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, though technically the NDA expires on May 29 (the printer has been visible since May 27). But we held off posting this page until “May 29 th” which is based on May 29 th German time zone for DRUPA, which is the same time zone as Barcelona.

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. 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.

The main contender for latex ink presently is bio-solvent, but this ink has actually not been very popular and so far bio-solvent ink has not impressed me other than it's original announcement years ago. PR release kind of publicity came out repeatedly but this traditional kind of PR fell on deaf ears, so I realized the ink was both not yet mature and that the public was definitely not rushing to embrace it.

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.

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” Just look at cationic ink in the Gerber ion printer. Gerber claims it works; but 98% of all independent ink chemists and industry analysts say that cationic UV ink does not function adequately in wide format applications, and definitely nowhere near the way it is so glowingly advertised by massive PR by the manufacturer. So asking an independent resource whether an ink works is a good start.

Yes, HP latex ink works; No, cationic ink does not function yet acceptably for a production environment, no matter that PR is blasted out into the Internet in the contrary.

But FLAAR does not yet have a recommendation for latex ink. FLAAR also does not have a buyer advisory (as is best for cationic UV 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.

There is alternative inks, such as from another European company, Sepiax Ink Technology. And plenty of other competitors will rise up.

Final comments on seeing the HP Designjet L65500 at DRUPA

This is a sturdy printer: it is a significant printer, for serious production.

Most recently updated May 30, 2008.
First posted on May 29, 2008.