Extending applications

Latex technology is HP’s hero product at Sign and Digital this year. We have seen a transformative shift in the sign and display industry from solvent to HP latex technology, providing many new and striking applications for traditional sign and display businesses. This year interior decoration is a key focus, HP has identified fantastic potential within that space for digital technology, and latex inks provide a perfect fit for applications within people’s homes and living spaces.

Today, everyone is a designer. With powerful design tools and inspiration at your fingertips, it is easy to see why demand for customised wallcoverings, blinds, and canvases is rising rapidly. HP Latex Printers use water-based inks, making applications safe for use in bedrooms, children’s rooms, and even hospitals.


HP will take three iconic Latex printers to Sign and Digital, offering varied capacities. At 3.2m, the super-wide HP Latex 1500 printer provides huge productivity at an affordable running cost. The HP Latex 570 printer at 1.62m lets customers manage a variety of print jobs with fast print speeds and exceptional quality, whilst the HP Latex 365 printer (1.62m) offers a great variety of traditional signage substrates, even textiles, and scratch resistance comparable to hard-solvent inks. In addition to its Latex printers, HP will also display its HP Scitex FB750 Industrial Printer and HP DesignJet Z6800 Photo Production Printer. The versatile and compact Scitex FB750 provides high-quality results on rigid and flexible media, whilst the 60? DesignJet Z6800 offers exceptional colour and black and white prints on a myriad of substrates.

Digital wide-format printing continues to be one of the most significant growth areas in the entire print industry. InfoTrends projects that print volumes will experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over nine percent until 2019.

Educating sign-makers


Our flagship aluminium composite print substrate, Alupanel A-Lite, has soared in popularity since we launched it at the show in 2014. This year we have responded to the feedback of some end users, who felt that the exposed edge showing a dark core would detract from the overall appearance of flat panel graphics for certain projects.

With this in mind, Multipanel have introduced Alupanel ‘A-Lite White Core’, a superbly flat panel with a digital coating and a white core that is ideally suited to applications where the edge of the panel will be visible. Alupanel’s specially developed paint system offers an ultra-white matt finish on both sides, unique easy peel film for a smooth residue free release, as well as the white core.

Also making its debut on stand G22 will be ‘Multishield’, a new galvanised steel composite panel with a digitally coated, magnetically receptive surface. Multishield sandwiches a polyethylene core between two 0.25mm galvanised steel sheets to produce an exceptionally strong panel that can be printed and fabricated. However, the magnetic surface opens up a host of creative possibilities for sign-makers producing graphics for hoarding, transportation, or display.


Since opening our UK factory four years ago, we have stimulated enormous growth in demand and we now distribute to five continents. Our stock holding of 300,000 sheets means we have the largest aluminium composite stock holding in Europe with immediate availability, meaning quick access to products for large signage projects.

We are investing a further £2.2m in our UK production line where new technology will be employed to improve performance and increase speed up to 12 linear metres per minute. This equates to an annual production capacity of six million square metres from this single line—we will be happy to explain more about our UK production plant to visitors at the show.

We will be supported during the show by our UK distribution partners Perspex Distribution who will be on hand to welcome existing Alupanel customers and help educate new sign-makers on the benefits of Alupanel.

Set to inspire


Sign and Digital UK is a great opportunity for Hybrid to introduce some important new Mimaki products to the industry and an equally good opportunity for visitors to get up close to solutions that can make a real difference to their business. As Mimaki’s exclusive UK and Irish distributor, Hybrid has consistently used the exhibition to launch new innovations.

Alongside Mimaki’s proven and multi award-winning range of sign-making solutions, which includes solvent printers, printer/cutters, and standalone cutters, we will be featuring a selection of our ever-expanding LED UV printer line-up. This includes the UJV55-320 3.2m backlit and banner printer, which was launched to much aplomb at last year’s exhibition, and the JFX200 8 x 4? flatbed that plays an integral part in many graphic display printers’ setups.

New additions to the Mimaki range include the latest MkII versions of the extremely popular UJF small-format flatbed LED UV printers, and this will be the first opportunity for many to see them in action. Delivering short- to medium-run direct-to-object printing, the new printer provides significant opportunities for sign-makers seeking to offer innovative new products or simply a quicker, lower cost way of producing high end print.


For sign-makers looking for new, revenue generating products, the Mimaki UJF brings endless possibilities for adding on promotional items to event branding jobs, bespoke printed photo blocks to accompany interior décor work, or even small format rigid signage to accompany vinyl output.

Hybrid will also be showing the new Mimaki Tx300P-1800 direct-to-textile printer for the first time at the exhibition. This 1.8m wide machine is as capable of producing fashion or furnishings as it is soft signage, and the printer’s ability to run multiple ink sets opens up a vast array of applications on manmade or natural fabrics.
Whether it be a first step into wide-format with one of Mimaki’s popular solvent printer/cutters, adding new functionality with a Mimaki UV printer, or getting into fabrics and flags with a Mimaki textile machine, we are keen to ensure visitors to the Hybrid stand are inspired at Sign and Digital UK this year.

Value-added products


We are really looking forward to Sign and Digital and the opportunity to show models from our latest generation Sure Color SC-S (eco-solvent), SC-T (aqueous), and SC-F (dye-sublimation) ranges. Increasingly companies want to be able to produce a variety of value-added products, so at the show we will be printing superb quality display and POS graphics, wallpaper, textiles, soft signage, and vehicle wraps.

I am glad to say that we are experiencing considerable interest in our Sure Colors as companies invest in equipment that ticks all the boxes in terms of quality, running costs, flexibility, performance, ease of use, and ability to maximise profits. In fact, our Sure Color SC-S series is now the top selling eco-solvent technology in its class across Europe. The top of the range ten-colour 64? Sure Color SC-S80600 is particularly popular—it uses the Ultra Chrome GS3 inkset, including red, white, and metallic for accurate corporate colour matching and exceptional print quality, even on the cheapest monomeric vinyl. With a low total cost of ownership and superb reliability, it is ideal for producing a variety of high-value products and that is critical for sign producers today.


For durable soft signage and fabric with exceptional quality and very low cost per square metre, we are demonstrating the Sure Color SC-F9200 dye-sublimation printer, which features two high-capacity ink supply systems for longer, uninterrupted print runs at resolutions up to 720 x 1,440dpi and speeds just over 100sq m/h.

Finally, from our aqueous range is the 36? Sure Color SC-T5200MFP four-colour large-format printer, complete with colour scanner and copy facility. This printer is ideal for the high-speed production of POS and high-quality, quick-print applications such as photo quality posters, prints, and graphics—outputting an A1 print for example takes just 28 seconds.


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