The HP Chronicles

HP has always been a name to reckon with, but thanks to acquisitions and repositioning, it has become a dominating force within the digital wide format arena as well as the wider world of digital print. By Sophie Matthews-Paul.

In many areas of industry and commerce, if one player appears to have dominance of a specific market, there’s often an uncomfortable feeling of being taken over and having individual choice removed. However, the opposite is true following HP’s latest acquisitions and repositioning in the wide format digital printing sector. The moves form part of its overall strategy to accelerate the general conversion of processes from analogue to digital and to make sure that the results sit comfortably across most sectors of print.

HP printer manufacturing: a graphical future.

Yes, there’s still plenty of opportunity still to go elsewhere: potential customers will, and should, retain that option; but will they fare better overall by putting all their eggs into the single but sizeable HP basket? In recent times we’ve all witnessed the company move carefully to adopt existing technologies to complement those in which it is already skilled. The buy-out of Scitex Vision back in 2005 made a lot of sense, although I wondered at the time why HP didn’t opt for NUR. This move into the super-wide market was complemented by the partnership agreement forged with Seiko I Infotech in January 2006, effectively removing the ColorPainter solvent- based printer duo from the shelves and replacing it with the DesignJet 8000, 9000 and 10000.

HP didn’t stop there. Next we saw the company take on the MacDermid Colorspan family, thus giving it an instant inroad into the entry level, UV curable flatbed printer arena. And, last but probably not least, NUR’s portfolio of machines has now been integrated into the HP’s portfolio.

The results of these acquisitions now mean that HP really has a digital technology to cater for every eventuality, from the home and SoHo user, through professional photographers and fine artists, to signmakers, screen printers, bureaux and print for pay businesses to superwide format specialists. It’s a very large slice of today’s printing industry pie. Machines, of course, have to be backed up with materials, inks and good, solid service contracts all neatly configured around fast delivery times and efficient logistics.

Complementing wide format is, of course, HP’s Indigo product range which is ready to be enhanced and extended and it is probably no coincidence that so many major decisions have been made by the company in a drupa year, thus enabling optimum impact across the entire graphics arts sector with the advantage of being able to show off absolutely everything under one roof to a worldwide audience.

HP hasn’t been alone on the acquisition trail: the past few years have seen several machine producers being purchased by finance institutions or by others in related industries. Although the wide format sector is secure in its technologies, it’s also an area that is reliant on constant development. This doesn’t come cheap and a sizeable chunk of any manufacturer’s budget has to be ploughed back into research. Thus, for a serious printer supplier to be able to keep abreast of what’s needed in the industry, it’s essential for its foundations to be rocksolid and future-proof. In today’s industry, there are few ventures that have the background, the financial stability in all economic climates and the facilities to be able to achieve this satisfactorily. HP is one of them.

Swallowing up independent suppliers might at first glance be considered to go against the spirit of small enterprise. Thinking about this logically, end customers represent the businesses who want printing machines and inks which work as they’re supposed to. These companies also expect those they deal with to be able to offer sensible delivery times, along with technical support and the other elements which are vital to keep printing equipment earning its keep. A successful dealer channel can only really be as good as its supply and distribution chain.

The breadth of HP’s current portfolio is little short of breathtaking, encompassing all the technologies associated with digital print but it’s the company’s pedigree and size which will give confidence to the market. This is a direct result of being able to deal with a single source supplier that is large enough and strong enough to be able to stand by every piece of equipment it sells. It’s irrelevant whether its systems are acquired or developed in-house, what is important is for print providers to get a good return on investment, plus reliability and output quality. In increasingly tough economic times this is more important than ever before.

Yet HP isn’t merely sitting on its laurels with an up to date catalogue brimming with every digital need. The company is also very aware of changes that are happening throughout different industries worldwide and this is reflected in the announcement of its new Latex Printing Technologies. These products are still in their infancy when compared with established inks used in the digital sector, but the emphasis is on environmental considerations blended cleverly with the needs of print providers. The result is a development that has the advantages of solvent -based inks but without the hazards and this has got to be good news for end users and their customers, many of whom are now getting increasingly involved in green issues.

HP’s rolling out of new products, complemented by the positioning of NUR’s printers, has been announced in good time for drupa and incorporates new additions to its successful Indigo presses. This product range will now include the HP Indigo 7000 digital press which is targeted at the high volume market and complements the Indigo 5500, with a fast inkjet colour solution being introduced for long runs of books, transactional documents, direct marketing materials and newspapers.

Q3 2009 is another innovative addition in the form of the HP Inkjet Web Press which promises to be a high speed colour digital printing system which is geared, of course, to higher productivity and better margins. Going for a 762mm web width should provide a welcome wake-up call to the market sector currently involved in more wasteful analogue processes. Intended to be compatible with a good selection of uncoated media, this new machine’s speed of 122m/min, 400ft/min, will be certain to make it appeal to the direct mail, transactional, book and newspaper industries.

Hardware has to be backed up with software and, increasingly, workflow needs to be geared around elements that perform in an open environment to meet the different stages of the production process. This has led to the development of HP’s SmartStream which is geared to giving its users flexibility across a range of market segments and application needs, with the ability to provide job management from creation to fulfilment. It’s designed to adapt to emerging market requirements with the idea that it will help users develop growth opportunities without having to reinvest in, and learn how to use, workflow software.

The company is working to projected parameters for 2010 that have an estimated $663 billion print production page value opportunity and incorporate the expected acceleration of analogue to digital conversion. HP wants to accommodate this transition that represents its key market across the industry sectors in which the company is involved and its range of products available now and in the near future should make this an easily achievable reality. In its own words, HP now says that its 50+ graphic arts solutions mean that its products have the capability to print in virtually any format, ranging from postage stamps to building wraps.

Steve Nigro, Senior Vice President, Graphics and Imaging Business at HP, is confident that this new enlarged portfolio will enable printers to achieve more profitable growth. “These announcements,” he maintains, “further cement HP’s leadership in the graphic arts market, accelerate the analogue to digital conversion and propel digital technology as a mainstream product offering.”

No one can argue that digital hasn’t already become mainstream in the wide format and specialist sectors already, but Nigro feels it can go much further. “These new technologies and products,” he adds, “will change the digital printing industry in terms of value, volume and environmental footprint.”

With its wide and super-wide format products there was obviously going to be the need to consolidate printers and remove areas of duplication and, not surprisingly, HP has decided to keep NUR’s existing very successful roll fed. UV curable machines and rename them to suit its own style of nomenclature. Similarly, the company was lacking an industrial, production flatbed solution and the former NUR Tempo has filled this slot. Bidding farewell to the NUR Fresco can’t have been an easy option but HP believes that this model overlapped too closely with its own XL1500 solvent based, roll fed printer in terms of capabilities.

Yariv Avisar, VP and General Manager of HP’s Large Format Printing Division, states, “We had to consolidate and rationalise the two families of machines into one, and it wasn’t easy. Tough decisions were necessary, for example with the XL2200 which was nearly market ready. But, with the NUR UV curable printers being well established worldwide, we believed it to be a sound business decision and would benefit HP’s existing and potential customers to continue with these two roll fed models.

“The choice between the Fresco and the XL1500 was complicated,” Avisar continues. “Both are well respected printers but we felt overall that our existing solvent based machine, which also has the option to be used for dye sublimation, was the better direction for HP.”

The resulting comprehensive portfolio of super-wide format printers incorporates virtually all end requirements, with the existing HP Scitex TJ8300 and TJ8500 fulfilling market needs for a high speed automatic roll to sheet option which comes in solvent based and UV curable options. HP Scitex stands alone with its FB6700 which has proved itself as an aqueous based success in the point of purchase sector.

Moving down the line, the DesignJet family is also pretty extensive with the longstanding 5500 and 4500 series, the latter of which is aimed more at the CAD market, now being complemented by aqueous based additions in the form of the Z2100 and Z3100 photo quality printers. These are joined by the extremely successful DesignJet Z6100 which has made a place for itself as a useful production unit within the signmaking and digital bureau fraternity and has the bonus of being particularly beneficial with solid and tricky colours.

The DesignJet series has also been augmented with the addition of the UV curable H35000 and H45000, both of which are hybrid machines that print directly on rigid and flexible materials. On the low solvent based side, the DesignJet 8000, 9000 and 10000 represent HP’s offerings which cater for interior and exterior applications, including vehicle graphics as well as signs and banners.

Into this mix of technologies, HP now plans to slot its latex printing technologies which will be demonstrated for the first time at drupa and which represent an environmentally aware option. There is no getting away from increasing pressure from the growth of green inks and materials, and this new product will help printers who, from choice or from customer insistence, are having to adopt new working practices which are more eco-friendly.

These inks are pigmented products which use the company’s specially developed aqueous dispersed polymer and comprise a liquid ink vehicle which carries the polymer and pigment particles to the material’s surface. It is the combination of the physical and chemical properties which provide the key to their drop ejection performance and control of their reaction with the end media. HP achieved this by formulating a combination of around 70 per cent water, with the remainder comprising co-solvents and additives within the ink vehicle.

It is the high aqueous content that gives these products the correct high levels of surface tension and low viscosity which makes them suitable for use in HP’s thermal printheads. Although there are co-solvents present, HP is quick to stress that these are essential to gain the necessary performance characteristics and, in fact, are similar to those used in the company’s aqueous-based DesignJet inks.

Screen printers and artists will know that an aqueousbased formulation on its own isn’t practical. Evaporation and thickening would cause problems and anyone who’s ever used water colours and poster paints will appreciate their compromised behaviour on the most basic of materials, with shrinkage and curling being two obvious examples. Thus, the inclusion of co-solvents and additives play a vital role both within the printing machine and its heads as well as in the way the ink interacts with the media being used. With uncoated vinyls, these elements soften the surface for improved adhesion via the latex polymers, with the co-solvents evaporating during the print process so that the end result is dry and odourless.

The word latex in this context is, perhaps, confusing. What it represents is a stable, aqueous dispersion of microscopic polymer particles that don’t contain natural materials, such as rubber in their composition. HP’s inks are non-allergenic and produced using synthetic polymers and emit very low levels of volatile organic compounds, VOCs.

Their success lies in the way this formulation performs within the printing process. Inside the machine, a liquid film of HP latex ink is applied to the media and exposed to radiant heaters and airflow. This process evaporates the ink carrier or vehicle, and the polymer particles coalesce to form a continuous layer which adheres firmly to the material’s surface and encapsulates the pigment, resulting in a durable colour.

Inks on their own aren’t much use without complementary printheads and, of course, a printer. HP is using drupa as the official launch of its new ink type but we do know already that it will be partnered with the company’s scalable printing technology that involved an overall investment of around $1.4 billion and four years of research and development. The result is printheads that include fluidic design and electronic control features. HP’s wide scan printheads complement the company’s latex printing technology by giving the inks the ability to be throughput at sensible speeds, along with other benefits such as precision media advance control using HP’s proprietary Optical Media Advance Sensor, or OMAS. This, as its name suggests, gives precision motion control of the material’s advance between print swathes which, in turn, minimises and even eliminates banding.

For the technically minded, these printheads feature scalable, high speed technology with 108mm heads that support a firing frequency up to 24kHz. With each head having two ink colours and 1200 nozzles/in, this makes a total of 10,560 nozzles/prin-head. This, in turn leads to accurate placement on the media at sensible production speeds.

Because the combination of latex inks and wide scan printheads perform differently to solvent based printers, there’s no requirement for time consuming daily manual maintenance procedures. Additionally, time and costs are reduced considerably by the fact that individual printheads can be replaced by the user, thus saving on downtime and service calls. The ink development and formulation has also resulted in a product which maintains nozzle health.

So far 2008 has proved to be anything but a ‘me too’ year for HP. The company’s presence has been strong since digital’s inception as an alternative and viable printing process. Consolidation of acquired assets with its own expertise across all technologies won’t stop the competition but what it will provide is a secure haven for new and existing customers who want to deal with a single, reliable manufacturing source.

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