HP's NEW LATEX INK

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HP’s New Latex Ink
Hewlett-Packard has been talking about developing new technologies lately, but the tech goliath hasn’t forgotten its most dependable source of cash: ink, and gallons of it.vj joshiSo this week–as part of the company’s initiative to make up for declining consumer and small-business printing by focusing on industrial printers–H-P announced a bunch of new print products. To this blog, the one that seems most different from past offerings is a latex ink developed for outdoor signs. Strangely, no one is saying right now what kind of machine will use it.At first glance, the ink appears to meet two of H-P’s most important criteria: it will likely be expensive (a H-P spokeswoman says no one else makes a comparable ink). And since it’s designed for large outdoor signs, businesses such as commercial printers and advertising signage companies should use plenty of it.The water-based latex ink is geared for use in large-format, waterproof outdoor signs. That’s one of several commercial-printing areas that H-P is moving into in an attempt to displace traditional analog technologies–like offset printing, which uses metal photographic plates and rubber rollers–with digital printers similar to large versions of home inkjet printers.H-P print chief Vyomesh Joshi tells the Business Technology Blog that a key marketing point for the water-based latex ink is that it doesn’t present the environmental problems–such as noxious smells and toxic fumes–which solvent-based outdoor inks are known for producing during both the production process and once the sign is completed.H-P won’t unveil the mystery machines that will use the new ink until May at the Drupa print exhibition, a giant printing show in Dusseldorf. Joshi said he’s confident that the new ink and the rest of H-P’s print initiative will quickly catch on with business customers. “This is a big deal,” he says.

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March 12, 2008 at 1:31 PM