03.24.2024
Today, HP announces new innovations to deliver the highest productivity, versatility and economics yet across its PageWide portfolio with the introduction of future-ready solutions to enable printers to unlock profitable growth.
Ever since HP invented thermal inkjet technology 40 years ago, HP has driven innovation in inkjet technology. Plus, since introducing the first web press in 2009, HP has continued to accelerate the industry transformation, channeling significant investment into inkjet R&D. Today HP PageWide Web Presses using HP’s proprietary thermal inkjet technology deliver offset class quality and productivity with the benefits of digital printing as validated by nearly 1 Trillion pages printed by HP customers in direct mail, transaction, publishing, commercial printing, and packaging.
HP develops technology that is completely vertically integrated, designing the complete print system from inks, printheads, press hardware, and paper path, allowing HP PageWide presses to respond quickly to market demands. To enable printers to grow with confidence, HP is today introducing the new HP PageWide Plus Package offering new capabilities that deliver next-level productivity, efficiency and automation, alongside expanding the application versatility for the HP PageWide Advantage 2200 press by extending support for heavier media and MICR ink.
The HP PageWide Plus Package includes: Performance Economy (EC) Mode, Smart Workcell Controller and On-Press Color Profiling. The new Plus Package enhancements are available to all current and future HP PageWide Advantage 2200 users and to most of the HP PageWide installed base.
Enhancing Productivity Through Automation and On-Press Intelligence
HP PageWide is continuously expanding its on-press automation to maximize production efficiencies and reduce manual interventions.. Today’s announcements highlight how on-press intelligence is driving industry transformation and accelerating printers towards a future with a more intelligent production floor with a focus on productivity, versatility and quality.
To deliver on this commitment, today HP announces Smart Workcell Controller will be generally available by the summer of this year delivering intelligent and automated job analysis that reduces labor costs, turn-around time and optimizes paper usage. This innovative and powerful automation tool enables the press workflow to tackle variable and unpredictable General Commercial Print and Publishing work with flexibility, while leveraging the power and speed of a roll-fed inkjet production line delivering productivity improvements of up to a factor of 15x. HP Professional Services are also available to facilitate integration of the Smart Workcell Controller into existing and new production workflow, simplifying implementation.
Automation is also being infused into the color profiling process to enhance the color accuracy of printing jobs, while accelerating the setup time for new media. Today it can take more than an hour to profile a paper for the correct color, and for printers operating offset presses this process can take days involving color specialists, slowing print jobs and driving up costs. With new On Press Color Profiling the process can now be completed in less than 5 minutes, a tenth of what it normally takes without specialist intervention, dramatically improving productivity and reducing labor costs. This new feature automates the color profiling process by utilizing on-press hardware and software while enabling tasks to be performed on-press or remotely.
To help printers achieve greater productivity, lower total cost of ownership and more sustainable operations HP is also introducing new Performance Economy Color (EC) Mode enabling industry leading productivity for time-critical color jobs to be printed at the highest press speed of up to 800 fpm (244 mpm), a 60% increase in productivity. This new print mode is aptly suited to transaction, enveloped mail, and publishing jobs delivering the print quality customers require for faster turnaround with less color ink and full density black to provide overall lower ink, power, and cost per page.
Increasing Versatility for Competitive Edge
As the commercial printing sector adapts to new market dynamics it’s undergoing a significant transformation. Printers now handle print runs of varying sizes and are increasingly looking to diversify their offerings to remain competitive in an evolving market. To adapt to these challenges, HP is delivering solutions that offer printers expanded versatility across media, applications and finishing systems.
Exclusive to the HP PageWide Advantage 2200 platform, Heavier Media Expansion is bringing new opportunity to printers to capture even more high value jobs such as tip-on cards, punch cards and post cards, with the ability to print on 320 gsm/18pts. Offering the highest media weight support in the 22” (560 mm) web inkjet category, printers can now move more jobs from offset or sheetfed inkjet to digital inkjet to enhance productivity while sustaining high quality.
In line with HP’s goal to support printers grow profitably and sustainably, HP Pagewide is also introducing its Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) solution to the HP PageWide Advantage 2200. This new print system with MICR option brings together enhanced security features in the digital front end along with the new Performance EC mode to offer production mail customers a full solution focused on efficiency, productivity, and security for time and data sensitive applications.
“HP has been continuously introducing inkjet innovations changing the landscape of high-volume print production for the last four decades. As we focus on protecting our customers’ investments so that they can grow sustainably and with confidence future proofing their businesses we continuously upgrade existing platforms, and as of today we see that 95% of all presses installed are still in use. In line with that commitment, we are introducing the new HP PageWide Plus Package alongside other innovations that build on the success and credibility of the HP PageWide Advantage 2200 to deliver next-level productivity, efficiency, automation and better economics. With these new innovations we’re supporting printers explore new opportunities to expand their businesses and gain competitive edge” highlights Annette Friskopp, General Manager, PageWide Industrial Printing, HP.
HP PageWide has been at the forefront of delivering integrated end-to-end automated and intelligent factory solutions by partnering with a wide variety of workflow and finishing companies for digital-ready, production proven in-line and near-line fully automated production lines, including a Multi-Roll Print solution that enables non-stop printing. At drupa 2024, HP PageWide will showcase all the above enhancements on the HP PageWide Advantage 2200 web inkjet press integrated with three different partners into a multi-functional automated production line with the versatility to deliver direct mail, general commercial, transactional and publishing jobs at the highest productivity yet.
