HP to Usher In New Digital & Intelligent Solutions at drupa 2024

HP Inc. has ushered in a new era for digital printing with the latest lineup of HP digital printing presses and intelligent solutions designed to address today’s production challenges in the commercial printing and labels and packaging industries.

Printing businesses face challenges such as inflation, labour shortages, material scarcity, and environmental concerns. To sustainably grow their business, offset players need to access new growth opportunities by embracing digital printing and an intelligent production floor.

“We’re committed to unlocking profitable and sustainable growth for our customers,” says Haim Levit, SVP and Division President, HP Industrial Print Organization. “Our LEP, LEPx, and inkjet technologies have improved in terms of quality, versatility, productivity, sustainability, and economics and our commitment and significant investment into continuous innovation has enabled over 8,000 printers and converters to expand their businesses and grow sustainably. HP has been a digital transformation leader for more than 30 years, and our digital printing technology has established the gold standard in commercial print and labels and packaging production.”

Addressing High-Volume Production Challenges  

Today’s printing businesses are navigating increasing production challenges. Supply chain disruption, energy supply concerns, and worsening sector labour shortages reinforce the need for greater efficiency, speed, and reliability across the production floor.

The latest HP Indigo 120K Digital Press sets a new standard for high-volume production and automation, while enabling printers to move jobs from analogue to digital more intuitively and economically to meet demanding customer needs. Optimizing production floors by combining analogue and digital technologies, the HP Indigo 120K reduces human touchpoints and enables multi-press operation by a single operator. The new press delivers offset-matching image quality, flexible job routing between offset and digital, and an ECO mode option that reduces the press’s carbon footprint by 11%, supporting sustainability goals.

Unlocking Profitable Growth

The next-generation of the bestselling B2 sheet-fed digital press, the launch of the HP Indigo 18K Digital Press takes versatility, efficiency, and user-friendliness to new heights. As the commercial printing sector tackles significant competitive transformation, the need for presses and solutions that help printers enrich their offering and sustainably grow their business is critical.

The new HP Indigo 18K Digital Press handles the widest range of print applications ever produced with a single B2 digital press, accommodating diverse substrates and job types seamlessly. Advanced AI features like auto recovery and proactive alerts enhance productivity and simplify the entire production process, achieving up to 80% press availability within a single shift. Aligning with HP’s sustainability commitment, the Indigo 18K supports Enhanced Productivity Mode (EPM), delivering 24% energy savings per sheet.

Innovating for Restricted Digital Security Printing

HP introduces the groundbreaking HP Indigo 7K Secure Digital Press, revolutionizing restricted digital security printing by executing security-focused print jobs in a single pass. Collaborating with Jura JSP, this cutting-edge sheet-fed press enables workflows tailor-made for security production lines, so customers can diversify their offerings, cater to a comprehensive range of security needs, and acquire new customers to grow their business.

“As the printing industry embraces automation and digitalization, HP Indigo empowers customers with unprecedented levels of productivity, efficiency, versatility, quality, and cost-effectiveness,” says Noam Zilbershtain, Vice President and General Manager, HP Indigo and Scitex. “Our portfolio defines the industry standard for automation and sustainability, reflecting HP’s vision for the print production floor.”

“We’re also excited to announce the immediate roll out of the general commercial availability of the HP Indigo V12 Digital Press, the fastest narrow web digital press on the market and first press to utilize new innovative LEPx technology. Commercial availability comes after successful beta site installations including Brook + Whittle, a leader in sustainable packaging and digital printing in the US,” adds Zilbershtain.

Paving the Way for Success with Intelligent Factory Floors

HP is defining the industry approach to automation through AI and robotics, launching a comprehensive print production automation ecosystem. Based on internal studies, customers who leverage automated processes achieve 51% higher volume and 80% more jobs per press compared to less automated customers. These customers also grow at an average of 27% year-over-year which is higher than the industry average. HP’s holistic approach combines effective presses with intelligent features from job submission to delivery.

Specific efficiency innovations include:

PrintOS Production Beat Support for analogue printing and finishing equipment, which enables customers to monitor their entire production floor, not only HP presses, capturing data in real time from analogue equipment and digitalizing the entire production.

HP Indigo PQ Maestro offers an intelligent start-of-day wizard that optimizes press performance.

Preflight is an AI-based decision-making tool that automatically predicts the suitability of the best-fit print mode by learning preferences of customers.

AAA 2.0 (Auto Alert Agent) advanced, a machine-learning algorithm that increases print productivity with zero human intervention.

“By using AAA 2.0 we experience a significant reduction in production time, saving one hour for every 80,000 impressions. This not only enhances our operational efficiency, but also drastically reduces customer complaints and returns by 5-7%,” highlights Andreas Organzidis, Head of Color Digital Printing, Elanders.

As the industry moves towards a more productive production floor, HP introduces Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) in collaboration with MoviĜo Robotics to automate media transfer, saving up to two hours per day, per press.

Developed in collaboration with printers and converters, HP has also announced the launch of the HP Sustainability Amplifier programme enabling printers and converters to accelerate their sustainability agenda and offer more sustainable prints. The programme, in collaboration with HP’s Sustainable Impact Strategy, aligns with HP’s commitment to renewable energy and reducing CO2 emissions.

Driving Continuous Innovation in Inkjet

An industry pioneer in inkjet technology for 40 years, HP PageWide Web Presses use HP’s proprietary thermal inkjet technology to deliver offset class quality and productivity with the benefits of digital printing.

“Since our first HP inkjet web press in 2009, HP customers have printed more than one trillion pages on PageWide. Along the way, we’ve invested in innovation to protect our customers’ investments and help them grow sustainably. We’re introducing the new HP PageWide Plus Package, to enhance productivity, automation, and economics,” explains Annette Friskopp, General Manager, PageWide Industrial Printing Global Business Unit at HP Inc.

Enhancements to HP PageWide Plus Package unveiled

• Performance Economy Color (EC) Mode: Delivering print quality customers require for faster turnaround with less colour ink and a 60% increase in productivity up to 800 fpm (244 mpm)⁰.
• General availability of Smart Workcell Controller: Offering significant advancements in intelligent automation and productivity improvements of up to a factor of 15x.
• Press Colour Profiling: Automation transforms colour profiling into a less than 5 minutes job, a tenth of what it normally takes¹².

HP also announced two new additional capabilities expanding the versatility of the HP PageWide Advantage 2200 web inkjet press:

• Heavier Media Expansion: Enabling printers to use thicker substrates allowing them to capture more high value jobs up to 320 gsm/18pt.
• Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) for Transactional Print Systems: Enabling printers to capture more speciality jobs and grow their business.

At drupa 2024 HP members of the global print community will be able to see firsthand eight automated production lines equipped with the latest innovation across HP Industrial, involving over 25 partner companies and incorporating more than 20 unique automation solutions.

HP is at Stand A01-1, Hall 17.