HP and KBA Unveil Groundbreaking Digital Technology for Corrugated

Inside KBA’s facility in Würzburg, Germany, sits what may prove to be a key product in digital printing technology for corrugated packaging. HP and KBA partnered to develop the HP PageWide Web Press T1100S, a behemoth of a continuous-feed inkjet press, designed specifically for the corrugated packaging market.

On Thursday, Dec. 3, industry journalists from around the world traveled to Würzburg to catch a glimpse of the T1100S in action. The excitement around this breakthrough in high-speed inkjet printing technology was clear since, for the most part in the packaging industry, digital has been largely relegated to labels and folding cartons.

However, according to Francois Martin, HP’s worldwide marketing director, graphics solutions business, digital technology will likely develop faster for the corrugated market than for some other product applications because the industry has developed a strong knowledge and understanding of the technology.

“Digital print for packaging is one of the few rapidly growing arenas in print,” Martin said. “The next big frontier is corrugated and it’s going to grow faster than labels because we know what it takes.”

The T1100S certainly incorporates the concept of “big.” With a print width of 110˝, the press utilizes HP’s Multi-lane Print Architecture (MLPA), which allows the web to split into multiple lanes. In doing this, multiple jobs of different dimensions and lengths can be printed simultaneously.

Francois Martin, HP's worldwide marketing director, graphics solutions business, discusses the HP PageWide Web Press T1100S at KBA's facility in Würzburg, Germany.

This can also lead to customized and personalized corrugated packaging. By scheduling and running several short runs together, it can reduce inventory and moves corrugated packaging closer to a print-on-demand workflow model.

And while the superwide size is the most obvious feature of the HP T1100S, its print quality and speed stand out as well. Using thermal inkjet technology, the press uses HP A50 aqueous pigmented CMYK inks along with HP bonding and priming agents to produce corrugated prints that, according to HP, rival offset quality.

From a speed perspective, the T1100S can run at 600 linear feet per minute and 330,000 square feet per hour.

Since the technology is so new, Eric Wiesner, HP’s vice president and general manager, PageWide Web Press Div., explained the press has been designed to be upgradeable as future technology develops.

“As you enter new markets and disrupt them, you’re never quite sure how customers will use [the technology],” Wiesner said. “We believe this will be true on corrugated. What we’re offering [customers] in the future is the concept of upgradeability. We already thought of the potential technology roadmap that this press will be on and we’ve anticipated how we will upgrade it over time such that this will be a long[-term] asset.”

Though the press was just unveiled to the public last week, it is already scheduled for its first installation. DS Smith Packaging, a European packaging provider, will receive the first HP T1100S in the spring of 2016 at its facility in Featherstone, U.K.

Richard Caunt, technical director of UK Packaging, DS Smith, noted that the company expects to realize several benefits from the new installation.

According to Caunt, benefits include “a highly flexible production process, no flute shadow, printing on a perfectly flat surface, great color-to -color registration, no printer set time and reduced time to market for print designs.”

Another feature that the T1100S provides is the ability to print on both coated and uncoated substrates. Robert Seay, business development director, HP PageWide Web Press Div., explained that the press’s ability to print on uncoated media can provide high-quality results, reduced materials and additional print surface options.

“Why do you use a coated media today?,” Seay asked. “Sometimes for quality, but sometimes because that’s what works best in an offset press. You’re going to see stunning quality on uncoated media. Now you can take fiber out. You can go down in grade and get stunning quality products off the back off this press, which is huge.”

As digital printing technology continues to expand and develop, the speed, quality and variability will likely change the packaging landscape. Though digital printing in the corrugated market is still in its infancy, it appears the T1100S is a “big” leap forward.

Click here for Cory Francer's video recap of the event in Würzburg.