HP Digital Press's Short-Run Work As Good As Litho

NB Colour Print has installed an HP Indigo press 5500 to provide customers with short-run digitally printed reports, brochures, leaflets and business cards matching its lithographic presses' quality.

HP said that the company decided to install a six-colour Indigo 5500 and it has migrated some of its short-run work from its lithographic B3 press to its new digital equipment.

The Indigo 5500 is said to complement the stochastic print process by utilising high-definition dot placement technology to produce consistent, high-quality print.

The company added that its Electro Ink technology and spot colour capabilities allow NB Colour Print to accurately match the logos and brand colours of its customers.

The new digital press is claimed to feature fast-ink replacement and a paper feeding unit, which can support an increased range of substrates and offers enhanced paper handling to maximise productivity.

HP claimed that the press can print at speeds of up to 4,000 four-colour 8.5" x 11.5" images per hour , which enables NB Colour Print to turn-around jobs within short times.

As a new user of digital printing technology representatives from NB Colour Print attended an HP operator training course in Barcelona (Spain).

NB Colour Print was established in 1991 and since 2001 has been printing as a Stochastic screening service.

Stochastic printing produces high-quality images by placing 20 micron sized dots of ink randomly throughout the image.

Varying the amount of ink applied to the substrate creates depth and tone.

Robert Anderson, managing director of NB Colour Print, commented: "We decided to move in to digital printing after receiving requests from our customers as they wanted short-run work produced quickly.

We spent a few months researching digital presses because we wanted to invest in a press that could print quickly and still match the print quality of our lithographic presses and the Indigo 5500 was the only press that could fulfil those requirements.

We can now offer our customers a cost-effective, short-run service and can even print jobs whilst the customer waits." He explained: "The training courses were very well run and informative.

They covered everything that we needed to know to operate and maintain the press.

HP has made our transition in to digital printing very easy and I would recommend the courses to other new Indigo operators." Anderson said that he expects to see NB Colour Print's digital services grow and that it will be offering a personalisation service in the near future.

To capitalise on and sustain its growth in to digital printing, representatives from the company will also attend HP's 'Maximising the Digital Opportunity and Digital Selling Skills' courses, which are part of its Capture business success programme, in Warrington (UK) later this month.

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