HP has launched a number of innovations for HP Indigo digital printing, supporting momentum, growth and digital transformation, including a new HP Indigo 35K Digital Press.

The company made the announcement at its Dscoop Edge Fusion 2021 event, saying that the investment into Indigo follows more than 125 HP Indigo presses installed to date from the new technology portfolio announced in March 2020. 

“Despite the challenges of the past year, Indigo customers have continued to lead the transformation of the graphic arts industry. Our R&D labs continue to deliver on our promise, releasing new capabilities, products and solutions to support the growth of our customers,” HP Indigo vice-president and general manager Haim Levit said.

The HP Indigo 35K Digital Press is a new flagship press for high-value folding carton production built on the market-proven HP Indigo 30000. The new press aims to provide premium colour and print quality, with the company saying that the press is 40 per cent more productive as a result of faster job changeover, colour accuracy with Spot Master, and a more robust paper path from the feeder to the coater.

Additional features include:

• Printing on thinner substrates from 150 microns to capture applications such as rigid boxes.
• New HD printing with 1600 dpi for enhanced print quality. 
• New HP Indigo ElectroInk Premium White for higher opacity.
• New ElectroInk Invisible Yellow, track-and-trace solutions and security elements for multi-layered brand protection applications on one press, in one pass.
• A new Tresu iCoat coater integrated for inline production on the HP Indigo 35K.

HP has also launched Spot Master for HP Indigo 25K and HP Indigo 35K presses.

In addition, to support productivity in digitally printed packaging, HP announced the release of HP Indigo’s Spot Master colour automation technology, which uses a new patented algorithm for fast and accurate colour matching, enabling converters to reach brand colours within five minutes, with an accuracy of less than 2 delta E, and less than 3 meters of waste.

“As a result, Spot Master delivers consistent, uniform colour across the entire print frame and each label or package looks the same no matter when or where it is printed,” the company said.

Spot Master is now available on both the HP Indigo 25K and 35K, and will be available for the HP Indigo 6K later this year.

In addition, to drive digital expansion in commercial print even further, HP Indigo has announced a new set of features, expanding the capabilities of its drupa portfolio, including:

• The new Automatic Alert Agent 2.0 for HP Indigo Series 4 presses (HP Indigo 12000 and 15K). This inline inspection system scans every printed sheet and compares it to its digital reference, automatically identifying print defects. AAA 2.0 now automatically diverts defective sheets to scrap and reprints them, all in real time with no human intervention, and no interruption to production. The system leverages advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms, increasing accuracy and speed, to provide productivity and profitability for PSPs.
• Expansion of HD printing capabilities, with the new Fine Line RIP. This new RIP and press computing infrastructure aims to deliver superior capabilities for small solid text and fine lines, producing the sharpest Kanji fonts and complex security patterns.
• New capabilities on the HP Indigo 100K, including Automatic Pallet Replacement (APR), enabling continuous print with non-stop stacking, allowing PSPs to achieve even higher productivity levels for this platform.
• Introduction of the new HP Indigo 6P Digital Press, a narrow-web press dedicated for photo and publishing applications. This press expands the capabilities of the Indigo 6800p with a series of innovations for productivity and versatility, including a larger, 320x980mm image area and faster RIP.

HP Indigo has also announced commercial availability of additional products and capabilities in its 2020 portfolio for labels and packaging production. Value packs and options are also available for HP Indigo 20000, 30000 and 6000 series users.

The company has also taken the wraps off HP Indigo Secure, a new suite of security and brand protection solutions, to help security printers and print service providers protect their customers from counterfeiters and other product threats.

HP Indigo Secure is a set of solutions including hardware, software, media, and inks for security printing and brand protection, based on proprietary HP Indigo LEP technology and partner solutions.

HP Indigo 6K Secure Press is HP Indigo’s first secure digital press designed especially for the security printing market. The press is a one-pass, end-to-end security printing solution featuring multiple security layers in collaboration with Jura JSP. The press is available for certified security printers.

The company also launched new HP PrintOS applications such as PrintOS Learn,PrintOS Supplies Inventory an improved integration between PrintOS Production Pro DFE for Commercial Print and Heidelberg Prinect, a new platform of PrintOS Production Pro DFE for L&P, PrintOS Colour Beat for HP Indigo 25K and HP SmartStream Designer for Adobe CC2021.