February 28, 2020
HP 50000, cutting edge in digital printing
In October of 2019, the first of two HP Indigo 50000 presses were installed at our Printers Way plant. This is the beginning of our transition out of our existing digital printing technology, the HP Indigo 7200 presses, which have served us well for 8 years. We have traded in both HP Indigo 7200 presses with the first one scheduled for removal in the second quarter of 2020 after the new HP 50000 is in full production.
While the printing technology of the HP 50000 is based on the same principles as the HP 7200 series presses there are several technological advancements.
One of the most noticeable differences is the size, the HP 7200 prints on a 13” wide roll whereas the HP 50000 prints on a 30” wide roll. This will more than double the productivity of the HP 50000 compared to HP 7200.
This tied together with a significantly improved paper priming system, inline spectral colour control that not only monitors print quality but also adjusts for consistency as it prints as well as systems to monitor press parts performance that can notify the operators of upcoming service requirements before they affect print quality will be welcome improvements over our existing presses.
We have purchased a Muller Martini digital finishing system to complement our existing Meccanotecnica finishing system to convert rolls to sewn book blocks.
The HP Indigo 50000 together with the Muller Martini and Meccanotecnica provides us with the most technologically advanced and automated high-quality colour book printing and binding solutions available. This combination is the catalyst that will begin the transition of short-run publisher books from sheetfed offset to digital offset for a more efficient workflow high-quality digital book manufacturing solution.
