“The White Latex Ink Is Stunning”—Papergraphics Publish Their Test Review Of The New HP Latex 700 & 800 W Printers

Image Courtesy of Papergraphics

An eight-week test review of the new HP Latex 800 W printer by the Papergraphics specialist print equipment and engineering team

The Papergraphics technical and engineering team have tested both the BETA versions of the new HP Latex 700 W and 800 W Series printers and extensively tested the now commercially available HP Latex 800 W printer.

Graham; the head of our technical team, frequently tests large-format print machinery for OEM manufactures—his feedback is highly respected, and it can ultimately influence the machines' development.

For several months, Graham worked with both the BETA version and the newly released HP Latex 800 W printer.

He's rigorously tested this machine by printing the entirety of our Décor product range and most of our Latex compatible substrates.

Here's what Graham has to say about the new HP Latex 800 W Series printer:

The New White Latex Ink Is Stunning!

"The 1st standout item in the 800 W has to be the white ink. Quite simply put, it is superb. The impressive ink density achievable together with the pure whiteness of the colour, exceeds expectations."

"In so many printers, white ink typically comes with a host of challenges involving excessive cleaning to keep the printheads unblocked and firing correctly, together with the frustration of nozzle dropout during production." 

"So I am incredibly pleased to report that I have not had to do any additional maintenance or cleans to unblock white printheads in the entire time I have been running this printer."

"I've not even strictly followed guidelines! I've left the printer not running white for a week at a time while completing comprehensive production tests. Then run solid white ink both day and night, printing thousands of product samples on different substrates for our new sample books. And even after that misuse, we're still achieving outstanding results."

A Lower Curing Temperature With Significant Benefits

"The next headline item has got to be the reduced temperature at which the new HP ink formulation cures, which I have found to be about 10 degrees lower than previous latex Gen 3 inks." 

"This has allowed me to successfully print onto media that were beforehand considered incompatible with the previous HP latex curing process due to their susceptibility to heat distortion, but now run like a dream."

"The other media which used to cause havoc on HP latex Gen 3 printers was paper. Many suffered from cockling, which could result in head strikes. The all-new lower curing temperature and the flatter output paper path have made these products once again easy to print and achieve trouble-free output."

Overall Productivity Improvements

"I really like the new onboard job management functionality, which allows you to send new job files to the printer while busy running other ones. It also makes it quick and easy to resend jobs already printed by choosing them directly from the printers' front display panel even while still printing another job. These then start printing as soon as the previous prints stop, keeping production time optimised."

"Access to the print zone has been dramatically modified, with the entire curing zone now raising to ease access to both the print zone and media loading input areas."

"The new take-up assembly starts with a simple rotation of the flange and auto tensions to keep the take-up under constant tension. This feature, combined with the new media advance calibration systems, helps keep those long length prints running to a high level of accuracy for that important panelling work. The new printer also boasts a new printhead which even further improves the high quality previously achieved."

"For space optimisation in the production environment; all operations are carried out from the printer's front, including loading and unloading media and printer control, allowing you to avoid space wastage associated with so many other roll-fed devices."

Versatility — You Can Do A Lot More With This Printer!

"The printers multi-layer white and colour modes allow you to explore speciality printing in all areas. Metallic foils, vinyl, wallcoverings and clear window display products print with ease without sacrificing the all-important function of being a hardworking printer that confidently runs non-stop heavy production."

"Our Digimura Gold and Silver speciality wallcoverings and high end optically clear and frosted window display products printed to perfection on the Latex 800 W model — it's genuinely impressive!"

If you would like to know more about the new HP Latex 700 W 800 W Series printers or would like us to organise a printer demo for you and your team, please call us: 0845 1300 772