Inkjet & Digital Printing
HP Indigo Presses Achieve a New Milestone
Tuesday 04. August 2009 - Five Thousand HP Indigo Presses Now in Operation Worldwide
HP announced today that there are now more than 5,000 HP Indigo digital presses in operation around the world.
Since the launch of the Indigo E-Print 1000 at IPEX in 1993, “digital offset colour” technology using liquid electrophotographic (LEP) ink has continued to evolve with both sheet-fed and web presses capable of printing millions of pages per month. At the same time, the cross-over point where it is more cost-effective to print digitally than conventionally has consistently risen with the falling cost per page.
These five thousand presses represent about four thousand customers, many of which have only one press while others have more than a dozen.
“The creativity and colour that HP Indigo presses have unleashed in the industry is truly revolutionary, and many printers and enterprises have found new business opportunities and revenue streams because of that technology,” said Alon Bar-Shany, vice president and general manager, Indigo division, HP. “It’s amazing that more than one thousand Series 1 presses are still in use, some of them were sold almost fifteen years ago! As these presses are being traded in, we are seeing significant growth in adoption of the HP Indigo press 5500 and HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press.”
Many added value print enhancements made possible by digital printing are part of mainstream marketing activities including full-colour variable data printing (including for product security purposes: sell-by dates, bar codes, colour bars and matrices), accurate and consistent matching of PANTONE Colours, on-demand book production and myriad other applications on a wide range of substrates.
Comparative digital printing costs
InfoTrends has analysed digital colour printing costs since 1996 when it tested the E-Print 1000. Subsequently it has tested all the new commercial models, and its findings(1) continue to show a steady decline in the cost of colour print:
Press
Cost per page (4/0 8.5″ x 11″)
E-Print 1000
$0.096
HP Indigo press 3000
$0.062
HP Indigo press 5000
$0.040
HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press
$0.020
The latest range of HP Indigo digital presses offers print service providers the opportunity to print cost-effective high volumes:
HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press – 120 4-colour pages per minute
HP Indigo w7200 Digital Press – 240 4-colour pages per minute
HP Indigo WS6000 Digital Press – 30 metres (~100 feet) per minute 4-colour
(1) “The Cost of Color Revisited,” InfoTrends, October 2008
Year
Indigo commercial
Indigo industrial
HP commercial
HP industrial
1993
Indigo E-Print 1000
1995
Indigo Omnius
1996
Indigo E-Print 1000+
1998
Indigo e-Print Pro (low cost entry level)
Omnius WebStream series
Now known as the HP Indigo press ws2000
1998
Indigo UltraStream
Now known as the HP Indigo press 3000
2000
Indigo Publisher 4000
Now known as the HP Indigo press 3200
2000
Indigo Omnius MultiStream
Now known as the HP Indigo press s2000
2001
Indigo Platinum
HP Indigo press 1000
2002
HP completes Indigo aquisition
2004
HP Indigo press 3050
2004
HP Indigo press 5000
2006
HP Indigo press ws4500
2007
HP Indigo press 5500
2007
HP Indigo press 3500
2008
HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press
HP Indigo WS6000 Digital Press
2008
HP Indigo W7200 Digital Press