Hi, this is Andy Tribute from WhatTheyThink.com, once again reporting from Graph Expo.  I’m going to talk today on what you probably perceive as my favorite subject:  continuous feed, high speed, inkjet printing. 

When I was coming to this show, I thought there’s going to absolutely nothing new in this area because it was all introduced earlier this year.  Well, that’s not true.  There’s actually some interesting things that have been shown here. 

First of all, if we look at two of the main players in the industry, Screen and HP, I mean Screen and Ricoh Info Print is the same basic engine.  And they’ve come out with a faster version of their press.   In the case of Screen it’s the True Press Jet 520ZZ, and for Info Print it’s the 5000VP. 

Basically, this is one that’s twice the speed, it’s built around a faster version of the Epson Print Head and it’s slightly wider, 22 ½ inches rather than 20 inches.  So opening up new market areas.  If you’re going to slightly lower resolution than some of the other players out there, it will run at about 600 feet a minute, which is pretty quick.  So, interesting opening up new marketing areas and in discussion with Info Print, this is a long term relationship that they’re working on and have a very strategic partnership with Screen. 

The same thing’s happened at HP.   HP introduced a new press called the T350.  And the T350 is the same as the T300, but an enhanced speed through an enhanced version of the scalable printing head.  And this is now running at 600 feet a minute, 30 inches wide, very high performance press in that case.  Probably the fastest digital press on the market at the present time in terms of pages per minute. 

So that’s already in beta test.  In fact, when I went to O’Neal Data Systems the other week when I reported on, I didn’t actually realize that the T300 there was actually a T350 now and running at full speed and showing major benefits.  And I would anticipate that over the next six months that HP will go through quite an upgrade program for their customers who would like the additional speed. 

So we’re seeing that in the main suppliers. 

Thank you very much indeed.  This is Andy Tribute for WhatTheyThink.com.