HP Strikes Gold with New High-Speed Inkjet Presses
If you could use ‘gold rush’ and ‘printing’ in the same sentence, this would be it,” said James Lucanish, president, O’Neil Data Systems during last night’s HP press conference. He was referring to the 50% increase in volume he has seen over the last year. “But,” he continued, “there is a caveat. The print has to be highly customized and highly personalized.”
Under the theme of “momentum,” Christopher Morgan, SVP, Graphics Solutions Business, outlined the progress and success HP and its customers have made over the past year. According to Morgan, collective page volumes for the high-end HP Indigo 7000 series presses, for example, grew 90 percent year-over-year for the first three quarters of 2010, compared to the same time period in 2009.
“The fact that our customers’ digital color print business continues to grow—while the overall volumes are flat or down—reflects that PSPs are realizing the benefits of HP’s digital printing solutions,” said Morgan. “People are printing smarter, with targeted, high-quality output printed on demand with less waste, more streamlined supply chain processes and a reduced environmental impact.”
The big news of the day, however, was presented by HP’s Aruelio Maruggi, VP and GM, Inkjet High-Speed Production Solutions Division, Imaging and Printing Group, when he unveiled the new HP T350 Color Inkjet Web Press, the newest addition to the inkjet web press line. O’Neil Data Systems has the world’s first HP T350 beta unit.
With a speed that exceeds the HP T300’s, the new HP T350 Color Inkjet Web Press expands what graphic arts professionals can do with digital, offering a more productive platform for streamlined, high-volume full-color printing. The four-color, 30"-wide HP T350 also extends an up to 1200x600-dpi native resolution HP Inkjet Web Press product line that also includes the 30"-wide HP T300 and the 20.5"-wide, single-engine, duplex HP T200. Expected to be available in the second half of 2011, the HP T350 features a new writing system and improved data processing workflow.
“O’Neil’s expanding business is directly linked to success of the HP T300 inkjet press,” said Lucanish. “With the new T350 web press, productivity has increased from 400 feet per minute to 600 feet per minute with the usual HP color quality. We’ve added to our portfolio the T200, which will also be used to increase our capacity. O’Neil is excited with the portfolio of products that HP has supplied to us. We continue to see the quality of color and productivity that sets them apart from the competition.”
HP also announced updates on its new magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) production solution for HP Inkjet Web Presses. Currently in the development and testing process, the HP MICR solution will be based on a new print bar that will insert into existing expansion slots on all HP Inkjet Web presses.
