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HP Scitex FB7500 UV flatbed printer launched at SGIA

Since September 6 th, videos and information on the HP Scitex FB7500 has been floating around the Internet. One question is whether it has a loader-unloader. So far neither Durst Rho nor L&P Virtu has been successful with a loading and unloading system. Actually only the Scitex Vision CORjet loader/unloader seems to function well.

There has been similar pre-release of information on the HP Scitex FB950 for weeks (an update for the former ColorSpan 9840uv, which had been rebranded the HP Scitex FB910).

Then news surfaced of the HP Scitex XP2300, which is supposed to be a a new size version of the former NUR Expedio 3200 (now the HP Scitex XP 5100 and/or XP 5300).

By the time of SGIA and VISCOM we will know which printers actually appear, because the HP Scitex FB6300 disappeared before it was fully launched (the HP version of the Scitex Vision VEEjet+). Then the much touted HP Scitex FB6500 never appeared (other than at Barcelona 2006, shown to hundreds of admiring visitors). The HP Scitex XL2200 finally appeared a year late (at SGIA 2007) but it's X2 MEMS printheads had issues and the entire XL2200 program was replaced by rebranding the successful NUR Expedio printers.

X2 MEMS Printheads

Every new printer that HP announced at their Barcelona September 2006 extravaganza needed the X2 MEMS printhead to appear. One suggested reason that none of these announced printers actually were shown at any trade show is because of problems with their X2 MEMS printheads. Only one of the announced printers suvived long enough to be formally launched: the XL2200 was shown at SGIA 2007 but that was only to pretend to have a printer better than NUR; the XL2200 was not fully functional outside a lab or outside a trade show booth because the printheads seemingly did not work adequately.

Evidently these issues are not unique to the X2, but occur in MEMS printheads per se.
Why does no trade magazine mention these issues? Why is there not one analyst who has written any article point out the downsides of MEMS technology?

Now the new HP Scitex FB7500 is re-introducing the X2 MEMS heads. It has 312 of these heads. The HP labs have had one full year to improve the heads after the withdrawal of the XL2200 printer. In this same 12-month period cationic ink has gone from “impossible” to fully functional (albeit very slow in the Gerber ion; but I have been in the factory and demo room; it works just fine). So if an ink can work at SGIA 2008 that failed at SGIA 2007, surely a MEMS printhead that failed at the same SGIA ’07 has a comparable theoretical chance of working by the time of SGIA ’08.

In 2007, the survival rate for an X2 printhead has been estimated to be a 100% failure over four months. This was an average of one printhead a day in the XL2200. Now the HP Scitex FB7500 uses almost twice the number of MEMS heads as the XL2200 dared to try. So clearly there have been advances; no printer company would launch a million dollar printer with heads that had a 100% failure rate.

Tons of new UV printers at SGIA including the HP Scitex FB7500

There are more new UV flatbed printers at SGIA than were new UV flatbed printers at DRUPA ’08, which was supposedly the Mecca of printer trade shows. Because so many new UV printers appeared at SGIA ’08, we are evaluating only those where we have access to the printer for testing at a major demo center or at the factory. Thus for all the Yuhan-Kimberly textile printers, I spent a week in Korea evaluating them in-person. A trade show booth is too hectic.

HP Scitex FB7500 flatbed UV printer at SGIA 2008.

Concordance of HP Scitex UV printers

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The TurboJet is still known as the TurboJet, so needs no index listing

NUR Tempo Q = HP Scitex FB6100 (aging and has issues)

Faster replacement for aging NUR Tempo Q= HP Scitex FB7500

NUR Expedio 3200 = HP Scitex XP2100

NUR Expedio Inspiration = HP Scitex XP2700

Possible 2.3 meter version, HP edition = HP Scitex XP2300

NUR Expedio 5000 = HP Scitex XP5100

NUR Expedio Revolution = HP Scitex XP5300

HP Scitex FB7500 UV flatbed printer showing some samples at SGIA 2008.

 

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Updated November 9, 2008.
First posted September 22, 2008. Updated October 14, 2008 at SGIA.. Updated Oct 21, 2008 after SGIA.