Alon Bar-Shany is ready for the crisis. Any crisis will provide opportunities for those that threaten the status quo and the general manager of HP Indigo has been head of a challenger brand for 20 years. “The crisis will cause pain and some acceleration of things that have already been underway,” he says. In short, the transition away from litho and towards digital will accelerate.
The arrival of the pandemic closed down Israel and a few days later caused the postponement of Drupa. Like so many other meetings, this one is taking place remotely thanks to the magic of the internet. The postponement of Drupa, however, will not stop the next chapter in the evolving story of digital printing, even though Indigo has plotted the launch of its major technologies to coincide with the world’s largest print trade show. Four years ago HP, as the largest exhibitor, was instrumental in changing the mind of organisers to keep to the established four-year cycle rather than adopt a triennial frequency.
This year it had planned a further series of product introductions that would underline the shift of digital printing into a truly productive, reliable and mainstream printing technology, able to compete with litho on all but the longest runs and largest formats. There were plans, too, to show a nascent version of its liquid electrophotography technology on a label press to set a new productivity mark. This will come back a little more fully formed next year. By then a series of new presses ought to be on the streets. “We were on track to release new presses in the Drupa time frame,” Bar-Shany says. These will have the new generation Series 5 print engine developed for the resilience and high productivity needed to challenge analogue processes.
It has repeated this time after time. If the Indigo technology was first shown at Ipex in 1993, Drupa has been its prime showcase ever since. That culminated in the introduction of B2 digital sheetfed printing eight years ago, updating this four years later to 1600dpi HD imaging. “Every four to six years we have introduced a new press platform,” he says.
The first version of any new press has so far been a four-colour sheetfed press, followed by web press iterations and then when the next generation press arrives, the now established press takes on additional colours and effects as what was the pinnacle of productivity then becomes the platform for creative effects and flexibility.
This continues with the latest portfolio of machines. The flagship press is the 100K, a B2 sheetfed press that will lay down a serious challenge to litho assuming it performs as anticipated. HP Indigo cannot afford to get this wrong, and has learned from the less than ideal launch of the Indigo 10000 and 12000. Indigo is keen that that experience will not be repeated. Consequently, says Bar-Shany, the 100K has been running at five beta sites since last summer.
“This is the longest beta programme that we have ever done,” he says. “We are very confident that the presses are totally right. Looking back to the introduction of the Series 4 engines when that was a new platform, it is clear that we launched too soon and we ought to have extended the beta testing.”
While that caused numerous hiccups and unsettled users, it has not stopped the success of the press. The rise to B2 was widely welcomed by existing users who could now offer a larger format and sneak some work from litho. But the vast majority of these presses have been sold to pre existing Indigo customers or those with experience of the technology. That needs to change in the next phase. “Today B2 is a success, we have machines in more than 30 countries,” he adds. “The problem was that we ramped up production a little fast.”
Along with extensive developments in labels, these have given Indigo a broad, diverse customer base. And, says Bar-Shany, this is an enthusiastic customer base. “They are very open about sharing best practice – and providing us with tough feedback when things are not good enough.
“Indigo users love the technology, its quality and versatility, though sometimes do struggle with the level of productivity and utilisation.” This has been addressed in the new Series 5 models.
This time around the press has been put through its paces in different locations and under the most demanding conditions, including the whole of a peak season towards the end of the year and in applications from web to print, to photobooks. Feedback from users has been incorporated into modifications, as it was in setting the specifications for these machines at the outset. HP Indigo needs the 100k to become a true alternative to B2 litho printing.
Valuable lessons have been learned too from the 20000 web press for flexible packaging and the 30000 carton press. “I underestimated the complexity of folding cartons,” Bar-Shany says. “I thought it would be easier than flexible packaging. There is the range of materials, the regulations, colour consistency. We went back to improve the limitations in productivity, media range and spot colours.
“Carton printing is about the end to end process because the potential is there for significant growth.”
The 35K is the model that addresses these issues, with Spotmaster to manage the special colours that are extensively used by brands and to delivery the consistency that is essential for cartons. There is also the 90K, a reel fed one-side-only press that can print a B1 sheet. Officially it is intended for wallpaper, posters and similar commercial print work but at least one of the beta sites is printing cartonboard with it.
With the Series 4 Indigo, PrintOS was introduced to create the sort of remote monitoring and feedback that is rapidly becoming part of the swing to Industry 4.0. The PrintOS portal allows users to extend the functionality of the press into workflows and applications that have a close link into the press itself and the ecosystem around the press. It allows HP Indigo to make small frequent updates to the software on the press to keep all machines at the same level and precluding the need for engineers to make onsite upgrades.
Remote monitoring is crucial to keep the press in optimal condition, checking the condition of components and supplies and alerting users when parts need to be replaced. HP Indigo can send out engineers ahead of a break down with the correct components. In many instances users have the training to service the machine themselves so that an engineer visit is only needed for more complex issues. This is crucial to keeping the 100k, now the flagship commercial press, in operation around the clock.
“Operators need some technical skills and some learning, but to get the levels of reliability and quality you have to embrace this way of thinking,” he says. “The 100K is a four-colour press that can print hundreds of different jobs a day.” It is the company’s most litho like press to date. Paper handling is much improved with proper front lays to control the paper from the start of its journey through the press. Inline calibration is possible; a pallet of paper can be removed without stopping the press.
“It is all based on feedback from high volume printers with same day or 24/7 turnaround,” he says. The sensors and feedback from the press deliver the data to create a virtuous circle of identifying and delivering the bespoke reports that allow for productivity improvements. Bar-Shany explains: “We can personalise the operator’s experience based on reports bespoke to each operator. It’s about identifying if training is needed to achieve best in class performance specific to each operator: is Mark falling behind John with some job types; is John slower to set up other jobs?
“We can learn from that and provide tailored training needed to achieve best in class performance across the board. “That needs smart algorithms and you also have to keep the operators interested – creating points and competitions is very effective. Operators look forward to getting their scores and will help each other get them back up. Gamefication is very effective at that.”
A key part of HP’s Drupa presence was intended to be the the V12 with the Series 6 imaging engine a new concept of press, using the electrophotographic technology, imaging to a transfer belt rather than drum and with six imaging engines to be able to print six colours in one pass, instead of building colour up in successive rotations of the drum and paper. The platform will add in workflow, colour management and artificial intelligence and no doubt a measure of robotics. “It is a totally different architecture and delivers a dramatic jump in productivity,” he says.
Each imaging unit can address two colours, so a 12-colour image will need two rotations of the belt. Printing to a web is easier and has the greater potential, offering a real competition to flexo in label printing and paving the way for greater incursions into flexible packaging. The first version of the technology will be imaging only a relatively small web width. Future versions will surely go wider, as well as faster, perhaps.
“We were looking forward to showing this at Drupa. And while it is not yet in beta, the presentation would have shown how advanced and mature it is,” Bar-Shany adds. The press is extraordinarily stylish, less a printing machine than something from the pages of a science fiction novel. It is the sort of development that shows that HP Indigo is thinking ten years ahead. “The development of the V12 started years ago,” he says.
Flexible packaging is clearly the ultimate goal. The 20000 can handle short runs and personalisation, but rapidly loses out as runs increase. But there is an appetite for digital print in this sector. HP Indigo has sold 250 of the 20000 press, many printing labels and many to one customer, Epac.
“They are the fastest growing customer that Indigo has ever had,” Bar-Shany says. “Our volumes in flexible packaging have grown 48%. If we have 5% of the world market for labels, just 0.2% of the flexible packaging market is printed digitally. This is a sector that is worth more than $100 million to Indigo and is where labels was 15 years ago.”
As with cartons this will be about delivering the entire end to end solution, from workflow to lamination. There is little benefit in saving a day at the point of printing if after print the lamination stage continues to take six days.
The V12 will not be available for a few years, not even in beta until the end of next year at the soonest. The early announcement is to place a marker in the consciousness of those that might invest in such a press and for them to talk about the potential with their customers. In the meantime, HP Indigo will be talking with the brands that it knows through labels and through commercial printing that already understand the potential of the technology and business models it enables.
That is for the future. Immediately HP Indigo has an under pressure commercial print market to look after. The company’s traditional competition, Xerox and Kodak, at the top end for quality, are now joined by Ricoh, Canon and Konica Minolta at a lower price point.
The B2 format gave some protection against this, where it comes up against B2 inkjet presses from Fujifilm and Konica Minolta currently, and potentially from a range of others.
If Bar-Shany is overly concerned, he doesn’t sound it. “Inkjet is getting a lot of attention and it definitely has its place, but we have the advantage when it comes to high colour coverage and being able to offer special inks. These are things that inkjet cannot do well.
“There are also different flavours of inkjet, on sheet or from the roll, UV and water based. HP has deep knowledge of inkjet technology and it is a faster technology that suits the applications where there is a need to print faster.”
The electrophotographic technology is more versatile in terms of substrates and the applications that need this flexibility. “The big opportunities for inkjet is more about taking pages from analogue. We have advantages in variable data printing, security printing, and there is a lot of growth or customers producing personalised children’s books and photo albums that are impossible for offset litho. Customers want to move to Indigo to exploit new business applications and models.”
This is going to be the appeal for commercial printers that have been under pressure even before the lockdown and changes that must follow, through even shorter print runs and faster turnarounds, where tens of makereadies a day become hundreds of makereadies each day.
“Looking back over 20 years the trends are clear,” says Bar-Shany. “However, many printers live from month to month rather than looking at their business from five months out.
“The current crisis is forcing change and inevitably you will be losing certain people. The question has to be do you go back or do you drive a bigger change?”
Alon Bar-Shany has been general manager of Indigo, steering the business into position as the most important of the digital press providers thanks to its quality and versatility and continuing to innovate with new models.
