HP Indigo press ws4050 adds extended application range to Fort Dearborn’s digital arsenal  

PALO ALTO, Calif., 18th May 2005 - Further expanding its industrial printing customer base, HP today announced that Fort Dearborn Company, the leading provider of high-impact decorative labels, has installed a 7-color, roll-to-roll HP Indigo press ws4050 at their King of Prussia, PA facility for printing prime labels.  This new press joins three other HP Indigo 4000 series presses installed at the following Fort Dearborn sites: Elk Grove, IL for shrink sleeves and unsupported films, Fountain Inn, SC for paint can labels and Hull, England for paint labels and prime labels.  Fort Dearborn serves 80 percent of the top Consumer Product Companies (CPC) in the US. 

The HP Indigo press ws4050 combines HP's superior digital color printing technology with streamlined workflow and finishing options from HP’s industry leading partners.  Successor to the market leading HP Indigo press ws4000, the HP Indigo press ws4050 prints high-quality full-color labels on demand and on a wider range of substrates than ever before, running all of Fort Dearborn Company’s current house stocks.

“Our customers demand high quality, vibrant and durable labels that result in great shelf presence,” said Mike Anderson, Chief Operating Officer, Fort Dearborn Company.  “The HP Indigo press ws4050 provides the fast turnaround times and economical short runs we require while enabling us to adopt a Just in Time production workflow – drastically reducing storage and inventory expenses.”

“We identified the need in the label printing world for a solution that can create moderate to low volumes of labels without the traditional set-up and without sacrificing image quality,” said Alon Bar Shany, VP and General Manager, HP Indigo Digital Press Division.  “The new HP Indigo press ws4050 is the most productive narrow-web digital press on the market, featuring start to finish capability, best in class print quality and high press utilization.  We are quite pleased that Fort Dearborn Company is leveraging the full potential of these great presses.” 

The ability to precisely match colors of existing products printed on litho machines was of paramount importance to Fort Dearborn.  When products reach the shelf, the digitally printed labels must match those that are already on the shelf. “When we were evaluating digital printing solutions, the most important thing to us was the ability to match the digital output with our existing historical print technologies.  The digitally printed labels cannot vary visually from the labels that are already on the shelf,” said Ralph Reichert, Vice President - Digital Print Solutions, Fort Dearborn Company.  “The HP Indigo press ws4000 and ws4050 provide that kind of precise color accuracy as well as the substrate flexibility to accommodate a variety of product shapes and sizes.”

The HP Indigo press ws4000 and ws4050 enable the operator to combine process printing with HP’s IndiChrome system to match spot colors and create high-end graphics that meet the requirements of consumer products.  In addition to outstanding print quality, the durability of HP ElectroInks is exceptional and is able to withstand the abuse of packaging and multiple shippings.

When the Pressure is on
Fort Dearborn typically uses their HP Indigo presses to create labels and packaging for low volume SKUs on demand, achieving maximum profitability on short to medium runs. Operating in an automated workflow, the HP Indigo presses enable jobs to be turned around in a matter of hours versus days or weeks. 
“The high quality and fast turnaround offered by HP Indigo digital printing allows us to react to live orders and meet last minute customer demands,” said Ralph Reichert.  “Not long ago, one of our well known Food & Beverage customers contacted us with an order of 150,000 labels needed immediately for a new product launch.  We didn’t have time to make plates.  Using the HP Indigo press we were able to quickly and efficiently fulfill this time-sensitive order delivering superior quality labels on the fly.“ 

The Shape of Things to Come
Another important application for the HP Indigo press ws4000 and ws4050 at Fort Dearborn is package prototyping.  Driven by a focus on zero make ready, Fort Dearborn can cost-effectively produce short runs of labels and shrink sleeve packaging to enable companies to test market new product packages.  This is especially vital with new unusual product shapes marketers are creating to compete for shelf space.