HP has revealed its latest lineup of HP digital printing presses and intelligent solutions for the commercial printing and labels and packaging industries at Dscoop Edge Indy.

More than 1250 people are at Dscoop Edge Indy in Indianapolis this year, the flagship event of the Dscoop global community. This year’s event theme is “Fuel Your Future.”

“The Dscoop global community keeps growing, and it’s a testament to the amazing partnerships and idea-sharing of our members across the world,” said Peter van Teeseling, Dscoop’s executive director.

“Dscoop is a true community in every sense of the world, and it’s always incredible to watch and feel what happens when print mavericks come together at this event.”

HP’s pre-Drupa portfolio reveal included two new generation B2 presses, the HP Indigo 120K Digital Press and the HP Indigo 18K Digital Press, in addition to the HP Indigo 7K Secure Digital Press and innovations across the intelligent production floor. HP announced it will also roll out general commercial availability of the HP Indigo V12 Digital Press after successful beta site installations.

“We’re committed to unlocking profitable and sustainable growth for our customers,” said Haim Levit, senior vice president & general manager, HP Industrial Print, in his opening address to delegates.

“Our LEP, LEPx, and inkjet technologies have improved in terms of quality, versatility, productivity, sustainability, and economics and our commitment and significant investment into continuous innovation has enabled over 8000 printers and converters to expand their businesses and grow sustainably.

“HP has been a digital transformation leader for more than 30 years, and our digital printing technology has established the gold standard in commercial print and labels and packaging production.”

Above: Haim Levit, senior vice president & general manager, HP Industrial Print

The HP Indigo 120K reduces human touchpoints and enables multi-press operation by a single operator. The new press delivers offset-matching image quality, flexible job routing between offset and digital, and an ECO mode option that reduces the press’s carbon footprint by 11 per cent.

The HP Indigo 18K Digital Press, which handles the widest range of print applications ever produced with a single B2 digital press, accommodating diverse substrates and job types. Advanced AI features such as auto recovery and proactive alerts enhance productivity and simplify the entire production process, achieving up to 80 per cent press availability within a single shift. Aligning with HP’s sustainability commitment, the Indigo 18K supports Enhanced Productivity Mode (EPM), delivering 24 per cent energy savings per sheet.

HP also announced the Indigo 7K Secure Digital Press. Collaborating with Jura JSP, this sheet-fed press enables workflows tailor-made for security production lines, so customers can diversify their offerings, cater to a comprehensive range of security needs, and acquire new customers to grow their business.

“As the printing industry embraces automation and digitalisation, HP Indigo empowers customers with unprecedented levels of productivity, efficiency, versatility, quality, and cost-effectiveness,” said Noam Zilbershtain, VP and GM, HP Indigo and Scitex.

“Our portfolio defines the industry standard for automation and sustainability, reflecting HP’s vision for the print production floor,” said Zilbershtain.

“We’re also excited to announce that today HP will roll out general commercial availability of the HP Indigo V12 Digital Press, the fastest narrow web digital press on the market and first press to utilise new innovative LEPx technology. Commercial availability comes after successful beta site installations including Brook + Whittle, a leader in sustainable packaging and digital printing in the US” continued Noam Zilbershtain, VP and GM, HP Indigo and Scitex.”

Intelligent factory floors   

HP is defining the industry approach to automation through AI and robotics, launching a comprehensive print production automation ecosystem. According to HP, based on internal studies, customers who leverage automated processes achieve 51 per cent higher volume and 80 per cent more jobs per press compared to less automated customers.

These customers also grow at an average of 27 per cent year-over-year which is higher than the industry average. HP’s holistic approach combines effective presses with intelligent features from job submission to delivery.

Specific efficiency innovations include:

• PrintOS Production Beat Support for analog printing and finishing equipment, to enable customers to monitor their entire production floor, not only HP presses, capturing data in real time from analog equipment and digitalising the entire production.
• HP Indigo PQ Maestro, offering an intelligent start-of-day wizard that optimises press performance.
• Preflight, an AI-based decision-making tool that automatically predicts the suitability of the best-fit print mode by learning customers preferences.
• AAA 2.0 (Auto Alert Agent) advanced, a machine-learning algorithm that increases print productivity with zero human intervention.

As the industry moves towards a more productive production floor, HP has also launched Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) in collaboration with Movigo to automate media transfer, saving up to two hours per day, per press. 

Developed in collaboration with printers and converters, HP also announced the launch of the HP Sustainability Amplifier program enabling printers and converters to accelerate their sustainability agenda and offer more sustainable prints. The program, in collaboration with HP’s Sustainable Impact Strategy, aligns with HP’s commitment to renewable energy and reducing CO2 emissions.

Inkjet innovation

“Since our first HP inkjet web press in 2009, HP customers have printed more than 1 trillion pages on PageWide,” said Annette Friskopp, VP and GM, HP PageWide.

“Along the way, we’ve invested in innovation to protect our customers’ investments and help them grow sustainably. Today we’re introducing the new HP PageWide Plus Package, to enhance productivity, automation, and economics.”

The enhancements to HP PageWide Plus Package unveiled at Dscoop include the following:

• Performance Economy Color (EC) Mode: Delivering print quality customers require for faster turnaround with less colour ink and a 60 per cent increase in productivity up to 800 fpm (244 mpm).
• General availability of Smart Workcell Controller: Offering significant advancements in intelligent automation and productivity improvements of up to a factor of 15x.
• On Press Color Profiling: Automation transforms colour profiling into a less than five minutes job, a tenth of what it normally takes.

HP also announced two new additional capabilities expanding the versatility of the HP PageWide Advantage 2200 web inkjet press: 

• Heavier Media Expansion: Enabling printers to use thicker substrates allowing them to capture more high value jobs up to 320 gsm/18pt.
• Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) for Transactional Print Systems: Enabling printers to capture more speciality jobs and grow their business. 

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