HP Indigo WS6000 Digital Press

Designed for high-volume production approaching the level of printing done on flexographic presses, the HP Indigo WS6000’s larger 38.58-inch (980 mm) repeat length permits greater productivity and lower costs per label. New HP Indigo Print Care offerings on the WS6000 model help users gain remarkable uptime through advanced diagnostics, troubleshooting and remote communication tools.

The press uses the HP SmartStream Labels and Packaging Print Server, powered by EskoArtwork, which leverages industry-leading workflow technology for efficient file processing and outstanding color capabilities while enabling production processes such as step-and-repeat and variable-data imaging.

The HP Indigo WS6000 enables the affordable production of multiple SKUs for products, a key strategic advantage in retail marketing. With multi-SKU marketing, product brand owners can employ more diversity in the range of designs used on products, catering to a wider range of consumers’ distinct tastes.

The first North American firm to install the press, Innovative Labeling Solutions (ILS) of Hamilton, Ohio, is substantially growing its business by offering higher-volume, high-quality labels, flexible packaging and folding cartons that enable all levels of consumer product manufacturers to affordably and effectively market their brands.

“Because it is more cost-effective than flexo on such a wide range of work, the number of companies that can take advantage of digital has gone up four- or fivefold with the WS6000,” said Jay Dollries, president and chief executive officer, Innovative Labeling Solutions. “The press not only gives all brand owners the ability to increase sell-through rates with different, compelling graphics for each flavor or variety of a product, it enables midtier firms to compete more effectively on the shelf with photographic-quality labels they might otherwise find too expensive to print using flexography.”

The Stratus Packaging Group, Europe’s leading producer of labels and flexible packaging materials, is also among the first companies to install the HP Indigo WS6000. The press has been installed at Stratus’s digital production center in Martin de Limoges, France, and is being used to offer advanced services, such as versioning and fast-turnaround production.

“The volume of digital print runs has been increasing constantly for three years,” said Isidore Leiser, president, Stratus Packaging Group. “The new production capacities of the HP Indigo WS6000, combined with the traditional high quality of the HP Indigo presses that we already have, immediately appealed to us and allow us to meet our customers’ needs even better.”

Digital presses offer a significant, additional advantage over traditional flexographic printing by virtue of their ability to print different images with every impression, as opposed to repeating the static images engraved on printing plates. In the labels and packaging industry, this capability enables one-step bar code serialization, where each label or package carries a unique identifier that enables distribution tracking and helps thwart product diversion and counterfeiting.

“Track and trace” serialization is especially useful in pharmaceutical label manufacturing. Some national and state governments around the world are already scheduled to mandate track and trace for prescription drug packaging in the next few years.

Gurnee, Ill.-based Nosco, a leading provider of secure pharmaceutical labels and packaging, is producing serialized drug labels, folding cartons and blister packs on its new HP Indigo WS6000 Digital Press. This offers the advantages of digital to a broader set of customers that only used flexography before because of volume demands.

“The WS6000 is a highly productive digital printing device for packaging, significantly changing the game by allowing digital to move from short- to medium-run quantities,” said R. Craig Curran, director of strategic initiatives, Nosco. “We are able to gain new business and significantly grow our digital printing operation.”

More information about the HP Indigo WS6000 Digital Press is available at http://www.hp.com/go/labels.