At a VIP launch in Tel Aviv this week, attended by over 700 print service providers and select media, HP launched its most advanced digital labels and packaging portfolio to date. Patrick Howard reports for PKN.
The huge troupe of printing industry professionals from all over the world testifies to HP’s status as the industry’s single largest technology supplier. The diversity of the PSPs in attendance showcases the company’s wide range of digital technologies across production printing and packaging.
A number of new products were launched during the event including a new HP Indigo 6900 Digital Press, an upgrade to HP Indigo 30000 for folding carton production and the commercial release of the HP Indigo Pack Ready Lamination.
Undoubtedly, the new HP Indigo 6900 Digital Press took the starring role. The latest generation in the best selling label series it incorporates a number of new features:
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Pack Ready for Labels for the production of high-resistance labels for food, household, chemical, and pharma labels. Four beta sites are producing commercial jobs.
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New HP Indigo ElectroInk Silver, now commercially available, delivers metallic effects across a wide colour gamut, similar to Pantone 877.
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HP Indigo ElectroInk Invisible Blue and Yellow visible under UV light for brand protection and promotional labels.
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Integration with the HP Indigo GEM embellishment unit, the first fully digital, one-pass label printing and embellishment solution for spot, tactile, foil, holograms, mini textures and lamination.
In addition, the high-performance digital front end, HP Production Pro for Indigo Labels and Packaging, now drives the press. It will be rolled out this year to the full labels and packaging portfolio. Featuring a five times faster RIP and the Esko Colour Engine, the powerful DFE provides extensive productivity and scalability for continuous digital production.
Among the more stunning announcements at the event was the packaging press sale of ten HP Indigo 20000 digital presses to Colorado-based ePac Flexible Packaging. Jack Knott, CEO, the bluff, silver-haired founder and serial innovator described the operation as "trying to simplify flexible packaging". Someone else described the 18-month-old franchise, where the owner operators buy 49% with ePac holding the rest, as “the Vista print of packaging”. The presses are for rollout across the USA coast-to-coast in new facilities opening in Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, and Miami and are in addition to the three already installed.
The idea is to deliver flexible packaging, mostly for the rapidly growing pouch sector, to small-to-medium sized manufacturers in whatever run size they require, almost on demand. Knott reckons he can set up a packaging plant consisting of two HP Indigo 20000s, a laminator, slitter and pouch lines inside 90 days for a little over $3 million.
“Rapid turnaround time, low minimums, customization, graphics quality, and the ability to print to demand differentiate ePac from conventional flex pack converters. Printing is the core enabling technology we have built ePac on, with the HP Indigo 20000 serving as the foundation of our manufacturing platform. ePac’s collaboration with HP is fundamental to our growth strategy, as we look to adding ePac sites in the months ahead,” Knott is quoted as saying.
HP Indigo presses are supplied in Australia and New Zealand by Currie Group.
