When it’s ready for unveiling next year, it should be a true sight to behold: an HP T-series inkjet web press beefed up to handle rolls of paper more than two and a half times wider than the biggest webs the present generation of HP T-series presses can print now. And, tackling a challenge appropriate to its size, it will focus all of its power on a mass-produced packaging application that digital printing has scarcely touched.

This is the story that is expected to unfold as inkjet experts from HP work with counterparts in paper handling at Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) to develop the HP T1100 Simplex Color Inkjet Web Press, a machine designed to preprint top liners for corrugated containers. Technical details about the project, announced two weeks ago, are in understandably short supply, but WhatTheyThink was able to glean some additional information in a more recent interview with HP’s David Murphy and Robert Seay.

Although HP has already adapted its 42" T400 simplex inkjet web press for printing corrugated top liner, building a platform to accommodate the T1100's 110" web is more complicated by several orders of magnitude.