As reported by Printweek in 2018, this represented £1 million out of a total £1.5m investment that also included five Horizon finishing lines.

Just a year ago the 12K was replaced by an HP Indigo 100K, which is not only a newer model but it has a different emphasis on productivity, according to customer service manager Paschal Edwards. “When the opportunity came to upgrade to the HP Indigo 100K, along with our other HP Latex machines, it was an easy decision to allow us to keep building and enhancing our reputation and growth,” he says.

The company’s website points out that sheetfed B2 digital is still relatively rare by comparison with SRA3, but there’s much more to the format than simply doubling-up A3 jobs. “The Indigo 100K is ideal for producing awkward sizes at small to medium run volumes,” Edwards explains. “Products such as personalised calendars, document wallets, A4 landscape brochures, stitched and PUR bound, broadsheets and posters above A3, all benefit from considerable cost reductions when compared with traditional and mainstream digital production methods.”

During the past decade Crescent Press has progressively switched over from being an all-litho printing company to all-digital by 2018 and its website slogan is now “The future of digital print”. Edwards says: “We offer all types of products across flat-sheet digital and wide-format production – 98% of orders are completed in house with the other 2% managed using an approved list of trade finishers.” The company currently employs 20 people and has a £3.5m turnover, with a goal to hit £4m over the next 12 months.

It was founded in 1997 by Andy Matthews, who remains managing director. It was originally in Birmingham, as a one- and two-colour litho printer, before moving east a little way to Solihull in 2010, which gave it the space to install a 10-colour Heidelberg SM 74 litho perfector press. It started moving into digital in 2013, with an SRA3 Ricoh, and the introduction of the B2 HP Indigo 12K in 2018 marked the end of B2 litho for the company. It still has a Ricoh Pro C7100 dry toner press.

Wide-format work was initially outsourced to Kings Norton-based Abstract, but as volumes increased it decided to acquire Abstract and move its equipment to Solihull. Abstract had an older Agfa Anapurna UV hybrid printer, but this was replaced by first an HP Latex L28500 and then two of the then-new 1.6m-wide Latex 360s, all roll-to-roll. A 3.2m Latex 1500 was later added.

Wide-format at Crescent Press was the subject of a previous Me & My... in 2015, when it installed an EFI H1625 LED-UV flatbed. This allowed it to print direct to board instead of the previous practise of laminating the Latex roll-to-roll prints.

Board printing has now gone full circle, at least in ink terms, as the EFI 1625 was replaced by a new 2.5m wide HP R2000 flatbed around the same time as the 100K went in, allowing a return to Latex ink for the direct-to-board work. This ink can print on most rigid media.

Large format finishing is handled by a Zünd table, while there is a converted Heidelberg cylinder press for smaller format die cutting. There’s a Polar 92x guillotine for sheet cutting. The Horizon sheet finishing lines include a StitchLiner MkIII saddle stitcher; a Multi Slitter; 270V PUR binder; and CRF-362 creaser-folder. There’s also laminating and encapsulating equipment.

Edwards says that together with the Indigo 100K, this means that all of Crescent’s regular output is on HP machines, though the old dry toner Ricoh Pro C7100 has been kept as a backup.

What’s the difference between the 12K and 100K?

The HP Indigo 100K is a B2 liquid toner press targeted at high-volume applications. It is capable of 6,000sph in three-colour EPM mode, or 4,500sph in single-sided CMYK, and 2,250sph duplex CMYK. The focus is on throughput over the multiple colours and special effects of the SRA3 Indigos, and HP’s sales pitch includes figures that compare it favourably to B2 litho for multiple short-run jobs over a given period. It was introduced in 2020, with the first one in the UK going to Pureprint that year.

Compared with the 4,500sph 12K, the 100K is faster at up to 6,000sph, and features offset-style gripper-to-gripper technology, with a redesigned paper path to reduce jams, inline colour calibration via built-in spectrophotometer and PrintOS Color Beat, five-source feeder and machine learning cloud-based maintenance programmes to help maintain 24/7 operation.

The digital front end is HP’s SmartStream Production Pro print server, which communicates with Crescent’s PrintIQ MIS and Enfocus Switch workflow processor.

At Drupa 2024 at the end of May, HP announced the 120K, with the same mechanical speeds but with more automation including the inevitable AI to give greater efficiency and throughput. The 100K is still available.

Why choose the 100K?

The HP Indigo 100K was a replacement for the 12K at Crescent Press. “The 100K is more of a production workhorse than the 12K,” says Edwards. “It’s all very good having the ability to offer fluorescent colours, coatings, etc, but if end-users very rarely ask for them, then those features are largely redundant.

“The upgrade to 100K was a natural progression for us, due to speed, quality and capability reasons. The 100K is considerably quicker than the 12K, higher quality and the EPM production is much more versatile. While the 12K was very much still functional and did a great job, we’d outgrown its performance.

“The 100K can handle a broader range of stocks than the 12K. The problem we previously had with the 12K was feeding anything below 120gsm, now 90gsm uncoated runs with ease, and the EPM [Enhanced Productivity Mode] has been greatly improved.”

Crescent Press also took on the HP SiteFlow workflow and production automation system. This cloud-based system has the potential for end-to-end job control and scheduling from pre-press to finishing.

Did they consider anything else?

Edwards says not: “Our previous experience with the 12K, and the relationships that we had built with the HP Indigo team made it an easy decision to stay with HP.”

How quickly was it up and running?

“HP was excellent during the install, just three working days for us without a machine as they worked over the weekend to accommodate us, knowing it’s our main output device. Our operators were trained on the new machine in Barcelona before the installation.”

How has it been in practice?

“Speed and quality have all improved from the 12K, we’re definitely not disappointed with the promised improvements during the sales process, and we have seen around a 20% increase in our production capability,” says Edwards.

Any problems? “With any machine, there is an initial settling down period but HP has handled them well in general. The service team who looks after us are readily available should any issues arise and are all excellent at problem-solving. Future improvements, as I am sure HP are aware, will be all about speed. The service contract is expensive, but of course, I would say that! But overall we are generally satisfied.”

So, will they be buying another digital press from HP? “We’ll be excited to see the improvements HP have made when it’s time for the next upgrade,” says Edwards.

SPECIFICATIONS

Process HP ElectroInk liquid toner

Colours CMYK plus fifth station with choice of light-light black, orange, violet, green, reflex blue, rhodamine red, bright yellow or transparent

Resolution 812dpi, 8-bit (2,438x2,438dpi equivalent)

Format 750x530mm

Max image size 740x510mm

Media thickness range 70-400gsm uncoated; 90-400gsm coated

Speed 4,500sph 4/0; 6,000sph in Enhanced Productivity Mode (EPM) 3/0; 2,250sph 4/4

Media feeds palette 850mm deep; plus two drawers, each 300mm deep; option for two additional drawers

Delivery 640mm stack height; optional auto pallet replacement

Footprint 9.5x4.8m

Price Around £1.2m

Contact HP 0800 408 4348 www.hp.com

COMPANY PROFILE

Crescent Press calls itself “a leading all-digital production hub, offering outstanding service and lead times to direct clients, agencies, educational institutions and other printers”.

Set up in 1997 in Birmingham by Andy Matthews as a single- and two-colour offset printer, the company moved to its current Solihull site in 2010 and initially installed a 10-colour litho perfector press before starting to adopt sheetfed and large-format digital presses. Today it is all digital, with HP Latex roll and flatbed printers as well as its B2 sheetfed HP Indigo 100K liquid toner press that last year replaced a 12K model installed in 2018. Sheetfed finishing is handled by a range of Horizon kit, while large format work is handled by a Zünd digital cutting table.

Crescent employs 20 people and has a turnover of £3.5m, with aims to up it to £4m.

Why it was bought...

“The upgrade to 100K was a natural progression for us, due to speed, quality and capability reasons... While the 12K was very much still functional and did a great job, we’d outgrown its performance,” says customer services manager Paschal Edwards.

How it has performed...

“Speed and quality have all improved from the 12K; we’re definitely not disappointed with the improvements... A combination of the DFE on the 100K and HP SiteFlow software has greatly enhanced our ability to offer high-volume personalised work.”