The high-speed, high-volume 2.8m-wide press, which is designed for pre-printing of corrugated top liner, will enable corrugators to combine many individual jobs together on a roll or across rolls for short, mid-length or long runs.
The press is planned to print at speeds of up to 183m/min and produce up to 30,000sqm/hr. It will print corrugated liner rolls that can then be placed directly onto existing 2.5m or 2.8m corrugators.
According to the manufacturers, the device will benefit centralised corrugated box plants serving major retail brands and requiring just-in-time inventory, shorter runs, and faster turnaround times.
HP Inkjet High-Speed Production Solutions Division vice-president and general manager Aurelio Maruggi said: “Addressing the enormous digital opportunity in the corrugated market requires best-in-class technology innovation, a portfolio of solutions, scale, and a market vision.
“The new press will transform the short and mid-range corrugated packaging market, dramatically disrupting operating models and costs, and more importantly create new value for brand customers.”
The T1100 will be the first machine co-developed by the two companies since the announcement of their collaboration at Graph Expo 2014 in Chicago last September.
HP announced its first Inkjet Web Press at Drupa 2008. Since then, the company has expanded its portfolio to its current line-up of 10 presses across five web-width platforms.
In May 2014, at Interpack, HP announced its intention to enter the corrugated packaging market with roll-fed inkjet. The following month the company announced its first web-press offering for this market; the T400 Simplex Color Inkjet Web Press.
HP worldwide director of marketing and business development IHPS division David Murphy told PrintWeek: “The T400 Simplex is ideal for hybrid corrugators and the T1100 is ideal for central corrugators, where they can actually utilise the entire corrugator web width.
“It is suitable for any kind of corrugated packaging but in particular anything that has either basic corrugate or high-quality flexo or even a replacement for litho laminate application and even into point of purchase display.
“Retail would be the primary market but I think there are a lot of products that get packaged in corrugated boxes that go through other supply chains to distributors in wholesale and other channels.
“I think where you’re talking about being able to add some higher quality colour to meet the demands of brands who want to make sure their messaging is appropriately displayed on the outside of the box, then retail would certainly be a key point of opportunity.”
KBA Web Press Product House executive vice-president Christoph Müller added: “KBA has a rich heritage of developing innovative solutions that meet or exceed customers’ quality expectations.
“In working with HP, we will combine our complementary technological strengths for the needs of packaging converters.”
Murphy said HP expects the T1100 to have limited market availability in 2016 and broader availability in 2017.
Although he couldn’t yet confirm whether the press would be on show at Drupa 2016, Murphy said: “People can expect to see this product in production somewhere in the geographic vicinity of Drupa and within that generalised Drupa timeline.”
Pricing is still to be confirmed but Murphy said HP was working with KBA to “make sure the hardware, the software, the ink and the electronics all combined create the greatest value proposition and the highest degree of affordability for central corrugators.”
