Solopress has switched from a plan to buy a second T250 HD inkjet web press to purchase its first HP Indigo 100K B2 digital press.
And while it is a landmark press for the Southend online trade printer, it is also a landmark for the supplier, being the 100th Indigo 100K that has been installed since it was first announced two years ago. The inkjet web press had also been a landmark as this was the first in the world to this specification. Onlineprinters, owner of Solopress, had installed one of the first Indigo 100Ks as a beta site for the technology. There are now three in Germany.
It was this technology that convinced Solopress to make the switch. It joins four other Indigos at the site, two B2 machines and two SRA3 presses. The stability and reliability of the press have been impressive, though the greater breakthrough has been with the Extended Productivity Mode, using three rather than four inks to print in full colour and so lifting throughput to 6,000pp/hr.
“We tried using EPM in the early days on the Indigo 10000,” says managing director Simon Cooper, “but it was not effective for us. With the 100K the registration issues we suffered have been sorted out.”
The press will be the first deployment of HP’s Siteflow technology at Solopress. Until now Solopress has used its own developed workflow technology, initially developed for litho printing. The growth in fast turnaround work requires the support of suitable workflow, he adds.
However, while Siteflow might allow it, there are no plans to share work between the production sites within the Onlineprinters group. The customer base does not have a need for a distribute and print model. Work might be shared where one site has capabilities that others do not, Cooper explains.
“In Poland, for example, there is some specialist book production technology, thread sewing and case making we can use if we launch books in a serious way.”
The new press has arrived as demand is picking up sharply. A dip at the start of the year has been replaced by strong demand. “We’re really pleased to see the market turn a corner and orders start to increase after a very tough period. During the last few years we’ve spent time as a business making changes which deliver more value to our customers,” says Cooper. “And in of support of that goal, we recently added the HP Indigo 100K to our fleet, which alongside the introduction of HP Siteflow, compliments our existing automation capabilities.”
HP used the DScoop event in the US last week to announce that the 100K will next year come with a fifth colour station and non stop delivery where every batch or job is pushed outside the delivery for an operator to pick up while continuing to print.
