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HP’s Designjet 9000s

Solvent printing from the inkjet king

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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.

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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.

Surprisingly, the printer only requires 110/120 volt AC, though it can also use 220/240. The heater unit also needs 110 or 220. When active, the printer draws 200W; when the heater kicks in, it jumps to 1,400W.

The installation environment needs an operating temperature between 59 and 89° F. The recommended humidity range is between 30 and 70% RH.

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The DesignJet 9000s is a 64-in. inkjet printer. In contrast to the disposable-head strategy used on the 5500, the 9000s uses permanent piezo heads with a 720 x 720-dpi resolution. It has six heads, each with 512 nozzles. The six colors used in the 9000s are cyan, magenta, yellow, black, light magenta and light cyan.

The three heaters are located in the front (Fig. 1), the printing area and the rear. The temperature can be adjusted in a range of 59 to 131° F to accommodate various media requirements.

The 9000s features a memory buffer and interface. Intended for use with a professional RIP, the printer has a generous 192MB image buffer that will hold a sizable chunk of an image. More interestingly, the 9000s only has one connection interface, a very high-speed USB 2.0 connector installed on most late-model workstations. This is probably a fine decision; you will connect the printer directly to the RIP.

Make sure your system has USB 2.0 capability. It will work with USB 1.1, but the transfer speed is significantly slower. A USB 2.0 PCI card upgrade is fairly cheap, so don't let that stop you.

Inks and media

Solvent inks abound. The eco-friendly solvents reportedly produce no odors, and the true solvents generally need some type of venting due to chemical vapors and strong smells that make the workplace hazardous. You may wonder why anyone would choose solvent inks at all.

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The short answer is true solvents generally bond better to the media and offer longer image life than the eco-solvents. Plus, they're often more vibrant.

HP has chosen to introduce its own ink formulation, which they refer to as low-solvent. It has solvent-ink characteristics but it's not quite as noxious as a traditional solvent. You'll still need to make some environmental preparations.

For example, you can add an optional, high-speed drying system. Most of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted during drying. The drying system speeds up the process considerably.

HP also offers an air-purification system (Fig. 2) that connects to the printer's exhaust port. This unit uses a charcoal filter that removes approximately 90% of the VOCs from the air. Of course, you can install an exhaust system in the room and just connect it to the printer.

Because the inks are solvents, expect vivid colors (Fig. 3) and great image durability. Images printed on the 9000s are rated at three years outdoors without lamination. Using the six-color printing system, you'll also experience photo-quality prints with high saturation and very bright colors. HP also touts an extended color gamut that impressively renders blacks, blues and reds. From the samples we saw, the inks really do deliver.

Because HP believes this printer is positioned for production, it designed the ink cartridges to hold 1,000ml of ink, which is almost double the amount held in all but the industrial-grade printers we've reviewed. In addition, ink cartridges can be changed "on the fly," which eliminates ruined prints or wasted ink. The cartridges are priced at $323.99 per color.

As a solvent printer, it can print on various uncoated media. HP offers a media line that includes both HP Universal Banner and HP Premium Scrim Banner media, a self-adhesive vinyl, backlit, and photo paper.

Printing speeds and modes

Image quality is one thing, but you need to crank out some prints to make a buck or two. The 9000s is a real thoroughbred in the herd of mid-sized solvent printers. The vacuum-hold-down system is fairly substantial. It's adjustable for different types of media (Fig. 4), and its four quality modes range from high quality down to fast.

Obviously, you sacrifice quality for speed, but we were very impressed with the normal and draft-normal output modes. For banner and vinyl graphics, these quality modes are absolutely fine. For photographic-quality work that will be viewed close up, the high-quality mode should be used. In most cases, normal is probably the best overall mode.

In the high-quality mode, you will see 88 sq.ft./hr. — more than 14, 2 x 3-ft. prints/hr. To crank it up a bit for banners and vinyl, the normal mode offers 720 x 720-dpi quality at 176 sq.ft./hr. That's double the throughput with very little loss of quality.

If you need even more speed, then draft-normal mode will deliver 720 x 540-dpi images at 220 sq.ft./hr. It's still acceptable quality, for such things as banners, at a blazing speed. If quality isn't the main issue (text, solid colors, distant viewing), go to fast mode and see 322 sq.ft./hr. That's 52, 3 x 2-ft. prints in an hour.

The 9000s has a heavy-duty media system (Fig. 5) that offers roll-to-roll printing. The media-load path is easy to manage as well. You should consider the optional high-speed dryer that we mentioned before if you want to print in the high-production speeds. It will ensure the images are dry when rolled onto the take-up reel.

Pricing and the Designjet 9000sf

The 9000s is built for production shops. The $32,995 price tag includes a one-year warranty (next day onsite) on the printer (six months on the heads). For this price, you get the printer, stand, take-up system and a set of start-up media and ink.

What's missing from this package is software. As we mentioned earlier, the 9000s is designed for use with a RIP. At its launch, virtually every major manufacturer supported the 9000s. That's great if you already own a RIP, but what if this is your first digital printer?

Consequently, HP is offering a special bundle called the 9000sf. This package includes the 9000s, air purifier and a copy of Onyx PosterShop 6.5. The entire package is $38,995. So, for $6,000 more, you just need to add a PC, and you have a high-speed, production printing shop capable of producing output durable for three years outdoors.

After many quiet years, HP has decided to jump into the outdoor-graphics market. The DesignJet 9000s is a solid printer that can produce high-quality output at production speeds. With the large ink capacities and the 9000sf bundle, you can have a production shop in one fell swoop. As an HP product, it's backed by the market leaders in inkjet-printing technology.

Key Information

Hewlett-Packard Co.
3000 Hanover St.
Palo Alto, CA 94304
(800) 752-0900
www.hp.com

Contact:
Michael Swack
(858) 655-4262

Company Profile: HP is a technology-solutions provider for consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing.

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