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HP Designjet L65500 is the new latex ink printer

This is the HP Designjet L65500 latex ink printer at DRUPA 2008.

The HP Designjet L65500 has been on open display for several days in the HP booth at DRUPA trade show in Germany.

This is the HP Designjet L65500 and not the HP Scitex L65500; probably because it is a Barcelona HP project and uses HP thermal printheads, and because the HP solvent printers are HP Designjet 9000s, HP Designjet 8000s, HP Designjet 10000s. Since these Seiko OEM printers were not readily accessible to FLAAR, we do not cover them in as much detail as the Roland AJ-10000. The Epson Stylus Pro GS6000 solvent printer is new competition for the HP Designjet L65500. Epson had a huge booth at DRUPA to showcase their GS6000 and two new Epson textile printers.

Other printer manufacturers that now have to compete with the HP Designjet L65500 are rolling out their PR to suggest that their own solvent inks are improved to the point that you don't need latex ink. And other solvent companies are simply producing their own solvent printers as if latex ink did not exist: Seiko has shown their ColorPainter H104S already, and is preparing a ColorPainter H74S as well. These are, in effect, significant advances over the ColorPainter 64S and 100S that ended up as HP DesignJet 9000s, and HP 10000s. But those are the older designs. The new pure Seiko solvent printers are improved.

Other competitors are saying that their inks have already had latex chemistry already for years.

Another competing printer at DRUPA 2008 is the new Seiko ColorPainter H-104S solvent printer. The Seiko H-104S is fast and has the bright colors that propelled earlier ColorPainter models to rising sales before HP took over these printers under the HP brand.

Since DRUPA was the first time that the HP Designjet L65500 and latex inks were shown to the general public, it is interesting to note the diverse reactions. Epson, Mimaki, Mutoh, Roland, and Seiko already have their varied responses: either why solvent, eco-solvent or mild-solvent is better, or unresolved issues with latex inks. I am taking notes on all the pros and cons of each ink.

One contender for latex ink presently is bio-solvent (available for a Mutoh flatbed, for example). When it first came out I found the concept intriguing, and I wrote several articles about it, but then the printers were not at all the shows for a season, so it was confusing as to what had happened. Later the Mutoh Bio-solvent flatbed printer returned, primarily in the US but also in Europe. When an ink changes formulas it is not easy to evaluate it. To make it more confusing, there are bio-like inks from several after-market companies. And, since mid-2008, now there are a host of completely new ink chemistries for flatbed printers, two of them from Italian companies: one is alcohol-based, the other water-based and for flatbed printing up objects to 30 cm high. Alternative inks for innovative flatbed printers are a main focus for many companies in 2009. Unfortunately the HP latex ink is not usable in a flatbed system, due to the need for the position of the special heaters to handle their kind of latex ink.

Here is the first ever known after-market "latex ink" that attempts to emulate the HP water-based latex ink. The difference is that this third-party latex ink does not require a special printer: it works in a normal Roland, Mimaki, Mutoh, or D.G.I. solvent printer. I did not search out this after-market latex ink: I found it by accident when visiting a printshop to inspect their printer with UV-cured inks. This printshop turned out to be a beta-test site for the new latex ink by the after-market ink company. Since it was not possible to visit a beta-site for the HP latex ink, at least we can continue our research on other brands.

The HP Designjet L65500 prints on diverse range of media, same as solvent ink

• Permanent gloss adhesive vinyl
• Permenent matte adhesive vinyl
• Mesh banner
• Heavy textile banner
• Wrinkle free flat, with liner
• Premium backlit film
• Blue back billboard paper
• Tyvek banner
• Satin canvas
• HDPE reinforced banner (can be recycled)
• Backlit scrim banner
• Outdoor frontlit srim banner
• Frontlit scrim banner
• Gloss adhesive vinyl

Colors and gloss vary tremendously depending, naturally, on the surface quality of the material. In general the color is outstanding with gorgeous oranges, reds, blues, pinks. The solid black areas have no banding.

Occasionally confused with some aspects of Encad's infamous VinylJet

One ink chemist said that the same company that made the ink for the Encad VinylJet also had a latex ink during those same years. In other words, the question was raised, to what degree is the new latex ink, in any way, related to the ink used by Encad in that (unsuccessful) experiment. That Encad system also required substantial heating.

Here it is tough to find an independent ink specialist who will provide both a knowledgeable and an accurate answer on this question, since naturally no one today wants an ink that was in any way related to the ink used by the Encad VinylJet.

But almost every few months another inkjet ink specialist raises this question. If I am going to put this question to rest, I need open access to factual documentation from all sides.

Samples printed by the HP Designjet L65500.

HP Designjet L65500 is part of Hewlett-Packard’s green initiative

It is popular for corporations to be green, and to sponsor ecologically environmentally friendly products and procedures. So the HP Designjet L65500 is part of Hewlett-Packard's broader green initiative. HP has some helpful PowerPoint presentations on this subject. I have twice had an opportunity to learn about this, and the HP Designjet L65500 latex printer, once in Israel earlier this year, and a second time in Barcelona (world headquarters of HP wide format inkjet printers).

It was also possible to inspect a beta test site for the HP Designjet L65500 latex printer. A crucial part of FLAAR evaluations is site-visit case studies and factory visits. This year FLAAR has visited and written reports on the two Durst Rho factories, in Italy and in Austria, based on one week in these locations.

Factory visits were the main feature of FLAAR studies in 2007, starting with a week at the Mutoh Europe headquarters in Belgium.

We do this since naturally people will want to know “does the HP latex printer really function” Yes, HP latex ink works.

But FLAAR does not yet have a recommendation for latex ink. We prefer not to make any recommendation, pro or con, until it is possible to spend more time in beta test sites and until we can learn more about the printer during a factory visit. So far the visits that were kindly arranged were in large groups. We prefer to have an intense one on one session with the printer, and to learn what it does well and what can be improved in it's updates. So presently FLAAR only lists the HP Designjet L65500 as existing, and HP latex ink as having possible potential. I have not seen HP latex inks in any printshop in the US or Latin America. I was told visits would be arranged, but then nothing happened.

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In the meantime, while visiting a printshop elsewhere in the world, I learned that other companies were preparing latex ink that you simply use with your regular Roland, Mimaki, Mutoh or D.G.I. printer. No need to buy a $100,000 printer if you already have any other brand of solvent printer: just pour in the after-market latex ink.

Of course this is not HP latex ink, and probably lacks some of the more refined features of the HP latex inks, but all this remains to be tested. And that's precisely the point why no review of HP latex ink is finished until I can better understand why this might be better than an after-market ink. Because after visiting InkWin in China, and seeing their ink testing labs at a nearby university, I begin to realize that some third-party ink is reasonable if you are a small printshop in Latin America or Asia and simply can't afford the official OEM inks. But I also understand the politics and naturally HP labs are even more sophisticated. So we are neutral on this aspect, but I noticed that most US trade magazines were openly touting after-market inks. After all, Triangle started as an after-market ink and now is mainstream OEM ink, and Sun and even HP itself via Tech Ink sells to the after-market now, as does Sericol.

Plus there are several other alternative inks, such as from another European company, Sepiax Ink Technology. And plenty of other competitors will rise up, as I saw at SGIA '08 and then VISCOM Italy ‘08.

Another question about HP latex ink (and really a question to ask about other solvent inks, including bio-solvent, and even UV-cured inks) is how long does it really take to cure. For example, can you easily scratch the HP latex ink when it comes out of the printer. A colleague mentioned to me that the ink appeared to scratch too easily when coming out of the printer.

Other people have asked, relative to its rating as “green,” how you support a claim for green with a printer that requires so much electricity to heat the ink and/or substrates before during and after printing? These are not questions of mine; these are questions that other industry leaders are asking. My goal as an evaluator is to test the HP latex printer to find out which of these statements is valid, and which statement is obsolete. But until a beta test and demo room test is arranged, I can only keep track of the lists of unanswered questions. Since there are over seventy other interesting printers from other brands, I am fully occupied testing other inks and different technologies. I am not exactly twiddling my toes simply waiting for access to a latext printer beta site. Already in 2009 I have been flying back and forth across the Atlantic to test other printers, most recently evaluating a GCC StellarJET 183UVK in Germany. That FLAAR Report will be out in two weeks.

So my final comments on seeing the HP Designjet L65500 at DRUPA is that a lot more study needs to be undertaken before FLAAR will issue a conclusion.

Most recently updated Jan 29, 2009.

First posted on May 29, 2008. Updated May 30, 2008. Updated after seeing after-market latex ink elsewhere, and after seeing several new ink and flatbed technologies in 2008.