At drupa HP will unveil larger format Indigo digital presses, for sheet fed B2 commercial print and cartons, plus a flexible packaging web press. By Simon Eccles.

Widely speculated in advance, HP is announcing a B2 sheet fed version of its Indigo liquid ink digital offset press technology at drupa. Rather more of a surprise was the news that it will be joined by a special version for folding cartons up to 600 microns, and a 762 mm web press for flexible packaging. The existing SRA3 presses aren’t forgotten, with new models and features at drupa.

Many readers will recall that Indigo (prior to the HP takeover) showed a B2 prototype at drupa in 2000, but it never appeared in public again. The new B2 press appears to be a completely different design.

It is called the HP Indigo 10000 Digital Press and has a projected price about $1.5 million, which may translate to £1.5 when it reaches out shores. Full shipment is expected next year, although Beta machines, probably including one for the UK, will start to go in during the autumn.

‘Looks like an offset press’

According to Alon Bar-Shany, general manager of HP Indigo, the 10000 will offer ‘everything you expect from an Indigo in a larger format. It will have up to seven colours, auto duplexing and multi-source feeder. It has 2.57 times the image size of SRA3 and the imposition efficiency is four times. It looks like an Indigo but it functions like an offset press. It has ink, blankets and plates.’ The 10000 will run at 3450 simplex B2 sheets per hour, or 4600 in an ‘Enhanced Productivity Mode’ (EPM) that prints CMY colours with no black. In monochrome it runs 6900 sheets per hour. It can run up to five paper sources inline, mixing on the fly.

‘It can print millions of high value B2 sheets per month,’ Mr Bar-Shany says. The larger format allows 8-page A4 folding sections obviously, but opens up the possibility of jobs that are too big for SRA3, such as pocket folders, posters, landscape photo books and wraparound covers, and folding cartons. To handle the extra data, HP is releasing a new SmartStream Production Pro v.5 Rip.

The B2 format makes the press compatible with a lot of offset printers’ existing finishing lines. However, the short run nature of a lot of digital work means there will also be a requirement for instant makereadies in future, much as SRA3 digital has driven this in smaller finishing systems. At drupa a Horizon smart stacker and an MBO signature folder will be shown with the 10000. Mr Bar-Shany says he expects folders and binders to appear in future, for nearline or offline use.

The flexible packaging web press is called HP Indigo 20000 and the sheet fed carton press is the 30000. Both will start to reach Beta test sites in mid-2013, Mr Bar-Shany says. The 20000 flexible packaging printer takes a 762 mm web from 10 microns upward. It will compete with conventional flexography, but is capable of gravure quality, claims the company. An opaque white ink will be available.

The 30000 sheet fed carton press will accept sheets up to 75 x 53 cm and up to 600 microns thick. The speed range is the same as the 10000 with or without EPM. In addition to carton board, an inline priming unit will let the press print on metalised board or plastics. There will also be an optional inline coater, selectable for aqueous or UV coatings. Price may be around $2 million.

HP’s partner Esko will introduce a special version of its packaging workflow to work with the carton and flexible media presses.

All the new presses run one shot colour, ie the plate builds up all the colours in several rotations under the digital imaging head, then transfers them all to the blanket and thence the substrate in a single rotation. This keeps all colours in perfect register and in particular helps the transfer to synthetic media.

The CMY Enhanced Productivity Mode was first announced for the W6600 web label press last year and is being added to most models as they are upgraded.

SRA3 press updates

The smaller format Indigos are also being upgraded. The mid range sheet fed 5500 becomes the 5600, while the fast sheet fed 7500 becomes the 7600. The 5600 gains one shot colour, which will allow it to print on ‘synthetics’ (thin plastics) for the first time. This will be commercially available at drupa.

Existing 5500 users will be able to update to one-shot colour in future, Mr Bar-Shany says. The 7600 also gains EPM and is in final testing prior to shipment. A new light black ink will be released, to smooth out highlight tones, especially for monochrome photographs. Another new feature will be an ’embossing’ facility, building up raised images from layers of clear ink on the press.

The W6600 web label press was announced at LabelExpo in September and was the first with EPM. This is now joined by the fast commercial duplex W7250, which will be able to run up to 320 pages per minute in EPM and 960 ppm in monochrome. All web presses now have one-shot colour capability.

There will be at least 25 Indigo presses running at drupa on the HP stand and those of its partners, Mr Bar-Shany says. ‘There will be lots of workflows, lots of finishing and vast amounts of customer applications from all around the world.’

Contact: www.hp.com/go/drupa