The production output of the HPT300 is around 156,000 A4 pages an hour, compared with up to 200,000 an hour on the fastest B1 long perfecting presses, but of course there is no makeready, and every page can have variable data.
Cost analysis has yet to be released. The T300 is available now in the US, with global roll-out to follow. Shane Lucas, director HP Graphic Arts South Pacific said the HP T300 will be available in Australia by the end of 2010. Distribution channel here is not confirmed as yet. In the US it has named Pitney Bowes as a channel partner, partly on the basis of its Intelligent Mail finishing solutions, which will be integrated with the T300 specifically for the transactional and transpromo markets.
HP says the T300 will place the company firmly in the high volume colour production printing space, and believes that by 2012 a trillion A4 pages a year will be printed on the T300 by printers around the world.
HP has been running T300 installations in commercial customer environments since December 2008. Several more HP T300 presses are scheduled to be running in commercial customer printing environments by the end of 2009. Rotolito Lombarda, one of Europe’s leading web offset, sheet-fed offset, digital and gravure print businesses, has signed a customer agreement to install the HP T300 Color Inkjet Web Press, with a January 2010 scheduled installation.
HP has been busy working with a host of finishing solutions developers, including the likes of Hunkeler, Muller Martini, MBO and CMC to develop inline solutions for the new colour web.
In addition, EMT International and Megtec Systems have built solutions that are integrated into core HP T300 product development activities. EMT will work on the development and manufacture of wide-web inkjet press platforms in addition to specialty finishing solutions for the T300. Megtec Systems, a new HP Graphics Solutions Partner, has developed and is supplying customised drying solutions for use with the HP T300.
How far the T300 and other digital high volume presses from the likes of Kodak, Fujifilm, InfoPrint Solutions, Oce, and Myakoshi will impact on offset litho remains to be seen, it will depend to a large extent on the quality achievable. Ipex next year will provide the world’s printers with the opportunity to see for themselves.
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