Versatility for Building Success

The growth in popularity of using UV-curable inks for industrial applications coincided with the development of wide-format digital printing technologies as well as new requirements of brand owners and advertising and marketing managers. The ability to produce one-offs or short runs of large indoor graphics, bus shelter posters, backlits and billboards on a wide range of substrates with durable, high-impact colours, and up-close fine detail to match the application, was a major advance in the sign and display sector.
The launch of the HP Scitex FB7500 Printer in 2008 can now be seen as a landmark in wide-format digital printing as well as one in the accelerating migration of conventional to digital production in the sector.
Offering speeds of up to 500m2/hr with advanced media handling, substrate versatility and a new concept in printhead technology, more than 60 HP Scitex FB7500 Printers are now installed at leading sign and display print service providers (PSPs) around the world.
The HP Scitex FB7500 is the first printer to use the HP Scitex X2 drop-on-demand piezoelectric printheads. The X2 printheads offer completely automatic maintenance, high productivity – delivering 20kHz firing frequencies – and high ink-flows for six-colour printing at speeds of up to 95 full-size sheets per hour (1.6 x 3.2m/5 x 10ft) or 500m2/hr.(1) Printhead replacement can be carried out by the operator in less than ten minutes and with an intuitive calibration process, downtime is minimised.
HP technologies are not, however, developed in isolation, and the HP Scitex FB7500 Printer is a good example of HP’s holistic approach to product development. In addition to the printer and the X2 printheads, HP UV-curable inks were developed to achieve not only abrasion and water resistance, but optimal adhesion to reduce significantly the flaking and chipping that can occur when UV-curable inks are printed on substrates that are flexible, bent or folded. HP also offers a broad range of media for use with those inks.
Image quality is often thought of in relation to speed but continued improvements in the HP Scitex FB7500 Printer have resulted in customers worldwide now printing over 60% of jobs at 48 full-size sheets/hr (POP48 mode) or 70 full-size sheets/hr (Production 70 mode) and above.(2)

Moving from screen to digital
While some of the benefits of digital wide-format production are widely known within the sign and display sector, the versatility of production and potential for business building are often not fully appreciated.
The development of large-format digital printers coincided with the changes in marketing strategies and techniques. International brand managers are looking for reliable high quality, consistency of brand image, greater visual impact, more focused targeting and more frequent changes of content. Shorter-runs are a logical consequence of meeting those demands and screen printers are faced with time and cost pressures to keep up with work and retain business.
Digital wide-format printing was able to address these new demands and meet customer expectations, but the question for screen printers became, “What printer is best for our business?” The FB7500 printer has raised the crossover point(3) between screen, offset printing and digital production, allowing customers to migrate more jobs to its digital printer and explore numerous new opportunities for development . And with the added production capacity of the installed FB7500 printer, the question for leading sign and display PSPs changes from “How can I optimise my operations efficiency and decrease costs?” to “What new services can I develop with my digital printer?”

New markets and services
While sign and display PSPs who move into digital usually do so with existing work, customers, and competitors in mind, new markets and techniques are open to them including high value services like variable data printing (VDP), web-to-print (W2P), and simply using their printers for other applications. With the FB7500, substrates from corrugated, cardboard, foamboard, card stock, paper, synthetic paper and self-adhesive vinyl can be printed opening new market segments to PSPs.
The HP Scitex FB7500 printer incorporates many patented innovations including a six-zone tubeless vacuum system designed to hold substrates firmly, even those that are widely acknowledged to be difficult to load and handle like corrugated board and paper. The vacuum table also minimises the need for masking or taping exposed areas, maximising uptime.
The same technology that enables efficient job queuing for short runs (including runs of one) also enables VDP to provide multiple variations for a customer. Using HP SmartStream Designer, very large variable data jobs may be undertaken quickly, cost-effectively and with minimal operator intervention.
W2P solutions provide a web-based workflow tool to enable brand-owners to localise content for different forms of collateral. While W2P is not yet widely used in the sign and display market, it is an important growth area not to be ignored. JDF enabled job tracking, workflow and scheduling management from creation to despatch and billing not only help to streamline production and increase capacity, but offer the PSPs who offer it a competitive edge and potentially higher margins.
While offering the quality and production standards demanded by PSPs and their customers, the HP Scitex FB7500 Printer becomes a major “game changer” and enabler of business growth and transformation.
(1) Based on 165 x 310cm (65 x 122in) sheets, including a full loading and unloading cycle
(2) According to usage data collected from HP Scitex FB7500 Printer customers
(3) The point below which digital production is more cost-effective than conventional

HP customer studies
Gardners,
Cardiff, UK
www.gardners.co.uk
Founded in 1976 primarily as a screen printer, Gardners is now a totally digital operation servicing many different industries and applications.
Gardners was asked by a Dutch printing company to produce a full set of store signage for a major DIY franchise chain in the Netherlands. The Dutch printer provides the DIY chain with complete indoor signage including textile and other banners, point of sale displays, and more.
Given the requirement to produce 750 versions for 147 stores, Richard Gardner knew the logistical challenges would have to be solved by software. The obvious solution: HP SmartStream Designer. The job comprised 63,000 individual panels printed on HP Scitex FB7500 Printers. Each panel was printed with a tiny code indicating to which region, which store and which aisle each sign would go. Going beyond “print to pack,” it was a perfect example of “print to pack to place.”
“With HP SmartStream Designer, which is extremely user-friendly and pre-Rip, we can use VDP across all our printers, and this has opened up opportunities we didn’t see before.”
– Richard Gardner, managing director, Gardners

Simpson Group,
Washington, Tyne and Wear, and
Heathrow, Middlesex, UK
www.simpsongroup.co.uk
Simpson Group was established in 1972 as a conventional screen printer and specialises in the design and production of high-quality, branded, in-store advertising for well-known retailers. Offering its customers a range of screen, lithographic and digital capabilities, the company decided to purchase its HP Scitex FB7500 Printer after establishing that up to 50% of the jobs it was producing on its conventional equipment were ideally suited to digital production, with limited runs of between 150 to 250 copies.
“We first invested in a digital printer eight years ago and since then we have seen the technology develop and mature as a robust industrial tool. With our FB7500 there are no compromises on quality. With the printer’s high levels of automation, we are able to get instant feedback, ensuring that colour consistency is easy to achieve. Other benefits to our customers include fewer wasted prints – compared to conventional printing – and streamlining our workflow by eliminating the lengthy process of platemaking for quicker turnaround times on short runs.”
– Mark Simpson, chairman, Simpson Group