to accelerate the digital print transformation.
The company says HP Indigo offers converters exceptional choice with an extensive portfolio of presses, along with new colour and workflow automation solutions, to efficiently deliver diverse, on-demand print orders with low waste.
The drupa portfolio introduces the new narrow web HP Indigo 6K and HP Indigo 8K digital presses for labels, the HP Indigo 25K for flexible packaging and labels, and sheetfed HP Indigo 35K and roll-to-B1 sheet HP Indigo 90K for folding cartons. Value packs with various upgrade options will allow the existing customer base to benefit from new features and capabilities.
Currie Group supplies HP Indigo in New Zealand. Phillip Rennell, sales and marketing director for Currie Group, says, “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.
“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.”
The company has also heralded the HP Indigo V12 Digital Press, the first HP Indigo built on next generation HP Indigo LEPX architecture and the first of Indigo’s Series 6 platform. HP says this the narrow web label press provides Indigo’s renowned quality and versatility at significantly higher speeds, competing with analogue speeds, with greater production agility, redefining digital label printing.
Alon Bar-Shany, general manager, HP Indigo, says, “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.
“Labels and packaging converters using HP Indigo are growing their Indigo volume four times faster than the market and are consistently generating new opportunities. The new labels and packaging portfolio unveiled today is a blueprint for customers to create a digital print factory so they can stay ahead of the curve and deliver a wider range of jobs faster, with less labour, all while keeping the environment top of mind.”
Since drupa 2016, more than 1000 HP Indigo labels and packaging presses have been installed at converters worldwide.
A new colour automation solution, Spot Master, will enable converters to reach brand colours within minutes, making it one of the industry’s fastest time to colour solutions. HP 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, ensuring 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.
Brand Beat, a new application offered in HP PrintOSX, delivers real time colour reports directly to converters and brands.
PrintOS Production Pro for Indigo Labels and Packaging, featuring HP Indigo’s fastest HP Indigo Raster Image Processor (RIP), integrates with the new Esko Automation Engine for HP Indigo, allowing converters to process more jobs per day. HP PrintOSX unites the cloud platform applications with AI-driven service and support infrastructure to help customers get the most out of their press investment. With its suite of tools and applications, customers can start building the digital Print Factory of the Future and reach operational excellence by automating production and minimising operator touchpoints.
The HP Indigo labels portfolio has a versatile array of label presses for any size converter or label volume to run a digital label factory.
The company says its 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. 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. Produce up to 130,000 linear metres per day with one operator.
• New high definition (HD) imaging: HD Imaging System on press offers native to 1600 dpi resolution.
• Up to 12-colours on press. Change inks on the fly and create any combination of colours.
• Print on one of the industry’slargest range of digital label printing range of substrates, from 12 micron film to 450 micron (18pt) board. Support pressure-sensitive, sleeves, flexible packaging, tubes, IMLs and more.4
• One-pass, high-speed finishing capabilities will be provided by AB Graphic.
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. HP adds that high capacity label production and flexible packaging on the new mid-web HP Indigo 25K Digital Press is supported with a new slitter for labels, making it easier to diversify into new and lucrative applications.
The company says that, with HP Indigo Secure and partner solutions, converters can provide brand protection solutions using special inks, anti-counterfeiting marks, micro-text fonts and protected track and trace solutions. Digital embellishment solutions from HP Indigo and partners offer ways to stand out, including the inline Kurz DM-Jetliner digital metallisation solution, HP Indigo ElectroInk Silver for metallising the colour gamut, and HP Indigo Gem, a digital print and embellish, one pass solution integrated with the HP Indigo 6K Digital Press.
HP says its drupa 2020 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.
The HP Indigo 35K introduces significant enhancements as follows:
• Faster time to colour with Spot Master colour automation.
• Faster job changeover with drawers, pallet feeder and proof-while-print capabilities.
• Printing on thinner substrates from 150 microns to capture applications such as rigid boxes.
• New HD printing with 1600 dpi for enhanced print quality.
• New HP Indigo ElectroInk Premium White for higher opacity.
• New ElectroInk Invisible Yellow, track-and-trace solutions and security elements for multi-layered brand protection applications on one press, in one pass.
• TRESU iCoat II, integrated with the HP Indigo 35K, delivers offset-quality for overprint varnish and coating applications using industry-standard UV or water-based varnish in a single production pass now optimised for high accuracy varnish registration at full speed
HP says its Indigo customers created the digital flexible packaging market with the capability to offer on demand and sustainable flexible packaging. The new HP Indigo 25K Digital Press is designed to help converters meet brand needs with an even more attractive total cost of ownership, a wider media range to deliver compostable and recyclable pouches and more choices to create a digital pouch factory. Advances to help converters harness production power include:
• Faster time to colour with Spot Master colour automation.
• Optimised lamination solutions with the new SuperSimplex e800 laminator by Nordmeccanica. The 800 mm wide solvent-less laminator offers low waste and reduced energy consumption for on-demand pouch production. The field-proven Karlville Pack Ready thermal laminator and Karlvile KS-DSUP-400 pouch maker are optimized for shorter runs.
• Greater flexibility with two white ink stations.
• Higher productivity with frame expansion from 729 mm to 737 mm.
• Sustainability credentials include the Green Leaf mark and certification from TUV Austria’s OK Compost verifying HP Indigo ElectroInks can be used as printing inks for packaging and are recoverable through composting and biodegradation in accordance with leading standards.6 In addition, HP Indigo ElectroInks comply with leading food packaging regulations and are free of UV-reactive chemistries.7 All Indigo presses are manufactured carbon neutral.
The HP Indigo 6K, HP Indigo 8K, HP Indigo 25K, HP Indigo 35K, and HP Indigo 90K digital presses will be commercially available later in 2020. The HP Indigo V12 will be demonstrated at drupa and is scheduled for commercial availability in 2022.
