New solutions for high-margin applications and automated print production introduced Japan’s IGAS 2018

HP Indigo unveiled at IGAS Japan 2018 new ways for print service providers to grow their digital-based business and put Industry 4.0 into practice by enabling thousands of printing jobs every day. New advances boost value, quality and automated digital print production. 

“We are seeing great customer momentum, with over 800 units of our B2 format press already installed worldwide. Our customers consistently grow and outperform the market,” said Alon Bar-Shany, general manager, HP Indigo, HP Inc. “Simply put, HP Indigo customers print profits thanks to high-value applications along with automating the print production floor using PrintOS and other HP Indigo solutions. We are proud to announce and implement new innovations on both of these fronts, continuing to drive our customers’ growth.”

As the commercial print market experiences increasing commoditization, high-value, high-margin applications are ever more important to print service providers. At IGAS, HP Indigo showcased several innovations in this area:

HP Indigo HDFM screen

The HP Indigo 12000HD Digital Press, already enjoying great momentum and demand in the market, sets a new benchmark for print quality. Now this press also offers a new HP Indigo FM screening technology. Demonstrated at IGAS for the first time, HP Indigo HDFM mode1 places ink dots in random-like distribution, increasing the accuracy of ink dot placement, and eliminating the appearance of rosette patterns and moiré. The result is increased sharpness in highly detailed images and halftone text applications. Any HP Indigo 12000HD can benefit from this new print mode, particularly for professional and wedding photography, and any commercial application with graphical text, such as brochures, posters, invitations and more.

Silver ElectroInk for commercial printing

HP Indigo ElectroInk Silver for commercial print on the HP Indigo 7900 Digital Press was also demonstrated for the first time at IGAS. The new ink enables one-pass printing of stand-out silver applications as well as a wide gamut of metallic colors using standard papers, saving the need for metallic substrates and boosting high-value business opportunities for PSPs. 2

HP SmartStream Collage

HP also previewed HP SmartStream Collage, a new variable data image printing technology. Following the huge success of HP SmartStream Mosaic, HP SmartStream Collage offers a new twist in automated, unique design by manipulating elements randomly for unlimited brand impact including for logos and symbols, creating new design effects for a variety of commercial, packaging and specialty items.3

Brand protection

Sophisticated brand protection solutions, including the new HP Indigo ElectroInks UV Yellow and Blue, and other solutions for anti-counterfeiting, track and trace, as well as process control, were also presented for the first time in Japan at IGAS in the HP booth security zone. 

These innovations and others, are enabled through new software upgrades being offered to HP Indigo 10000 and 7000 series customers. 

Industry 4.0 harnessed to drive thousands of digital print jobs every day, in an automated way

At IGAS 2018, HP also demonstrated a variety of solutions that help HP Indigo customers put Industry 4.0 concepts into practice. With digital automation in mind, presses as well as the print production environment are all optimized with new solutions to address the growing need to print and ship thousands of different jobs every day, with fast turnaround times.

Examples include: PrintOS Print Beat giving customers online access to fleet stats across multiple sites, multiple press drawer feeders; for automated substrate switching, improved on-press Automatic Alert Agent (AAA) for real-time print quality error detection; and Optimizer, an on-press production management tool that manages the print queue and enables proofing in parallel with continuous printing. At IGAS, the HP Indigo press will also operate in line with the Horizon SmartStacker, showcasing finishing automation and production efficiency used by joint HP Indigo and Horizon customers, from file, to finished product.

New HP PrintOS cloud-based applications, simplifying and automating print production processes, highlighted at IGAS:

• PrintOS Marketplace, offering a variety of cloud-based print production tools from HP and partners, integrated within the HP PrintOS platform. Printers can access this online community platform to share knowledge, identify opportunities for growth and differentiation and to automate production processes.
• PrintOS Jobs, enabling production managers to understand the real costs of past jobs, for accurate quoting, and to see real-time status of HP DFEs and presses, for informed, agile production decisions.
• PrintOS Color Beat, a fully automated color verification and monitoring tool continuously driving color performance excellence to help customers make color a competitive advantage.
• PrintOS OEE, utilizes the industry standard OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) methodology to help increase press productivity, highlighting the operational opportunities around performance, availability and print quality of HP Indigo presses.
• PrintOS Site Flow is an end-to-end production management solution for high volumes of orders, enabling customers to produce profitably hundreds and thousands of short-run jobs per day by simplifying and automating order submission, pre-press, shop-floor management, order dispatch and shipping.

More than 5400 PSPs including owners of HP Indigo, HP PageWide Industrial and HP Scitex presses are already subscribed to PrintOS today.

1 Scheduled for availability on the HP Indigo 12000HD Digital Press in early 2019.
2 Scheduled for availability on the HP Indigo 7900 Digital Press in early 2019.
3 Availability scheduled for the end of 2018.