HP today announced new HP Indigo digital presses with breakthrough improvements in productivity and application capabilities that make digital color printing even more cost-effective and efficient than analog offset production for a large portion of print service providers’ (PSPs) commercial work.

HP announced the new solutions at during a Tel Aviv, Israel, preview of the company’s upcoming exhibit at the world’s largest graphic arts tradeshow, drupa, held May 3-16 in Düsseldorf, Germany. HP’s drupa stand will offer the tradeshow’s largest display of digital printing technologies, including:

• The HP Indigo 10000 Digital Press – the first offset-quality digital press in a B2 size format (750 x 530 millimeters [mm] / 29.5 x 20.9 inches) suitable for printing nearly any size commercial offset job. Available next year, it offers top HP Indigo print quality and high productivity for high-volume PSPs.
• HP Indigo 7600 and 5600 models offering greater versatility and productivity, and improved automation.⁽¹⁾ Enhancements are field upgradable for the large installed base of HP Indigo 7500, 7000 and 5500 presses.
• New production workflow and management tools helping PSPs profitably produce the growing number of increasingly complex jobs.

“For many of our customers, their HP Indigo digital print volume is the fastest growing segment of their business, and makes a disproportionately high contribution to their profitability,” said Christopher Morgan, senior vice president, Graphics Solutions Business, HP. “With the new HP Indigo 10000, we are responding to a long-standing need for a B2-size, true offset-quality digital press, while our new Indigo 5600 and 7600 models will allow our customers to add more value to their offerings.”

All the core values of an Indigo press, now in B2 format
The HP Indigo 10000 Digital Press’s size enables highly efficient imposition of many standard commercial printing jobs, facilitating high throughput and lower unit production costs. Available in early 2013, the press brings true offset quality digital printing, long associated with HP Indigo presses, in a format that supports more than 98 percent of commercial printing jobs.

The combination of format-driven efficiency and the high productivity of the press help PSPs transition more work from offset to digital printing. The HP Indigo 10000 prints 3,450 sheets per hour in its standard production mode, and can provide a 33 percent faster throughput of 4,600 color sheets per hour using HP Indigo’s unique Enhanced Productivity Mode (EPM). EPM allows customers to deliver more sheets per shift at a lower unit cost, increasing profitability and enabling faster job delivery times. The press supports monthly production volumes of up to 2 million sheets.

The HP Indigo 10000 also supports media in the 75-450 micron/3-18 points thickness range and is compatible with the same, broad variety of media certified for use with the HP Indigo 7600 Digital Press. Built for high-production, high-quality volumes, the press also features:

• Up to seven color stations for extended ink sets and true, PANTONE®-licensed spot color printing.
• Fewer interruptions per shift, using a press paper feeding system that has a 1 meter (33 inch) pallet feeder and two 7,500-sheet capacity drawer feeders.
• Advanced, closed-loop quality control systems including registration cameras, an in-line spectrophotometer and HP Vision System technology.
• Highly automated replacement systems for blankets and photo imaging plates.

Press output is compatible with standard finishing equipment typically owned by PSPs for their offset operations. In addition, HP is working with leading finishing vendors to ensure the availability of digital finishing systems that will optimize comprehensive production efficiency with the HP Indigo 10000.

One vendor, Horizon, has developed SmartStacker, a new B2-format cutter/slitter/stacker system that can work in-line or near-line to the press. Another vendor, MBO, is integrating its K-800 signature folder with the HP Indigo 10000 for in-line and near-line operation.

Faster throughput and new effects with the HP Indigo 7600 press
Building on the successes of the HP Indigo 7000 and 7500 models, the new HP Indigo 7600 Digital Press features higher productivity, increased automation and greater flexibility.⁽²⁾

The HP Indigo 7600, which will be commercially available at drupa, prints 120 A4/letter-size pages per minute (ppm) in its standard production mode, and provides a 33 percent faster throughput of 160 pages per minute using EPM.⁽³⁾

The press introduces unique high-value effects that help PSPs create higher-value decoration for invitations, greeting cards, luxury product brochures and other print materials. Further expanding the versatility of the press, the special effects include:

• Raised print, using multiple layers of ink, creating images raised up to 50 microns from the sheet.
• Textured effect embossing or debossing with a mold created digitally on the press in less than 3 minutes.
• Digital watermarking for increased document security.

The ability of the press to support high-value applications for PSPs is enhanced by more than 2,500 coated, uncoated and specialty media that are currently certified for use on the HP Indigo 7000-series presses.

The HP Indigo 7600 offers intelligent automation features, both in standard HP PrintCare diagnostic tools and in an optional HP Automatic Alert Agent. The agent, a new feature for HP Indigo presses, uses the HP Indigo Vision System to scan duplex sheets at press speed and then compares the scanned image to the digital master to identify and alert operators of inconsistencies.

“With its outstanding quality, its truly added value for our customers, the fascinating new opportunities it provices for marketing and its improved productivity, the new 7600 turns out to be our best investment in the future of our business,” said an early user of the HP Indigo 7600, Harald Margreff, managing director, Margreff Druck und Medien GmbH, Essen, Germany.

Nearly all the new features of the HP Indigo 7600 Digital Press will be field upgradable as options to existing HP Indigo 7000 and 7500 model presses.

New business opportunities with the HP Indigo 5600 Digital Press
The HP Indigo 5500 Digital Press is the best-selling press in Indigo’s history, with more than 1,500 units produced since the product’s launch in May 2007. HP Indigo is building on the success of this press with the new HP Indigo 5600.

Available now, the HP Indigo 5600 runs at 68 A4/letter-size ppm (two-up) in standard color mode, 136 ppm for two-color jobs and 272 ppm for mono jobs. In addition, the press features EPM for color printing at 90 ppm.⁽⁴⁾

The press features an optional “One Shot” printing mode, enabling customers to enter new markets in split-core cards, graphic overlays and other applications printed on Teslin, PVC (polyvinyl chloride), PET (polyethylene terephthalate), PC (polycarbonate) and other synthetic substrates. The press switches easily between regular and One Shot printing modes, enabling PSPs to run a mix of jobs.

A new red-fluorescing invisible ink for the HP Indigo 5600 gives PSPs a path to pursue new security-printing applications, such as ID cards, tickets and high-value coupons.

A white ink option and upgraded media sensors on the press allow full-color printing on black and fully transparent substrates, features that help PSPs expand into new markets such as greeting card and static-cling window signage production. The white ink feature, when combined with Color-Logic software, also gives users the ability to produce metallic effects.

The new features of the HP Indigo 5600 will be field upgradable as an option for HP Indigo 5500 presses, starting this summer.

Hard-working workflows with HP SmartStream solutions
HP also unveiled workflow solutions for HP Indigo presses that streamline image processing and production floor management. HP SmartStream workflow solutions include:

• HP SmartStream Production Center, a new production management system that addresses the challenges of producing and delivering high volumes of short run jobs, reducing turnaround time and increasing profitability. Production Center unifies multiple job streams; shows real time, detailed end-to-end production floor status; and enables PSPs to manage job progress and priority.
• A new version of the HP SmartStream Production Pro Print Server offers a web-based user interface supporting complex print server tasks. The version also includes automatic finishing planning and setup, supporting near-line and in-line finishing devices, as well as new automatic ICC profile creation per substrate. A new, multi-raster image processor architecture on the server significantly shortens job processing, job streaming and batching capabilities.⁽⁵⁾
• New versions of the HP SmartStream Director web-to-print solution, HP SmartStream Designer variable-data design and impositioning software, and the HP SmartStream Production Analyzer press monitoring solution.

More information is available at www.hp.com/go/HPPredrupa12, www.hp.com/go/drupa and through the HP Graphic Arts Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/hpgraphicarts and YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/hpgraphicarts. Join or follow the conversation using the #HPdrupa hashtag.

HP also is discussing its news on March 14 at 11 a.m. ET in a webinar taking place at www.hp.com/go/historynow.

1. Compared to HP Indigo 7500 and 5500 presses.
2. Compared to the HP Indigo 7500 in four-color mode.
3. Pages are printed two-up. Throughput rates equate to 3,200, 330x482-millimeter (13x19-inch) sheets per hour in four colors, or 4,800 sheets per hour in Enhanced Productivity Mode.
4. Pages are printed two-up. Throughput rates equate to 2,070 330x482-millimeter (13x19-inch) sheets per hour in four colors, or 2,700 sheets per hour in Enhanced Productivity Mode.
5. Compared to previous versions of the HP SmartStream Production Pro Print Server.

PANTONE and other Pantone, Inc. trademarks are the property of Pantone, Inc.