PrintAction - January 2010

The T300 inkjet press, running at a maximum 400 feet per minute, is built around a scalable 30-inch web width.

The Progress of
HP’s T300

On a recent visit to the United States, I was invited to meet with executives of HP’s Inkjet High Speed Production Solutions division to discuss the status of the T300 inkjet web press program. I was unable to attend the PRINT 09 tradeshow this past September in Chicago, which is when HP last demonstrated the progress it had made with the T300 press.

So HP’s invite was a good opportunity to catch up on what has been happening in the high-speed inkjet production arena. It was an eye-opening visit for me, particularly because almost nothing has been written about this HP initiative, either in the trade press or by industry analysts, following PRINT 09.

In fact, I admit to being totally blown away by what
I saw. The developments that HP showed me were far
in advance of anything I expected; and I am amazed
that none of the press or analysts who had seen this at
PRINT 09 had commented on them. [HP’s PRINT 09
booth focused on its toner-based and large-format
printing technologies, with little space or resources
afforded to the T300. Most North American journal-
ists had their first true look at the T300 in mid-2009,
as Tribute describes below.]
I looked at everything that is happening in this
high-speed, continuous-feed inkjet printing area and,
I have to say that, HP is ahead of all its competitors in
what it is achieving. So what
was it that HP showed me that was
so impressive?

Heavyweight butterflies

The last time I had a good look at the HP Inkjet Web Press, now officially known as the HP T300 Color Inkjet Web Press, was at an event HP hosted last April. Over 100 journalists travelled to Los Angeles to see the first North American T300 installation at O’Neill Data Systems. At that time, the T300 had only been running for a few months as a beta-test unit.