HP Indigo WS6000 press surpasses 200-million impressions mark in single month
 
PALO ALTO, Calif., – HP today announced that customers of the HP Indigo WS6000 Digital Press reached a new peak level in monthly production of labels and packaging in August, collectively printing more than 200 million impressions worldwide.

This new single-month record demonstrates the increasing demand for digital production in the packaging industry, as consumer packaged goods companies recognize its advantages for shorter runs of specialized versions or SKUs (stock-keeping units) and streamlined supply chain management.

“The HP Indigo WS6000 Digital Press helps customers be more competitive in a very challenging economic environment,” said Alon Bar-Shany, vice president and general manager, Indigo division, HP. “The value our customers gain with its productivity and quality is shifting more labels and packaging production from analog to digital systems and creating new opportunities for our customers to grow their businesses.”

Designed to be more cost-effective than analog presses for label jobs up to 13,000 linear feet (4,000 linear meters), the HP Indigo WS6000 is one of the most widely adopted production solutions for pressure-sensitive labels. The press’s ability to print on a wide variety of substrates also makes it an extremely popular solution for shrink sleeves, flexible packaging, folding cartons and in-mold labels.

A Vibrant digital solution for in-mold labels

“To help meet our continued projected growth, we recently invested in upgrading to an HP Indigo WS6000,” said Roger Wrass, general manager of Vibrant Graphics, one of the newest HP Indigo WS6000 users. “The new press expands capacity by doubling throughput without adding to our operating expenses, and our customers get higher quality results that are hard to match with traditional print methods.”

Vibrant Graphics (www.vibrantgfx.com) produces in-mold labels and private brand labels for consumer products and targets specialty food, cosmetic, entertainment and medical manufacturing businesses.

The Milwaukee-based business, a division of OnCourse Solutions, upgraded from an Indigo ws4500 digital press to the Indigo WS6000 to remain a responsive, flexible, and reliable label supplier and meet customers’ needs for on-demand delivery, versioning and mass-customized products.  

HP Indigo quality and productivity driving customer revenue growth

Other customers turning to the HP Indigo WS6000 in recent months include:

• Istanbul-based Bilnet, one of Turkey’s leading print service providers, which installed an HP Indigo WS6000 to offer innovative label and packaging ideas to large, multinational customers
• Breda, Holland-based Vila Etiketten, which purchased an HP Indigo WS6000 to meet growing demand for its range of labels with variable content, such as barcodes for food items, pricing labels for healthcare products, discount labels for books and more
• Advanced Labels, Lynnwood, Wash., which purchased an HP Indigo WS6000 to reduce its clients’ time to market and provide inventory solutions that meet client product lifecycle needs
• Burwood, Australia-based Graphix Labels, which installed its second HP Indigo WS6000 to offer its clients a range of flexible packing solutions that complement the company’s short-run and personalized/variable data offerings
• Auraprint Oy, which became the first print service provider in Finland to install an HP Indigo WS6000, expanding its production capacity for food, beverage, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and health care labels
• Hamilton, Ohio-based Innovative Labeling Solutions, a digital label and packaging specialist that became the first company in North America to operate three HP Indigo WS6000s when it added two additional presses to its production operation.

New feature upgrades, greater profit opportunities

HP Indigo WS6000 customers gained increased productivity this year with the addition of 20 new feature upgrades, including: new blankets for better substrate compatibility; a new enhancement unit for the photo imaging plate; compatibility with the HP Indigo Print Care diagnostics and maintenance solution; and Continuous Color Control, a tool that gives operators added assurance of consistency on long runs.

As an all-digital solution requiring minimal make-ready, start-up time or run-length requirements, the HP Indigo WS6000 Digital Press helps converters offer brand owners greater profit opportunities through reduced waste and obsolescence, streamlined multi-SKU marketing and versioning, and faster implementation of new designs.

HP Indigo’s proven and unparalleled liquid electrophotographic printing process meets brands’ uncompromising demands for gravure-quality printing and packaging shelf appeal. HP Indigo presses are the only digital label and packaging solutions that use true PANTONE®-licensed spot-color inks or offer four-, six- and seven-color PANTONE-licensed spot color emulation, giving converters the ability to meet their customers’ demanding brand color standards.

The high quality, productivity and flexibility of HP Indigo have made it the industry’s leading digital press brand and one of the best-selling label and packaging press brands overall. It also is the only digital platform to win print quality contests when judged against flexographic- and offset-printed labels.

New HP Indigo label and packaging solutions will be on display at Labelexpo Europe, Sept. 28 - Oct. 1 in Brussels. More information about HP Indigo is available at www.hp.com/go/gsb.