The Latex 3000 is suitable for both indoor and outdoor wide-format products such as billboards, banners, textiles, self-adhesive vinyl and truck curtains.
It prints at 1,200dpi in six colours and has HP’s Ink Optimizer, with production speeds for indoor applications of 77sqm/hr and outdoor quality printed at 120sqm/hr. The machine can print on single rolls up to 3.2m or dual rolls up to 1.6m each.
The world’s first signing for the £230,000 machine, which will be delivered to Rochester-based PressOn on 1 July straight from the Fespa stand, will take place this afternoon (25 June).
The purchase is part of a £600,000 investment at the wide-format specialist printer that recently included an EFI Vutek QS2 Pro 3.2m wide-format flatbed and roll-fed UV-curable printer.
The Latex 3000 will replace two of the firm’s existing HP latex printers including an LX850 and an LX600, which have been with the business for around three years. Two HP LX 65500s will remain on site.
Joint managing director Andy Wilson said its latex machines had "transformed the business".
"We used to print on solvent machines, the HP 9000s, but after beta-testing the 26500s a few years ago and we immediately saw big advantages, particularly with our self-adhesive vinyl work."
"With our solvent printers we could have to wait up to 24-hours to complete the post-cure but with the latex machines, it’s a whole new ball game," he added.
"We print a lot of self-adhesive vinyl and with these machines there is no gassing-off time required, which gives us a time advantage against our competitors."
"We’ve hammered our 850 and it has stood up to the job well but with growing demand we needed a more industrial and robust model and this was perfect."
Wilson said that the new five-litre ink cartridges that come with the Latex 3000 were a big selling point for the company as well.
The 14-staff business turns over £2.5m and Wilson hopes to see annual growth of 10% following its latest investment.
