Phil Oakley from HP is responsible for the large-format business in the UK and Ireland and says the new hybrid printer will revolutionise the way printers and sign-makers create branded materials.
The dozen customers using the R Series printers want to remain anonymous whilst they test the printer and “steal a competitive advantage on the market.”
The HP Latex R2000 “transforms businesses” says Richard Barham, general manager at ADAPT (Amari Digital Printing Technologies) which are the exclusive UK distributors of the printer.
He says: “Here was something new for that market which had just seen UV, but which also knew conventional print. To suddenly see something which would produce print on board, which was very like conventional print was something totally new and it’s waking people up.”
Oakley says that customers have already started pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved with a rigid substrate printer. He says: “Latex has been in the market now for ten years so it is well-known, but latex on rigid substrate is very new so I would say there’s a real inquisitiveness [from customers] to understand if you can achieve the same quality, the same feel of latex on roll-to-roll on rigid.”
To suddenly see something which would produce print on board, which was very like conventional print was something totally new and it’s waking people up”
HP says that the new printer can be used by conventional printers and sign-makers looking to offer a consistent quality to clients. Oakley says: “It’s a hybrid so it would be the best investment a sign-maker could make because you can do roll-to-roll as well as rigid substrate. So you’ve got vinyl, you’ve got soft signage and you’ve got rigid signage.
“You’ve got the same quality finish preserving the beautiful feel of such a vast variety of substrates that you’ll have on roll-to-roll, as well as our flexible media and rigid substrates.”
Barham says the fidelity of colour is what sets the R series apart from other latex printers. He says: “What we see, is the colour. You can get the same colour right the way through but you’re also able to hit a bigger gamut than other printers out there, which means that we’re hitting more of those corporate colours in terms of a ‘specified Pantone’ than we’ve been able to before. That makes life so much easier for the sign-makers but also for the agencies building the displays.”
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