The HP Latex 3000 is a significant departure from exisiting HP latex machines and those offered by other vendors, according to the manufacturer. “One of the things people in this market have said previously is that they love the look and feel of latex but production is not fast enough for them,” said Jane Rixon, HP’s UK and Ireland large format production products channel business manager. The Latex 3000’s 77sqm/hr and 120sqm/hr speeds, for indoor and outdoor applications respectively, have solved this issue, added Rixon. According to HP, this boosted productivity is down to improved curing technology allowing substrates to move through the machine faster. The new printer also boasts improved cost-effectiveness, scratch resistance, ink capacity and roll handling capabilities. “As well as having the six colours, our third generation latex inks also have an ink optimiser, a transparent almost seventh ink that is laid down before the other inks to make these adhere to the surface even better,” said Rixon. She added: “You’re able to use heavier rolls on the Latex 3000 than you could on the previous 850. You’ve also got larger capacity, five-litre cartridges.” The current line-up of HP latex printers includes the L26500 and L28500, and the LX600, 820 and 850. HP said it had no plans to update these models to make them compatible with its new third generation latex ink. The models will however become part of a newly rebranded ‘HP Latex’ family, equivalent to HP’s Designjet and Scitex series. “Other manufacturers are bringing out latex technology but there are a number of differences between the formulation of those inks and in HP’s machines. “So we want to make it very clear what we mean when we talk about latex, which is completely water-based technology. There are no hazardous components in that ink,” explained Rixon. The HP Latex 3000 will be commercially available in August and will be priced at £230,000....

More than 100 fire-fighters have now attended the scene of the blaze, which has destroyed around 50% of Polestar’s work-in-progress storage facility at its Chaucer Business Park site in Launton Road, Bicester. Employees on site tried to contain the blaze, believed to have started on a gas-powered forklift truck, but the fire and rescue service was called at around 1am. No-one was hurt. Speaking from the scene, Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue’s Rewley Road station manager David Bray told PrintWeek that the “temporary” nature of the building, which comprised a “heavy-duty plastic roof material”, meant that clearing work was needed for the fire-fighters to gain access. “The fire is now under control but because it is still smoldering and the building is falling in on itself we now have specialist contractors removing the steel structure so that we can get in and get the huge piles and pallets of print to stop smoldering,” he explained. He added: “I would imagine we will be here for at least the next 24 hours.” Bray said half of the storage facility had been lost but that crews had managed to save the remaining 50%. He added: “Most importantly we’ve saved all the other buildings around it.” Bray confirmed that no printing equipment was in the affected building and that work was continuing at Polestar. “They are working round us and we are working around them.” Polestar was unavailable for comment. Among the raft of business, glossy and consumer titles printed at the site is free publication Time Out, of which more than 225,000 copies were destroyed, forcing the publisher to delay distribution until Thursday. Time Out managing director Greg Miall said: “This is the first time that this kind of situation has arisen in over 44 years of production and whilst some magazines survived, we will not be able to distribute as usual until Thursday this week. “We are just grateful that no-one was hurt in the incident and ask that our readers and users continue to use our website and continue to engage with us through our social networks and through comments and reviews.” The fire is believed to have been accidental and an investigation is underway....

More than 100 fire-fighters have now attended the scene of the blaze, which has destroyed around 50% of Polestar’s work-in-progress storage facility at its Chaucer Business Park site in Launton Road, Bicester. Employees on site tried to contain the blaze, believed to have started on a gas-powered forklift truck, but the fire and rescue service was called at around 1am. No-one was hurt. Speaking from the scene, Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue’s Rewley Road station manager David Bray told PrintWeek that the “temporary” nature of the building, which comprised a “heavy-duty plastic roof material”, meant that clearing work was needed for the fire-fighters to gain access. “The fire is now under control but because it is still smoldering and the building is falling in on itself we now have specialist contractors removing the steel structure so that we can get in and get the huge piles and pallets of print to stop smoldering,” he explained. He added: “I would imagine we will be here for at least the next 24 hours.” Bray said half of the storage facility had been lost but that crews had managed to save the remaining 50%. He added: “Most importantly we’ve saved all the other buildings around it.” Bray confirmed that no printing equipment was in the affected building and that work was continuing at Polestar. “They are working round us and we are working around them.” Polestar was unavailable for comment. Among the raft of business, glossy and consumer titles printed at the site is free publication Time Out, of which more than 225,000 copies were destroyed, forcing the publisher to delay distribution until Thursday. Time Out managing director Greg Miall said: “This is the first time that this kind of situation has arisen in over 44 years of production and whilst some magazines survived, we will not be able to distribute as usual until Thursday this week. “We are just grateful that no-one was hurt in the incident and ask that our readers and users continue to use our website and continue to engage with us through our social networks and through comments and reviews.” The fire is believed to have been accidental and an investigation is underway....

Ricoh has been confirmed as the latest digital vendor to be removed from the floor plan after deciding to cancel its 1,836sqm booking – which would have made it the second largest remaining exhibitor at the London event. While Ricoh’s decision is a major setback for Ipex organiser Informa, which has worked hard to reposition the show following a series of high profile withdrawals that began last summer, it follows a statement issued last week by Konica Minolta, the event’s largest exhibitor, in which it reaffirmed its steadfast commitment to the show. “Ipex perfectly aligns with our aim to continually invest in developing technical innovations and focus on the future of our business, making it the key international event for Konica Minolta in 2014,” said Olaf Lorenz, general manager, International Marketing Division, Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe. The company plans to use the Excel show as a springboard for its KM-1 B2 inkjet press, which was shown as a concept at last year’s Drupa. The 1,650sph KM-1 uses Konica Minolta’s own UV inkjet technology and a press chassis from Komori. However, Konica will now be one of the few mainstream digital vendors on the show floor, following the withdrawals of the likes of Canon, HP, Kodak and Xerox. Ricoh and Informa were unavailable for comment at the time of writing, but speaking in March, following Canon’s withdrawal, Informa said it was “absolutely committed to running Ipex next year”....

Ricoh has been confirmed as the latest digital vendor to be removed from the floor plan after deciding to cancel its 1,836sqm booking – which would have made it the second largest remaining exhibitor at the London event. “It’s not a financial decision or a decision based on who’s going to be at Ipex and who’s not, our decision is based purely on our strategic plan on how we can best meet our customer requirements,” said Ricoh UK head of production print Stephen Palmer. “So we made the decision that we can reach more customers by doing smaller shows and very focussed customer events around the UK and indeed Europe,” he added. He declined to comment on whether the company had lost its deposit, but said the company had “reached a decision” with Ipex. He also added that the company still supported organiser Informa and while it had ruled out appearing at Ipex 2014, the company may still appear at Ipex 2018 and hailed its appearance earlier this month at North Print & Pack as “very successful”. While Ricoh’s decision is a major setback for Ipex organiser Informa, which has worked hard to reposition the show following a series of high profile withdrawals that began last summer, it follows a statement issued last week by Konica Minolta, the event’s largest exhibitor, in which it reaffirmed its steadfast commitment to the show. “Ipex perfectly aligns with our aim to continually invest in developing technical innovations and focus on the future of our business, making it the key international event for Konica Minolta in 2014,” said Olaf Lorenz, general manager, International Marketing Division, Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe. The company plans to use the Excel show as a springboard for its KM-1 B2 inkjet press, which was shown as a concept at last year’s Drupa. The 1,650sph KM-1 uses Konica Minolta’s own UV inkjet technology and a press chassis from Komori. However, Konica will now be one of the few mainstream digital vendors on the show floor, following the withdrawals of the likes of Canon, HP, Kodak and Xerox. Informa was unavailable for comment at the time of writing, but speaking in March, following Canon’s withdrawal, it said it was “absolutely committed to running Ipex next year”....