HP Inc. announced its inkjet production printing solution, PageWide Web Press, has reached a milestone of 500 billion printed pages, as the print platform continues to expand its page capacity driven by global HP print service providers (PSPs).
“PSPs operating HP PageWide Web Presses are finding new success and opportunities for more sophisticated and profitable digital print applications, as well as transferring more pages from offset to digital inkjet technology,” said CarlesFarre, vice president and general manager, HP PageWide Press. “They have more than doubled the number of pages they print on HP PageWide Presses since drupa 2016 for a growth rate that is nearly twice that of the market. More than half of these customers have printed over 1 billion pages on their devices.”
HP PageWide Web Press is an inkjet leader, reaching a share of more than 30% of the 8.8 billion page capacity added in high-volume color inkjet page capacity in the first quarter of 2020.1
Growing volume in pages
PSPs are using PageWide Web Press technology to enable high-volume digital inkjet printing of commercial, publishing, transaction and direct mail applications, as momentum continues worldwide. Notable growth success stories include:
Hatteras Printing Inc. based in Michigan, US, is growing volume with its investment in the HP PageWide Web Press T240 HD, delivering high volume and high quality, from lightweight substrates up to cardstocks. “Versatility capabilities of our equipment has been a big part of our growth,” said John Orlando, vice president of sales & marketing, Hatteras Printing Inc. Hatteras produces, mail and electronically delivers unique printed and digital products for the financial, healthcare, marketing and public sectors.
GGP Media GmbH, based in Germany, has installed a second HP PageWide Web Press T490 HD. The German company is part of Bertelsmann Printing Group, the leading print service provider in Europe. Annually, GGP produces more than 250 million print products, including bestseller novels, comics and fashion magazines.
“Not only do we benefit from the new press, but our customers do too. Smaller run sizes can be optimized with the printing technology and we are more flexible and able to significantly reduce time-to-market,” said Christof Ludwig, managing director of GGP Media GmbH. The press was added to deliver on steadily growing demand for digitally printed products alongside decreasing sizes of print runs, as well as to supply backlisted titles. The new press includes HP A55 Thermal Inkjet printhead technology, delivering crisp text quality at 305 meters per minute (1000 feet per minute).
ProCo, of the UK, installed its first HP PageWide Web Press T240HD a year ago to provide high volume and high-quality direct mail as its scales production. “As a business, we’re all about doing new things for customers. Simply by opening up the power of personalization, with the flexibility and the quality of HP color, we’re able to offer a scale of options for our customers that was not possible to deliver prior. As a result, we’re adding massive value to their business, which is just as critical for us,” said Jon Bailey, CEO ProCo. “Now, you no longer have to choose between volume and quality, and you definitely don’t have to choose between what’s possible and what’s not possible.”
New capabilities for HP PageWide web presses
To drive additional page growth through an expanded application range, HP PageWide announced earlier this year its next-generation HP PageWide Web Press T250 HD with HP Brilliant Ink. The press is capable of printing on a wider range of coated and uncoated offset papers for high-volume commercial applications.
In addition, HP is now announcing a new partnership with Solimar Systems for high-volume document management. The Solimar Chemistry™ Platform, including ReadyPDF® Prepress Server™, Rubika® and SOLitrack™, supports job onboarding, enhancement, and management and delivery of both print and digital communications, including multi-channel document delivery.
“Through this valuable collaboration, HP customers can now benefit from Solimar’s long-standing technical expertise and market-leading workflow systems,” said Farre. “By integrating Solimar’s solutions, PSPs can fully optimize their workflows, maximize production efficiency and fully utilize the high productivity of their HP technology, ultimately enabling them to be more profitable.”
With presses from 20 inches to 42 inches and a range of production solutions, HP PageWide production inkjet web presses allow PSPs to meet customer needs for high-quality, high-volume printing, as well as reinventing supply chains to help eliminate distribution and inventory costs. Print-to-Order capability for publishing ensures books, magazines and journals are available and printed with the environment in mind.
In direct mail and commercial print, HP customers benefit from advanced automation and variable data tools to deliver creative campaigns that are targeted, relevant and boost ROI, which is becoming even more important as marketing budgets shrink and paper and postage costs rise.
HP Site Flow automates jobs and maximizes efficiency, as well as both Designer and Composer software solutions to give customers the power to create variable data pieces. These pre-press tools allow customers to change text, images, QR codes, versions and finely tune messages to customers.
