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Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles, Marketing & Sales
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Open House Success: Building Business with the HP Latex Printer at Red River Photo

 

Red River Photo Services Open House
Hey! It’s two captions for the price of one! The headline, image and caption above is from an article about Red River Photo Services and the addition of its new HP Latex 330 Printer that ran in The Journal Record, a local business journal. Red River Photo’s open house generated new business and great publicity.

Red River Photo Services in Oklahoma City recently made the big jump to latex printing with the addition of the new HP Latex 330 Printer from LexJet, supplementing the company’s fleet of Epson Stylus Pro aqueous inkjet printers to expand their offerings and their market.

Owners Leighton and Katrina Kirkpatrick have so far been impressed with the additional capabilities and benefits the printer provides and were eager to share those capabilities and benefits with their market.

Red River Photo Services Open HouseLeighton and Katrina hosted an open house at their facility last night that brought in about 75 customers and prospects. The couple provided beer, wine and a spread of hors d’oeuvres Katrina made for the event, but the big draw was the HP Latex 330.

And, the most important goal of the event was to educate and drive new business through the printer. Leighton reports that they reached that goal. In fact, he was working on an estimate for a new museum print project that was a direct result of the open house.

“Our customers were already familiar with our quality and knew the open house would be a good use of their time, but we also scored some new clients, like museums, which was really important,” Leighton says. “There was also someone at the open house who does a lot of wallpaper projects; he said he will use us, so I think we scored there as well. We’ll follow up with sales calls to LEED architects and show them some of the products, like the HP PVC-free Wall Paper because of its environmental certifications for hospitals and other facilities.”

Red River Photo ServicesLeighton and Katrina printed application samples on various media, including HP PVC-free Wall Paper, LexJet PVC-Free Cling, dreamScape Terralon, dreamScape 15 oz. Suede, banner materials and display films.

“We printed different images on the various substrates so people could see an actual wallpaper design on a wallpaper product as opposed to graphics and photos. We had several different 6×8 tables covered with these samples,” Leighton says.

Leighton also used literature from LexJet about the inks and media and an overview of HP Latex printing technologies and the environment. Along with invitations to customers and prospects, Leighton got more buzz going before the event by sharing a video LexJet produced and customized for Red River Photo about HP PVC-free Wall Paper, both through email and posted on Facebook.

“We sent the video out the day before the open house. We got a lot of response to it, and it was very successful in terms of the introduction of the latex printer’s capabilities. It was very effective and did its job by opening people’s eyes to all the possibilities the printer offers,” Leighton says. “We wanted people to know they can get a great product with the same durability as a solvent-based ink system with great imaging and application versatility. The best part about this printer? Kat and I are excited about it, and we can’t sell something we’re not excited about.”

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in News & Trends, Technology & Products
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Test Driving the New HP Latex 360 with LexJet’s Tech Support Director

HP Latex 360 Printer
LexJet technical support director, Adam Hannig, has been putting the HP Latex 360 Printer through its paces, printing here on LexJet Sunset by Fredrix Gloss Canvas SUV.

Is the new HP Latex 360 Printer all it’s cracked up to be? To find out, we asked LexJet’s technical support director, Adam Hannig, who has been working with the printer daily since it arrived at LexJet’s tech center a few weeks ago.

First, the 64-inch printer is meeting all the targets for quality, durability and production with high quality at high speeds, lower maintenance and a healthier printing environment. HP has also partnered with Graphtec and Summa for a true print-and-cut option. Click here to read more about how it works.

One of the features unique to the HP Latex 360 is HP Custom Substrate Profiling with an i1 embedded spectrophotometer. Hannig says this feature makes it simple to profile substrates, so simple that even if you have no knowledge about profiling, you can make it happen. Moreover, with onboard profiling RIP times are quite a bit faster.

“You lose some of the control you have to really get in deep and tweak a substrate profile, but this method is so much faster. There’s not another printer in the latex/solvent market that can do this,” says Hannig. “The other amazing thing is that it’s not RIP-specific so you can create a profile and it doesn’t matter what RIP you use. When you build a profile on the printer it automatically syncs with your RIP; it’s already built and ready to go.”

Another big time-saver, says Hannig, is the new maintenance cartridge system, which allows users to simply replace a cartridge instead of using a maintenance tank. “Now you only have to replace inks, printheads and the maintenance cartridge, so you’re down to the very simplest of options when it comes to regular maintenance of the printer,” says Hannig.

Hannig reports that start-up time – getting the printer “warmed-up” and ready to roll – is significantly lower with the new printer at only about a minute and a half. “If you do a lot of stop-and-start printing where you print a job and then another job half an hour later, the new system cuts down on the time it takes for it to get ready. It has something called a Latex Optimizer, which holds the ink in place until it gets to the heater for instant-dry printing,” says Hannig.

Another new feature on the printer is the LCD touch screen, but Hannig says that while it’s nice to have and includes a preview of the job that’s currently printing, he’s most impressed with the intuitive menu and the internet connectivity.

“If you go to the Substrate Library menu on the printer you can download profiles and it will install them right there. You don’t have to go to your computer; you do it right from the printer, which accesses HP’s Media Finder,” says Hannig.

Hannig adds that he’s impressed with the image quality and the apparent added durability of the next-generation HP Latex Inks.

“For canvas production, as well as other graphics where you’d like to cut out the coating or lamination step, the increased durability is very important. HP developed a different type of polymer around the ink that makes it more durable. You want that peace of mind when you ship it and your customer puts it up on the wall.”

Stay tuned for a series of videos that detail how to use the new HP Latex Printers.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in News & Trends, Technology & Products
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HP Latex 300 Printer Series and HP Designjet Z-Series Production Printers Launched

HP Latex 360 Printer
The new HP Latex 360 Printer, revealed today at the ISA Sign Expo, and available through LexJet.

At the recent ISA Sign Expo 2014 in Orlando, HP introduced the HP Latex 300 Printer series and two new HP Designjet Z-Series Production Printers.

Powered by third-generation, water-based HP Latex ink technology, the HP Latex 300 Printer series helps low-volume customers efficiently handle more outdoor and indoor applications with improved durability and image quality. The HP Latex Printer series includes…

HP Latex 310 Printer: With a compact design ideal for smaller workspaces, the HP Latex 310 prints a wide range of media types up to 54 inches wide. Provides application versatility, indoor and outdoor, with scratch resistance comparable to hard-solvent inks on SAV and PVC banner. Automatic, reliable and low-maintenance, HP Latex printing ensures operational efficiency to free up time for other projects and tasks.

HP Latex 330 Printer: This affordable 64″-wide printer delivers print jobs fast, using healthier Latex water-based Inks and produces durable, scratch-resistance prints comparable to hard-solvent inks. Powered by third-generation, water-based HP Latex ink technology, the HP Latex 300 Printer series helps low-volume customers efficiently handle more outdoor and indoor applications with improved durability and image quality.

HP Latex 360 Printer: Produce indoor and outdoor prints on a variety of traditional signage substrates—even textiles, with high-quality, durable prints that provide scratch resistance comparable to hard-solvent inks. The higher-volume, 64-inch HP Latex 360 Printer prints up to 978 ft2/hr (91 m2/hr) and increases application versatility with an ink collector for porous textiles. The printer also features automatic front-to-back registration for printing double-sided banners.

HP Designjet Z6800
The new HP Designjet Z6800 Photo Production Printer features on-board advanced color management features, and is available through LexJet.

HP Designjet Z-Series Production Printers
Also designed for small to medium print shops, HP’s new Designjet Z6600 Production Printer and Designjet Z6800 Photo Production Printer are touted as the industry’s fastest 60-inch large-format inkjet printers. The Production Photo Printer also includes some extra built-in color-management horsepower. The new Designjet Z-Series Production Printers include…

HP Designjet Z6600 Production Printer: Turn orders in record time and efficiently produce outstanding color and black-and-white prints with six HP inks and print speeds as fast as 1500 ft2/hr in fast mode and 212 ft2/hr in high-quality mode. HP Double Swath Technology and the HP Optical Media Advance Sensor enable quality prints at top speed for a wide range of jobs on many substrates.

HP Designjet Z6800 Photo Production Printer: With all the speed and features of the HP Designjet Z6600, the Z6800 adds advanced color management features, including an embedded spectrophotometer, as well as HP Chromatic Red Ink for a wider color gamut and uniform gloss. It also includes a built-in take-up reel, 775-ml HP ink cartridges and long media rolls for unattended printing.

If you have any questions about the printers, and to find out more about pricing and specifications, call a LexJet account specialist at 800-453-9538.