In addition to its 29-inch HP Indigo 20000 and 30000 presses preparing to enter the market, HP steps deeper into the packaging world with its introduction of the HP Scitex 15000 press for the production of corrugated displays and short-run packaging.
Introduced at Germany’s Interpack 2014, running from May 8 to 14, the HP Scitex 15000 is a wide-format-inkjet press engineered to run corrugated substrates at speeds up to 600 m2/hour (6,456 ft2/hour). HP expects the machine to be commercially available by November of this year.
The HP Scitex 15000 includes what HP describes as an integrated automatic media loader to handle up to four stacks of stock. The printer – built around what HP describes as HP Scitex High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging – uses HDR240 Scitex Inks, which are GREENGUARD certified for printing indoor point-of-purchase displays, bulk bins and freestanding display units.
At Interpack 2014, HP also announced the availability of a new lamination partner for its HP Indigo 20000 and 30000 presses. Comexi Group, a long-standing flexible packaging machinery manufacturer, is optimizing its solvent-free NEXUS L20000 laminator for these new 29-inch Indigo presses. After its successful play in the small-format, pressure-sensitive label market, HP is just now starting to put the 29-inch Indigo 20000, primarily engineered for the printing of flexible packaging, and the Indigo 30000, for folding-carton-type work, into the marketplace.
These new Indigo ElectroInk presses are poised to shake up the packaging market if they mature properly. It took some years of print-room production to iron out the kinks in the original Indigo machines, but HP now has close to 30 years of Indigo Intellectual Property knowledge, and a wealth of computing resources, to apply to the Indigo 20000 and 30000 presses.
“After leading the shift to digital in label printing, HP is again driving an unstoppable analogue-to-digital transformation in the package printing industry,” stated Stephen Nigro, Senior VP, Graphics and Inkjet Solutions Business, HP.
The Scitex 15000 is built from decades of HP inkjet experience, including its 2005 purchase of Scitex for $280 million. HP describes corrugated, flexible and folding-carton packaging as a $11 billion market opportunity, where only seven percent of these materials are produced by what the company defines as digital technology. HP notes the Scitex 15000 fits a growing demand for versioning, short runs and reduced environmental impact.
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