DIGITAL digest

The W7200 press is well-suited for personalized color direct mail and (with an upgrade kit available in 2010) photo specialty applications. Its larger 12.5x38.6˝ image area facilitates eight-up, full-bleed impositioning on 6x9˝ sheets for postcards and other direct mail applications, as well as for on-demand book printing. In addition, the format size enables digital production and personalization of commercial products such as folders, folding mailers, folding albums and book jackets previously manufactured using analog processes.

During a customer panel discussion, Christian Schamberger, vice president of operations, and Jeff Quartley, operations manager, reported on Mercury's success with the Indigo W7200. Schamberger noted that the facility's existing Xerox and HP digital printing equipment coexists well from a workflow standpoint.

Alon Bar-Shany, vice president and general manager of HP's Indigo Div., also addressed the group. He said the 5,000 active HP Indigo presses operating worldwide produced 10 billion pages in 2008. Bar-Shany added that the digital printing markets in the United States and Britain have been hit the hardest by the global recession, especially the demand for direct mail and transpromo applications. However, he pointed out that photo specialty applications are still growing at about a 50 percent CAGR, of which HP Indigo press users hold a major market share.

—Mark Michelson