This year’s Sign & Digital UK will showcase the broadest range of HP large-format printers ever. This is part of HP’s ongoing drive to provide industry leading printers in each segment of the signage market that enables sign makers to capitalise on the rapid growth the market has seen. Analysts are confident that this trend is set to continue, fuelled by new applications and technologies. Projections show a double-digit growth until 2011. HP intends to be well placed to capture this growth and enable its customers to profit from it.

The new range of HP Designjets
Recent acquisitions (NUR and ColorSpan were both acquired by HP in the last six months) and the extension of the Designjet range means that the right products to address growth - whether through format types, ink or printing technologies - are now within the range. HP now has the industry’s broadest large-format portfolio and the HP stand at Sign & Digital UK (stand G40) is a good place to see how comprehensive it is and the business opportunities available with wide-format solutions.

Solvent inks, aqueous inks and UV curable inks all facilitate a wide range of applications and open new market opportunities to print service providers (PSPs). This range of applications is now addressed with the HP Designjet Z6100 in the classic aqueous market, the HP Designjet 8000/9000/10000 in solvent ink applications, while the recently launched HP Designjet H35000/H45000 series extend the range into the UV curable market. With recent acquisition of NUR, HP now has an unrivaled breadth of solutions for PSPs.

The technology enables variable data printing for projects never before possible: signage all kinds, including personalisation with local retailers’ details; short-usage promotional work, vehicle and building wraps, or short test runs for new product packaging, designs or product trials – not to mention rigid substrate printing and textile printing for interior decoration and fashion markets. HP offers the complete solution with printer, ink and media working together to produce high quality, consistent output for the commercial and industrial markets.

Finding the right Designjet
Users are finding that their expectations are being exceeded by HP’s offerings enabling their business to move into new markets and increase the quality of service they offer their clients.

“The HP Designjet H35500 printer has renewed my excitement for the printing industry. It has opened up massive new business opportunities for my company because of the range and variety of substrates it can print onto and the sheer quality of its output,” says Darren Britnell, managing director, Resource Print Management.

The ability of HP Designjets to widen the service and business offerings for customers has become a key feature of the range. HP intends to continue this process to ensure it is able to address the widest application space possible. The reliability of HP and its partners to support customers means that new business areas can be explored and developed confidently.

“The HP Designjet solvent printer series - as well as the Z6100 – have brought another dimension to largeformat printing. It has really upset the standard. People are now going to aim for that standard, and that will push higher-quality printing worldwide.” says Steve Farley, Managing Director, Electronic Printing Services, UK.

The dedicated channel of HP resellers is key in ensuring that the new users get the right advice and support from the start.

“There was definitely a business opportunity for us in sign making that we wanted to take up. We had no real experience of large-format graphics printing but we had used an HP Designjet 1055 in the past for some basic CAD printing and used a range of smaller HP printers for proofing. We went to ArtSystems to get some initial guidance. They put us in contact with HP partners for large-format printing who arranged a demonstration of HP Designjet Z6100 for us,” says Evan Shipman, creative director, Nemo Design.

HP resellers are able to offer sustained support and advice that comes from their intimate knowledge of HP Designjets and applications.

Real partnerships
The strength of HP’s channel structure is vital to ensuring that the new technologies are rapidly deployed to relevant markets. This year’s Sign & Digital UK show is a good example of the partnerships that HP fosters in its channel with distributors and resellers combining their skills and resources to ensure visitors get the very best advice on HP solutions. This depth of channel resource ensures that HP is able to reach to all the market spaces available to its products.

The HP stand at Sign & Digital UK is a practical expression of that capability.

See the wide-format offerings on stand G40
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