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(September 2006) posted on Mon Sep 04, 2006

Solvent printing from the inkjet king

By Chris Morrison, Kathi Morrison

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Who is the undisputed king of the inkjet printers? If you consider all inkjet products, there can be only one answer: Hewlett Packard (HP). These guys have been producing inkjets for what seems like forever. You probably have one of their Deskjet printers in your office or home. In the early 1990s, their Designjet series of wide-format inkjet printers virtually launched an industry.

Their current Designjet 5500 is still considered one of the most reliable wide-format printers on the market today. However, as a signmaker, you need outdoor-durable images printed on media that your customers need, primarily adhesive vinyl and banner material. The waterbased inks used in the Deskjets and Designjets really don't offer the best solution, even with lamination.

Has HP stuck its head in the sand and ignored this market segment? The answer is a resounding "no." If you follow industry movement, you've seen HP make numerous key acquisitions. For example, it's acquired one of the leaders in high-speed, grand-format printing, Scitex. We've written about many Scitex products in the past. Previously, signshops and screenprinters were left out of the HP product mix, unless your shop had enough volume to justify a Scitex printer.

To fill this void, HP has introduced a new Designjet to the family. This printer offers outdoor-durable prints and a range of media familiar to signmakers. This new printer is the HP 9000s; the "s" stands for solvent, HP's first solvent printer.

We spent some time with HP and extensively looked at the printer. It's heavy duty, produces great images and is backed by a printing-industry giant.

Specifications

At first glance, the 9000s doesn't look like an HP product. We own an HP 5500; it's sleek and can fit quite nicely in an office environment.

The DesignJet 9000s, on the other hand, has a very large presence. It looks to be more at home in the shop, where all of the work takes place. The basic printer and stand weigh 506 lbs. It's 100 in. wide x 33.9 in. deep x 47.3 in. high.