Updated for 2012, a miniature, pocket-sized version of the Signwriters pricing guides. The same information as in the regular Sign Contractors Pricing Guide, the mini guide includes pricing for artwork, ...
This printer has a 3/4 (manual-feed, automatic-unload) automatic-load system.
April 2009
I couldn't refuse when both Gigantic Color's GM, Troy McGinnis, and HP's VP and GM of large-format printing industrial solutions/HP Scitex products, Yariv Avisar, invited me to join a group of 33 potential machine buyers at Gigantic Color's Dallas-based shop, so we could examine the new, HP Scitex, FB7500 flatbed printer. Its UV-cure, 312-printhead (52 per color) printer that uses HP's new, X2 printheads. It also has a 3/4 (manual-feed, automatic-unload) automatic-load system.
I was extra curious because, last year, industry consultant Vince Cahill and I addressed the X2 heads in a story titled "Narrow-gauge MEMs-based Printers Precede Broad-use Future” (see ST, October 2008, page 108). There, we outlined how HP's acquisition of Israel-based NUR Macroprinters had resulted in product similarities and subsequent portfolio adjustments that delayed the production of an X2-based printer. The introduction of HP's Scitex FB7500, a UV-cure, 3/4 automatic-load, sheet-to-sheet, flatbed printer has brought the X2 printheads — and a new, high-speed, flatbed printer — to market.
The HP Scitex X2 printheads feature MicroElectroMechanical (MEMs) technology, meaning, a product that uses silicon wafer-level processes to mass produce identical devices.
Gigantic Color beta-tested the FB7500 for several months, using Onyx's I-RIP Plus, to produce high-quality, rigid graphics that measure up to 65 x 126 in. Now in Gigantic’s production line, the CMYKLcLm printer images media up to 1 in. thick, at speeds up to 5,380 sq. ft./hr., which dictates the semi-automatic load/unload system.
HP says the FB7500's loading mechanism loads and unloads a sheet in nine seconds. HP’s media list includes foam, foamboard, PVC sheets, corrugated cardboard, paper, banner material, polypropylene, polycarbonate and more.
HP designed the printer so that operators could have unobstructed access to the X2 printheads via a unique, hydraulic-lift system that raises and positions the 312 printheads (52 per color) for maintenance.
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