Countdown to Drupa: HP Indigo's commercial fleet of new B1, B2 kits

Among the HP Indigo highlight in the commercial printing segment at Drupa will be the oversize B1-format duplex HP Indigo 50000 digital press and a second-generation B2 size Indigo 12000.

The new Indigo 7900 and 5900 presses, an upgrade of HP’s popular 5000 and 7000 series presses will get a new collection of coating applications, a new priming station and Optimiser, which helps maximise productivity while the erstwhile WS6800 with an extension as WS6800p will get the ability to print photo specialty application.

While all presses represent HP Indigo’s 20-year-old liquid electrophotography (LEP) technology these have been built on the Indigo platform announced at Drupa 2012.

However, HP has used the method of ganging engines to gain productivity rather than making process changes using a new architecture for its new machines Indigo 50000, which is presented as a B1 machine, but is a web machine.

According to HP, the company had the option of increasing productivity by increasing the process speed or by increasing the number of engines. “This time we chose to gang engines,” said the spokesperson.

He added, “For the customer it really does not matter whether how he gains productivity, whether by process speed or adding of engines. We received very good response from the customers with whom we exposed the idea of ganging of engines.”

The 25-metre line, Indigo 50000 is a 746x1120mm wide web press that can print 10 A4 pages per imposition and can produce 42 m/min or 760 A4 ppm in four-colour mode on paper thickness ranging from 40 gms to 350 gsm.

Alon Bar-Shany, general manager, Indigo division at HP, said, “The highest end of the technology is going to be the Indigo 50000, which we believe is for the larger customers who have high-volumes around specific applications like the photo, yearbooks, etc.”

Further, HP has improved HP 20000, the single-engine press, and optimised it for commercial printing.

On the other hand, the Indigo 12000 uses the 10000 platform but with hardware like new blankets and mechanical properties giving hardness and strength for smoother transfer; software like the Optimiser tool; can run new inks like the pink; and new substrates like canvas, synthetics, metallised and black media. The one-shot mode is introduced, with the press capable of producing 4,600 pages in monochrome, and 3,450 pages in the enhanced print mode. A high definition laser array (HDLA) doubles the resolution from 800 dpi to 1,600 dpi though the press on the HP’s Drupa stand will be running with the HDLA feature.

All the new features of the new Indigo 12000 will be made available to existing Indigo 10000 users, including finger-printing for different substrates, at a cost.

HP stated that all the new HP Indigo digital presses offer HP PrintOS. “All the Indigo presses sold from now on will come with PrintOS. Around 100 Indigo presses are PrintOS enabled, and by the end of 2016, over 1000 will be PrintOS enabled,” said Bar-Shany.

HP announced that the new Indigo portfolio will begin shipping in the second half of 2016, and new HP Indigo features are expected to be available as optional field upgrades in 2016. The new HDLA technology for the HP Indigo 12000 digital press will be available in 2017.

Drupa 2016 will take place from 31 May to 10 June 2016 at Dusseldorf, Germany. PrintWeek India is a cooperating media partner at the show. The team led by Noel D’cunha, Rushikesh Aravkar and Monica Rohra will be present on all days of the show.