Semi-live coverage from San Diego
Tuesday I was in San Diego for HP's North American launch event for two new large-format printers. I had taken along a new portable PC but it didn't work out so well on its maiden voyage. Brief explanation: a tablet with separate keyboard doesn't work well on one's knees; HP didn't provide the media with tables on which to do our work, and so I was reduced to recording my impressions by tweeting on my smartphone.
Here's what I tweeted:
@upfrontezine: HP event is being held in San Diego because this is where they began development of thermal inkjet. Print headquarters is now in Spain.
Two HP techies demonstrate how their newly-developed pagewide inkjet printhead works
- Pagewide Printer Technology
HP's new large format printer does page-wide prints, with a stationary inkjet print bar made of 200,000 nozzles. Want to disrupt LED printer
HP says its new pagewide inkjet printers are 2x faster than LED printers, and cheaper to operate. And, it prints color as fast as monochrome
Rendering engine has to control over 200,000 print heads simultaneously in HP's new printers. Printheads are 5"-wide interchangeable modules
Pagewide printers, however, won't ship until [second half of] 2015.
- New T3500 and T7200 Printers
New security function in HP printers: self-encrypted hard drive that cannot be read outside the printer. AES 256. Also, PIN protected jobs.
New T3500 printer from HP uses Intel i5 CPU to process data 8x faster. Prints a D-size page in 21 seconds. New ink color is real red.
In North & South America HP is neck and neck with Epson, selling 12,100 DesignJets in 2013. High-value customers use 14x more ink than average
HP new polymer ink lasts 200 years. New printers run 50% faster, so fast that they had to add diagonal anti-sway bars.
HP also introducing SmartStream Pre-Flight software that checks for print errors like missing fonts. $1,295 seems expensive. Ships June 30.
- No 3D Printers
HP is not ready to talk about 3D printing here at its DesignJet T3500/7200 launch event in San Diego.
More coverage on HP and the technology behind its pagewide printheads in next Monday's upFront.eZine.
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