HP launches inline coating for inkjet

HP is launching an inline coating system for its high-speed inkjet webs, developed by Harris & Bruno and capable of both aqueous and UV coating, as part of its drive into the commercial market.

The ExcelCoat ZPW will enable coating even on coated stocks and requires no slowdown in the pace of the printers such as the PageWide T240 HD and T250HD. It can switch between aqueous and UV on the fly.

Harris & Bruno already have 15,000 coating systems in operation around the world. The new system is designed especially for HP PageWide industrial presses and is exclusive to them.

HP says an aqueous coating in an A4 page with cost around US$0.0012, while for a UV coating it will be around US$0.0045.

HP is promoting the high-speed inkjet webs direct into the offset market, claiming that with the new Brilliant Inks that print direct onto both coated and uncoated stocks with no need for a primer, and now the inline coating, the webs are a compelling proposition.

HP says its figures show inkjet printing is set to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7 per cent over the next three years, with commercial inkjet showing a 13 per cent CAGR. It says 382 billion pages were printed by inkjet last year, it predicts this will drop to 313 billion this year thanks to Covid-19, then says pages printed will rise again next year to 353 billion before reaching 420 billion in 2022 and 482 billion in 2023.