News

HP has thrown down the gauntlet in the digital printing battle with the announcement of the Drupa launches from its Indigo brand.

Announced in Israel last week, the launches include the HP Indigo 7000 and a new digital web press, the W7200, as well as an en­­hanced version of the 5500.

Stephen Nigro, senior vice president of the graphics and imaging business at HP, said: “These new technologies and products will change the digital printing industry in terms of value, volume and environmental footprint.”

The HP Indigo 7000 will begin shipping in June and is designed to be cost-effective for run lengths ranging from one to over a thousand. The press runs at speeds of 120 four-colour pages per minute.

The new Web Press, which is expected to be commercially available in the second half of 2009, but will be on display at Drupa, boasts a web width of up to 30in and a top speed of 122m/min. According to the firm, the press is compatible with a wide range of uncoated media to enable printing of book signatures, full broadsheet newspapers and other documents.

Alon Bar-Shany, vice president and general manager of the Indigo division, said the new machines were aimed to achieve “scaleability”. “The design challenge was not to sacrifice quality to achieve the higher speeds,” he said.

“We are in an age now where there are two distinct markets: smaller customers with one or two digital presses for whom the enhanced 5500, with capability of up to 1m pages a month, is a good fit; and a new raft of mega PSPs, who need
capacity of more than 20m pages a month.”

He added that the onus was now on the printers, their clients and manufacturers of the finishing equipment to develop applications that would realise the potential of the technology.

“The new range of high-speed digital presses deconstruct the traditional print value systems,” he said.