The as-yet-unnamed machine, to be released in 2015
The OEM announced it would be scaling up the technology to wide-format printers.
The technology consists over over 200,000 nozzles on a print “bar” spanning the width of the page, with HP stating this “enables users to produce a variety” of monochrome and colour prints, and it believes that scaling this up to wide-format will offer “high-quality prints at faster speeds and lower costs”, which will “disrupt” the production printing market.
New wide-format products utilising the PageWide technology will be released later in the year, and a number of the machines were demonstrated by the OEM at its base in Palo Alto, California, with Industry Analysts invited to the demonstration.
The PageWide technology, HP stated, will offer customers “dependable and economical operation” in terms of wide-format prints, with the printheads used in the technology “built with thousands of identical drop generators” to offer “uniform volume, speed and trajectory for precise printing”. This, alongside the OEM’s thermal inkjet technology, will apparently reduce the cost-per-page and offer users the opportunity to “use low-cost photo papers for graphically-rich applications”.
Two new machines were launched alongside the announcement – the Designjet T3500 Production eMFP and the T7200 Production Printer. Both devices “can handle the volume and diverse print needs” of businesses using wide-format devices, with the 36-inch T3500 featuring an “ultra-fast processor and a high-productivity scanner” as well as scan-to-email functionality, “unattended and low-cost operation” and monochrome prints “at the same cost-per-page as LED MFPs”.
The 42-inch T7200 meanwhile can “handle three heavy media rolls” and produce colour and monochrome prints “on a wide range of media”, with a “low cost of operation” that HP says is “comparable” to monochrome LED machines. HP added that the T3500 is the “most productive large-format colour multifunction printer in its category”, whilst the T7200 is a “full-colour large-format printer built” for companies with “high-volume print demands”.
The PageWide-utilising machines will be available in the second half of 2015, whilst the T3500 and T7200 are available globally now for $14,750 (€10,094) and $12,644 (€9,347) respectively.
Industry Analysts noted that attendees “were treated to a glimpse of a working version” of the 2015 machine, as well as a “discussion as to where this product fits and the theoretical impact it will have” on the market. It noted that “the benefits are obvious” and that “unless competitors come up with comparable or similar products, HP should take the monochrome LED wide-format market by storm”.
Stephen Nigro, Senior Vice President of HP’s Graphics and Inkjet Solutions Business, stated: “Our customers are continuously seeking cost-effective and reliable printing technologies that improve the way they work. The new large-format HP PageWide Technology will disrupt the production printing market by offering customers an affordable option for high-volume quality prints, transforming an industry that typically prints in monochrome to now print in colour without compromising speed.”