Inkjet & Digital Printing
HP Indigo press 5500 Complements Conventional Presses at Ashley House Printing
Friday 13. February 2009 - HP announced today that Ashley House Printing, of Exeter, has installed an HP Indigo press 5500 to expand its service offering by offering high-quality short-run printing.
The company has added the high-volume, seven-colour HP Indigo press to its conventional B2 and B3 five-colour offering, enabling it to develop a product portfolio for the short-run market.
“We’ve seen a rising demand for short-runs,” said Rob Otton, managing director, Ashley House Printing. “With the economy as unsettled as it is, we think we’ll see people buying a thousand copies at a time, where before they would have requested a run of several thousands to see them through the year. We expect the biggest demand to be in the 100 – 500 copy range, which we will be able to deliver competitively and without interfering with our long run business. This gives both our customers and us more flexibility, and the ability to respond quickly. I’m impressed by the HP Indigo’s print quality, and very optimistic about the response of our customers to digital printing.”
Otton took over Ashley House Printing in 2005 and instituted a technology investment programme, adding CTP and bringing finishing functions in house. The company’s customers include design agencies, local authorities and corporate customers for whom it prints a full range of commercial products from business cards to high-end corporate brochures.
The HP Indigo press 5500 is designed for companies producing up to one million pages per month and can print on a variety of substrates up to 340g/m2 with full variable data printing (VDP).
“I had always been somewhat skeptical of digital printing, and when I saw a high-quality, personalised piece printed on an HP Indigo press, I thought it was a litho job with the personalisation imprinted,” said Otton. “I called HP to ask about it, and was invited to see a demonstration: that convinced me. The ability to carry out variable data printing, I think, will become of increasing importance, and to do it digitally – not by over-printing – is faster, more efficient, more cost-effective and more profitable.”
Integrating its HP Indigo press will be made smoother through the use of existing finishing equipment, shared with its conventional presses, and the HP Indigo press’s ability to match 97 percent of the PANTONE Colour range. Ashley House Printing already uses digital ink mixing technology to ensure colour matching, which will enable jobs produced conventionally and digitally to be incorporated into the same portfolio.