In 2018, HP launched its Latex R series, its first Latex units capable of printing on rigid media. This week, at HP’s Amplify Conference, HP launched the HP Latex R530 Printer, designed to help print service providers transition from roll-to-roll wide-format printers—such as the HP Latex 800 Series—to a flatbed.

“Smaller PSPs are looking for ways to remain relevant and to differentiate themselves,” said Daniel Martinez, Global Head and General Manager of HP Large Format Business. “We’ve brought a lot of products to market to enable them to provide stunning results with white ink, for example, which really drives more value and, ultimately, a higher price for the output that they sell. But one of the things that is clear is that access to rigid applications is still difficult for them.”

The new Latex is a 64-inch wide machine, comparable in width to the 800 series roll-to-roll units. It uses HP Latex Inks, natch, and HP Latex White Ink, which had been introduced with the original 2018 Latex R series. It also features HP Pixel Control, which ensures vibrant colors and smooth gradients. Although pricing has not been announced, the Latex R530 will be priced to appeal to smaller PSPs who are looking to add rigid-printing capabilities without the expense of a large flatbed unit. The R530 is also not intended as a replacement for any existing R Series Latex units.

Another consideration HP has made for small PSPs is the machine’s footprint. “A lot of these companies are space-constrained,” said Martinez, “and therefore the product that we’re launching is very compact, but it’s also modular in the sense that you can use it as a flexible machine because the rigid aspect of the device is very easy to disconnect and reconnect.”

In addition to footprint, HP has also sought to address PSPs’ employee shortage challenges by making the machine simple to use. “It’s really meant to provide a very easy training experience for operators that are new to the rigid space,” said Martinez, “and we see that as a critical factor for this type of environment where ultimately there’s a rotation of operators that are using these device. Therefore, it’s paramount that it be an easy onboarding process. The ability to [load rigid substrates] in a very easy, seamless, intuitive way was also a key design factor in the overall process of bringing this product to market.”

Martinez estimates that users would see a return on investment on the machine in about 18 months, largely thanks to the expanded range of applications the Latex R530 can print, as well as the fact that they are higher-value print applications.

“You’re essentially providing very differentiated output on rigid applications,” he said. “For example, acrylics, metals, you name it. It can pretty much handle any of those applications.” Martinez says that special pretreatment is not necessary to promote ink adhesion on some of these traditionally “difficult” materials. “It’s very adaptable to these substrates,” he said.

The HP Latex R530 will start shipping April 23, and you can check it out live at the upcoming ISA Sign Expo.

Production Hub

At the same time, HP is also launching its PrintOS Production Hub, dedicated wide-format software that combines order management and remote production control in a centralized platform.

“There isn’t really software that’s catering to the order intake process as well as the production management side of things,” said Martinez. “So what we will be announcing with the R530 is a new capability in PrintOS called Production Hub, which automates and digitizes the order intake process.” With Production Hub, users can create a customer order history in digital form—ideally weaning them off paper and ink order-taking. “It’s a very intuitive process,” added Martinez. “What we’ve seen as we’ve started testing it with  some of our customers, is that they can pretty much transition from a ‘p’ workflow to a digital workflow within days. We’ve designed it to be very intuitive and the time savings are significant.”

In the Flat Field

In 2023, HP launched its SitePrint for the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) market, a robotic printer kind of like a Roomba that prints directly on the floor of a construction site to indicate where walls, doors, and other architectural features go. It’s said to have 10 times the productivity of the manual process. Also this week, HP has announced a new feature for SitePrint: HP SitePrint Flatness Measurement Service is an add-on service that lets users measure the flatness of a floor during printing. Essentially, it combines four separate processes into one: marking information on the floor, capturing elevation data, processing that data, and relocating elevation information. Traditionally, elevation data had to be processed “offline” before corrections could be sent back to the professionals in the field.

“Flatness” is a very critical consideration in industrial architectural projects like data centers and e-commerce warehouses where robots do stock picking. “This is a process that today is quite manual and expensive,” said Martinez, “and we’re able to bring it at a very competitive price. There’s nothing else like it on the market, really.”

One area for which SitePrint has been receiving some attention is railway construction. “Obviously, train tracks need to be on a very flat surface and today the process entails very heavy machinery and metal boards that are set on the ground to establish the flatness of that surface,” said Martinez. “This is a way that you can do it digitally with much less cost.”

AI Vectorization

Other products for the AEC industry that HP is launching this week are updates to its HP Build Workspace, which had been announced last September at HP Imagine. This platform features AI Vectorization, which allows users to take advantage of AI to vectorize raster images into CAD-editable documents, saving the time required for manual drawing. The platform also generates field reports, such as Site Captures and Site Reports. A future development will connect HP Build Workspace to HP DesignJet printers. Build Workspace is designed to be a complete ecosystem for AEC users.

In Living Color

The HP Amplify Conference was held March 17–19 in Nashville. If you are attending the ISA Sign Expo in Las Vegas next month (April 23–25) you can check out the new HP Latex R530 live and in person.  

“Everybody’s very excited about this platform,” said Martinez. “It’s a new category that we’re creating and we really see it as a way to expand the possibilities for small PSPs.

“It’s a way to bring some of these incredible rigid applications to the mainstream.”