The manufacturer said the new features for the T240 HD, T300 and T400S HD series presses have been designed to expand the opportunities available with these machines and improve economics for the high-volume digital print production of books, direct mail and commercial print.
Over the coming weeks the manufacturer will roll out the new HP Smart Mode Suite for enhanced inline productivity and versatility of short-run books, direct mail and commercial applications on the PageWide HD series presses.
This set of modes is said to enable customers to reduce paper waste and increase their productivity. Customers can use the multi-roll print mode to print continuously during roll changes to increase productivity by up to 15% and to reduce job turnaround times without losing critical VDP records.
The variable speed mode on the PageWide T240 HD, meanwhile, allows for automatic or manual speed adjustments, which HP said is useful during finishing slow-downs or operator quality checks. And the pause and resume mode enables operators to clear finishing jams and resume printing with no additional paper waste or job loss.
“The ability to have offset substitutable quality is critical for commercial applications but you can’t do it at slow speed – you have to do it at high speed,” said HP PageWide Industrial Division worldwide director of marketing and business development David Murphy.
“Our customers’ volume is growing aggregately more than 15%, and when we look at those direct mail customers who have invested in our High Definition Nozzle Architecture technology in the last three years, they’ve grown their business by an average of 32%.
“You see really tremendous growth rates in the higher coverage, higher quality applications because there is so much opportunity for high-volume commercial volume to be transferred to digital.”
HP will introduce MICR for HDNA “in spring 2019” to support transactional applications including high-volume cheque printing. In HDNA performance mode, MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) marks can be printed inline at up to 152m/min.
Also new, with immediate effect, is HP Service Edge. The company said the smart printing experience enabled by Service Edge is powered by new tools designed to drive Industry 4.0 and data driven business.
The portfolio includes smart tools such as real-time remote support, which leverages PrintOS data algorithms, machine data and the latest remote troubleshooting tools.
Other new releases include HP PrintOS Insight, a cloud application that drives business intelligence for PrintOS-connected HP digital presses, delivering updated analytics, reports and dashboards.
Meanwhile, the new HP D2200 duplex primer, which is available from this month, allows the PageWide T240 HD to print on a wide range of offset coated media without specialty inks. The primer also offers higher productivity with inline priming speeds up to 152m/min.
With immediate effect the T240 HD press can now also support heavier media weights of up to 250gsm, expanding the application range of direct mail, cards, tickets and marketing collateral.
Finally, HP’s new ColorPro Media website is live now and offers a directory of hundreds of compatible coated and uncoated substrates for PageWide presses.
“10 years ago we were compatible with about 100 different paper types, five years ago it was about 300 and now, from about 51 mills around the world, we can address more than 1,000 different paper types from coated to uncoated, inkjet treated and all the different finishes that are available in the market,” said Murphy.
HP revealed the new features at Hunkeler Innovationdays, which was held in Lucerne, Switzerland last week.
