HP Latex 3000 Industrial Printer

Wide format VinylEfx films are printable with latex inks

By Jim Hingst

How the HP Latex 3000 industrial latex printer is revolutionizing roll to roll wide format printing. 

Bigger, stronger, faster

I was thinking of how best to compare the HP Latex 3000 to other latex printers, when I remembered a story about George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin. When Putin had visited the U.S., Bush had introduced him to his little Scottish terrier, Barney. A year later Bush visited Putin at his office. Putin just pointed at his huge, fierce-looking hound, which could easily have eaten Barney for lunch, and boastfully exclaimed: “bigger, stronger, faster.”

That’s also the best way to describe the difference between the HP Latex 3000 and the other models of HP latex printers. The 3000 is a heavy-duty industrial printer, which is bigger, stronger and faster than other models, including the new HP 360, which is impressive in its own right.

The 126” HP Latex 3000 prints up to 120 square meters an hour. At a resolution of 1200 dpi, the print quality of the 3000 arguably rivals that of Indigo printers, light jet printers and offset printing. The color gamut of the HP 881 latex inks is also much wider than UV or solvent inks.  With the HP Latex 3000, not only can you run with the big dogs, but you can probably out run them, too.

While conducting printing tests at Nite-Bright Sign Company in Fort Meyers, I recently had the opportunity to see one of these bad boys run.  Company president, Dave Mathey, was so impressed with the printer’s speed and quality, that he bought two.  At a list price of $450,000 each, Dave must have been convinced of the value of this equipment. After seeing the 3000 print, I became a believer, too.

Compared to other HP latex printers, the 3000 utilizes a different heating system. While printing zone and curing zone temperatures are significantly cooler (about 10° to 20°C), the print is completely dry before the media is wound up on the take up roll. The HP Latex 3000 subjects heat sensitive materials to much lower temperatures than other models, such as the HP 850, HP 25500 and the new HP 360. 

During my tests at Nite-Bright, we printed RTape’s 5 mil SYNAPS, a top coated polyester. Extremely high heat can deform this media. When printing on this synthetic paper in the past with other HP latex printers, we had to make adjustments to the heat setting as well as increase the pass rate and lower the ink density. While the end result was a good looking print, the ink was never completely dry.

Printing with the 3000 is a totally different story. We didn’t need to make any adjustments at all. Using a standard profile, the printed sheets were completely dry and looked like a million dollars. What’s more, the prints laid flat with no deformation of the media.

Lower printing and curing heat allows Nite-Bright to print on a wider range of substrates, including banners, flexible sign face material, pressure sensitive vinyl films, wall covering material and synthetic paper. 

The more efficient heating system is different than that used in the 300 series printers, because the printing zone uses IR heaters, which operate at lower temperatures.  “Energy consumption is about half of the older generation HP 850  printer,” says Nite-Bright’s New Business Development Manager, Charlie Vendeville. “That significantly reduces our operating costs.”

Because IR printing zone heater cures the media faster, the material can advance through the printer faster. “Printing with the HP 3000 we can also handle twice the weight of the previous model,” Vendeville says.  “That way, we can print two rolls of the same media at the same time.” 

Vendeville explains that in today’s business environment, customers typically want their jobs produced within a couple of days. Most of their jobs are printed at the 6-pass mode. “We prefer to print at this setting, because the ink density is greater. We feel that the increased density produces more robust color and better durability." Since most of  Nite-Bright’s work is for outdoor applications, the denser saturation is more fade resistant and resists abrasion better.

To increase output, printers can also print at the 3-pass mode. “Printing at maximum speed we don’t lose anything with respect to quality,” Vendeville says.  “Whether you use the 3-pass or the 6-pass mode, the resolution is still 1200 dpi. At whichever print setting you use, we feel that the print quality is much better than most of the other technologies on the market.”

Using the 6-pass mode, printers can  double their output. Couple that with instant drying and they can handle anything job that comes through the door. Ink capacity of the HP Latex 3000 was also increased. The new six color printer features 5 liter ink cartridges. Its pigmented inks include black, cyan, light cyan, light magenta, magenta, and yellow as well as the HP Latex Optimizer. 

The high resolution, photographic quality of the printing on the HP Latex 3000 allows Nite-Bright to best serve the retail market with high resolution printing for indoor applications, such as wall coverings, Point-Of-Purchase posters and displays.

For outdoor applications, such as fleet graphics and window graphics, the pigmented HP latex inks have the durability to withstand the bleaching rays of the sun and high temperatures as well as resisting abrasion. These inks are designed to embed onto the surface of the substrate, providing exceptional ink adhesion.

Another improvement in the new inks is the addition of an anti-scratch agent in the ink. This anti-scratch agent forms a very thin, protective film on the surface of the print. The coating also greatly improves scratch resistance and the outdoor durability of the print.

Because the HP latex inks are pigmented, they are perfect for applications, such as fleet graphics, building graphics, outdoor signage and billboards. Unlaminated prints provide up to 3 years of useful service life. Graphics protected with an overlaminate can last up to 5 years outdoors.

The new HP latex inks are designed to interact with the polymers of the HP Latex Optimizer. Here’s how the two components work together. First a thin coating of optimizer polymer is printed onto the substrate. Then the inks are printed on top of this layer. Because the ink and optimizer have different electrical charges, they are attracted to one another. This locks the droplets of ink onto the substrate, holding it in place until it is cured. This prevents one droplet of ink from mixing with another or what is called bleed or coalescence.  Because the dots don’t coalesce or bleed together, colors are more vibrant rather than becoming dark and muddy.

“The latex ink is very flexible, which makes it ideal for vehicle wraps,” Vendeville says. “If we had to, we can turn out a fleet graphics job in a day.” After printing vinyl films, the graphics can be immediately laminated. No time is needed for residual solvents to outgas. Printed graphics can be delivered to the customer and installed the same day. “It’s that type of service that builds customer loyalty and repeat business,” he adds.

Using the 3^rd generation of latex inks and the latest generation of thermal printheads, the HP Latex 3000 is revolutionizing roll to roll printing. It delivers high quality printing on a wide range of substrates at the speeds that industrial printers, such as Nite-Bright, require. Increased production capacity of the HP Latex 3000 expands a printer’s opportunities for applications such as interior wall graphics. Printing with water-based latex inks  allows print providers to offer their customers with a greener product solution with no residual solvent odors. 


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About Jim Hingst: After fourteen years as Business Development Manager at RTape, Jim Hingst retired. He was involved in many facets of the company’s business, including marketing, sales, product development and technical service.

Hingst began his career 42 years ago in the graphic arts field creating and producing advertising and promotional materials for a large test equipment manufacturer.  Working for offset printers, large format screen printers, vinyl film manufacturers, and application tape companies, his experience included estimating, production planning, purchasing and production art, as well as sales and marketing. In his capacity as a salesman, Hingst was recognized with numerous sales achievement awards.

Drawing on his experience in production and as graphics installation subcontractor, Hingst provided the industry with practical advice, publishing more than 150 articles for  publications, such as  Signs Canada, SignCraft,  Signs of the Times, Screen Printing, Sign and Digital Graphics and  Sign Builder Illustrated. He also posted more than 325 stories on his blog (hingstssignpost.blogspot.com). In 2007 Hingst’s book, Vinyl Sign Techniques, was published.  Vinyl Sign Techniques is available at sign supply distributors and at Amazon. 

© 2016 Jim Hingst