HP ws4500 User Manual

HP Indigo press ws4500

Productive, cost-effective, versatile printing
solution for label and package printing

2

Approximately 65% of label jobs
around the world are produced in
print runs of less than 50,000 labels,
or under 6,500 feet

(See fig 1)

Fact! Label and packaging print jobs are continuing to
become shorter!

Fact! Customers are demanding shorter lead times and
faster turnaround!

Fact! Conventional printing processes are prohibitively
expensive for low volume orders and result in shrinking
profit margins!

How do you adapt to these changing market trends,
satisfy exacting customer demands and, at the same
time, sustain a profitable printing business?

The HP Indigo press ws4500 provides a complete end­to-end solution from prepress to finishing and lowers
production costs immediately in several key areas:

• It eliminates the expense of films, plates or chemistry.

• It generates little or no waste.

• It requires far less set-up time than conventional
printing.

For runs up to 6,500 feet, the HP Indigo press ws4500
significantly lowers your costs. And it integrates easily
within your existing printing environment to
complement the capabilities of your current equipment.

Be labeled ‘premium provider’ with
the HP Indigo press ws4500

The HP Indigo press ws4500 solution allows marketers
to respond rapidly and cost effectively to shorter
product life-cycles and ever-changing retail needs. It
allows for highly targeted labeling and packaging —
applications that would be expensive or impossible
with a traditional press. These include: versioned
products, event marketing, private labels, regional and
seasonal packaging and test markets.

The flexible production offerings, rapid response times
and the liquid ink quality of the HP Indigo press
ws4500, complement conventional printing
capabilities to expand your service options. This allows
you to allocate jobs to your most suitable, cost efficient
press while consistently maintaining the offset quality
your customers are used to. This way, you can optimize
your productivity, ensure repeatable colors and
maximize your profitability on every job.

Expand your arsenal of services

The HP Indigo press ws4500 can help you grow your
business and transform you into an indispensable, one­stop partner for your customers. It lets you build an
arsenal of new services for the production of labels,
shrink sleeves and flexible packaging:

• Provide your customers with instant proofs identical to
their required jobs.

Fig 1: Run length types (# of 5 x 10 cm labels)

Source: Labels & Labeling
The increase in small order quantities – and the decrease in long
runs–has created new opportunities and higher profit margins for the
label converter and printer.

Over

150,000

100,000-

150,000

75,000-

100,000

50,000-

75,000

25,000­50,000

0-

25,000

“With the HP Indigo
press we are
already seeing
more revenue
opportunities,
greater
productivity and
profitability, and
increased
customer retention
and loyalty.”

Jerry Berke,
President Lion Labels,
MA

40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0

3

• Print runs as few as one, or up to 50,000 labels in
fast turnaround time, exactly when required and help
customers get their jobs to market quickly.

• Supply small, medium and large quantities to your
customers to precisely meet their needs and help
them manage their supply chain effectively, thereby
saving them inventory costs.

• Provide exceptional print quality, to ensure your
customers’ brands stand out in the marketplace.

• Print spot colors to meet your customers’ corporate
branding requirements.

• Offer virtually limitless substrate compatibility and
cater to a wider range of packaging needs.

• Use variable data printing to provide complete, full­color product personalization, as well as ticketing
and game pieces.

• Use numbering and security features to enable
product track and trace and help your customers
protect their assets.

Benefit from built-in revolutionary
technology

Your HP Indigo press ws4500 includes a number of
uniquely competitive features:

HP ElectroInk. HP Indigo uses the unique HP ElectroInk
liquid ink technology — the only color process in
digital printing that equals the quality and color range
of offset.

One-Shot Color printing. Enables all color separations
to be laid down simultaneously on the final substrate,
preventing registration issues and allowing you to print
on a broad variety of substrates.

HP IndiChrome Plus. Expands color versatility beyond
CMYK by offering you: a broader color gamut that
includes CMYK + OVG (orange, violet, green) inks
supported by an EskoArtwork digital front end; a
closer match to the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM
Colors; a broader applications range; a higher
analog-to-digital transformation rate.

On-press Fast Ink Replacement (OFIR). Simple on-the­fly replacement of special/spot colors eliminates the
time needed for swapping colors, making spot color
jobs simple to execute.

HP SmartStream Labels and Packaging Solutions,
Powered by EskoArtwork. The user-friendly HP Indigo

hardware and EskoArtwork software package enables
connectivity to conventional solutions through
EskoArtwork software. This front end solution
‘remembers’ color settings for each substrate at the
prepress stage, simplifying color management and
allowing repeat jobs to produce identical output on
whatever press you use.

Fast setup and job changeover

Touch screen panel

Inspection plate

Splicing table

One-Shot Color

Assures perfect registration by accumulating all
image separations on the blanket and transferring
them to the substrate simultaneously in one shot.

Rewinder

• An easy-to-use touch screen
panel, inspection plate and
splicing table allow print
quality inspection and fast roll
replacement.

• Optional rewinder designed
especially for flexible
packaging applications with
tension control and web guide.

• Multi-substrate capabilities
down to 12µ films.

Work station

• For intuitive operator control
over the functioning of the
press, with easy-to-use menus
and guidance.

• Remote assistance to press
operator via support center.

In-line densitometer

Assures color consistency,
fidelity, dot gain
compensation and
accurate repeatability
across jobs and allows
the operator to fine-tune
the press during printing.

7-station ink cabinet

• Liquid-based HP ElectroInk achieves
best-in-class print quality.

• 7 ink stations allow the use of up to 7-color process
colors (CMYKOVG) or a combination of process
and special colors (white or spot).

• The on-the-fly On-press Fast Ink Replacement (OFIR)
system makes spot color jobs simple to execute and
increases overall press productivity.

Ink cans

For easy, fast and
clean ink replacement.

4

Attention lights

• Allow operator to monitor press alerts remotely.

• Allow customers with multiple presses to assign one
operator to 2 presses.

Splicing table

Adjustable web width
mechanism

For easy adjustment of
substrate width.

Web guide

Automated web guide for continuous substrate
control.

Unwinder

Easy-to-use touch screen panel, splicing table and
web handling make changing substrates quick and
easy.

5

Digital front end solutions

HP SmartStream Labels and Packaging Print Server, Powered by
EskoArtwork digital front end that supports end-to-end workflow.

Maximize results with HP Indigo
partners

HP has aligned with industry-leading partners to
address the most critical customer needs:

The HP SmartStream Labels and Packaging Print
Server, Powered by EskoArtwork. A high-performance

RIP, Digital Front-End and workflow controller, the
server can reside in your prepress environment or near
the press. From its centralized location, it assures
highly efficient file processing, best-in-class color
control, simple, sophisticated bar-coding, enhanced
step and repeat and high quality variable data output.
The server enables connectivity to central EskoArtwork
workflow solutions, as well as to other workflow
components, such as web-to-print and MIS solutions.

With extensive space for storing a tremendous number
of jobs, the server scales to adopt system upgrades
and increased workflow requirements. The solution
also addresses your production needs through ICC
color management, and includes prepress tools in the
native environment of Adobe

®

Illustrator™.

AB Graphic (www.abgint.com)
ABG Digicoat: offers an affordable in-house coating

solution, and can be used to apply water-based
primers or optionally UV curable over varnishes.

ABG Digicon label finishing: the Series 2 Digicon
range from AB Graphic International offers an
unprecedented variety of options for digital print
finishing—available either in-line or off-line and
incorporating flexo varnishing and semi-rotary
die-cutting along with the options of overlaminating,
semi-rotary screen printing, hot foil blocking, and
embossing, as well as an inspection system. The
modular design allows for any combination of
processes to be carried out in a single pass, and its
sophisticated control system enables quick
changeovers with minimal waste.

ABG Digilam flexible packaging finishing: the ABG
Digilam is a laminator designed for flexible packaging
applications, such as food-specific substrates. The
equipment allows water-based adhesives to be applied
via a gravure coating system. It incorporates a 4-stage
high power hot air drying system, followed by a
heated laminating nip roller and a single spindle
rewind with pneumatic lay-on roller. A sophisticated
web tension control system enables the easy handling
of materials as thin as 12 microns.

Rotoflex Vericut System (www.rotoflex.com). The off-

line Vericut system features automatic registration with
continuous correction, auto-positioning, auto-learn,
servo-driven draw stations, and maximum machine
speed in variable and constant repeat modes.

Delta Industrial (www.deltaind.com). The Delta

Spectrum Series flexible Mod-Tech rotary converter is
optimized to run in-line or off-line with the HP Indigo
narrow web presses. All modules are servo controlled
to register and reregister from each axis; they unwind
and rewind clockwise or counter clockwise. The system
includes a steering assembly and die station, and
provides the coating, over laminate, flex and engraved
die cut, slit or sheet, laser die cutting, hot stamp, cold
foil and more.

Michelman (www.michem.com). Environmentally

friendly, water-based DigiPrime coatings provide
excellent HP Indigo ink adhesion on a variety of
substrates.

Media partners:

Fedrigoni/Manter, UPM Raflatac, Avery Dennison,
Ineos Films, Mitsubishi and Innovia offer diverse self­adhesive paper and films on rolls and sheets.

6

“The print quality of
the HP Indigo press
is excellent, and its
7-color capabilities
enable us to print on
a wider range of
substrates, including
clear, textured and
colored variants.”

Elisha Tropper,
former President
and Owner
Prestige Label, NC

Print engine specifications:

Process colors

PANTONE®Colors**

Input system

Output system

Dimensions of press

Weight of press

HP SmartStream Labels and
Packaging Print Server,
Powered by EskoArtwork

Optional equipment/configuration:

52.5 feet per min. in 4-color mode
105 feet per min. in 1 or 2-color mode

12*-350 micron (0.47*-13.8 mils)

Self-adhesive label stock and films

HP ElectroInk technology

812 x 812 dpi
812 x 1,624 dpi when printing in high resolution mode
Line screens: 144 (sequin) 160, 175, 180, 230 lpi

12.13" x 17.72" max.

Max. width: 12.99"
Min. width: 7.87"

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, Orange and Violet

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, Orange, Violet and Green

PANTONE Colors are mixed using the HP IndiChrome Ink Mixing System or
ordered via the HP Indigo Ink Mixing Services.

Yes

Roll load/unload pneumatic device
Max. roll weight: 880 lb.
Active web guide

Microsoft

®

Windows XP®Professional

2.8 GHz Pentium® 4 processor, 36 GB hard drive
512 MB base memory, expandable to 4 GB
15 inch flat screen monitor
DVD-RW/CD-RW
Image disks - two 36 GB drives which provide 70 GB of image memory

TCP/IP
Profibus with WHS

10/100/1000 Base-T

Postscript Level 3, PDF 1.4, TIFF, JPEG, EPS, PPML 1.0, JLYT

HP SmartStream Labels and Packaging Color Kit, powered by EskoArtwork
HP SmartStream Labels and Packaging VDP Tools, powered by EskoArtwork
HP SmartStream Labels and Packaging Pre/press Tools, powered by EskoArtwork

5th, 6th and 7th color printing; HP Indigo Ink Mixing System

Optional

7

Technical specifications

Printing speed

Substrate thickness

Substrate type

Printing technology

Image quality

Image size

Web width

Standard 4-color printing

HP IndiChrome on-press simulation (6-color printing)

HP IndiChrome on-press simulation (7-color printing)

HP IndiChrome off-press (mixed spot ink)

White ink

Input roll max. diameter: 51.18"
Core inside diameter: 3" (6" optional)
Tension control system
Air expanded shaft

Rewinder: 23.62" max. roll diameter

Length: 81.1"
Width: 64.96"
Height: 86.61"

12,100 lb.

Software platform

Hardware platform

Network protocols

Physical network connection

Supported formats and standards

HP SmartStream DigitalFront-Ends

Expanded colors capabilities

Reinsertion

*Substrate testing recommended
**Pantone licensed

PANTONE

®

and other Pantone, Inc. trademarks are the property of Pantone, Inc.

Hewlett-Packard Company
1001 Summit Boulevard
Mailstop 401
Atlanta, GA 30319
USA
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Europe, Middle East and Africa

Hewlett-Packard Indigo B.V.
Renier Nafzgerstraat 100
6221 KL Maastricht
The Netherlands
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Asia Pacific

Hewlett-Packard Company
138 Depot Road
Singapore 109683
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Latin America

Hewlett-Packard Company
5200 Blue Lagoon Drive
Suite 950
Miami, FL 33126
USA
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]

Israel

Hewlett-Packard Company
Kiryat Weizmann
P.O. Box 150
Rehovot 76101
Israel
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

To learn more, visit www.hp.com/go/graphic-arts
or www.hp.com/go/myhpindigoweb

© 2006 - 2008 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to
change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty
statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an
additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

4AA0-6668ENUS, April 16, 2008. This is an HP Indigo digital print.