Baker Labels upgrades to new HP Indigo 6K

Baker Labels have been digitally printing labels with HP since 2006. This latest investment in the HP Indigo 6k will be the ninth HP press purchased by Steve Baker since then. The acquisition is an upgrade to the HP Indigo WS6800 purchased in 2014 and represents Bakers’ continued trust in the innovation and quality of the HP Indigo presses.

In preparation for the installation, the digital area had to have a major shuffle around to make space for the incoming larger press with ILP and to remove the outgoing HP Indigo. The teams from Bakers and HP worked over several days to ensure that the disruption to production was kept to a minimum.

The digital department currently boasts three HP Indigo presses and two Screen inkjets. In addition, the flexible packaging division BakPac hosts an HP indigo 20k press. A flexographic Nilpeter FB3 completes the fleet of reel-to-reel label presses.

Technical changes to the upgrade from the WS6800 include Spot Master and the new spectrophotometer for faster time-to-color and automated color-matching process to guarantee color consistency and repeatability. It also offeres on the fly job color scorecard and color performance reports and upt to four times faster color calibration while printing based on higher frequency spectrophotometer.

The new HP Production Pro DFEs offers a faster RIP engine, with up to 25 percent improvement. The web-based user interface allowing access to the DFE from any computer on the network without the need to install multiple ‘clients’ 

The in-line priming unit enables easy on-demand treatment of substrates to print on nearly any substrate.

 Peter Jolly UK & Ireland Manager HP Indigo: ‘We are delighted to continue our long-standing partnership with Baker Labels. For many years Baker have been early engagers in HP Indigo technology, for example being one of the first label-based printing companies to install an HP Indigo 20000 flexible packaging press; and now continuing that investment in innovation with HP Indigo 6K with inline primer. What is always an added bonus is working with Baker Labels team is always such a pleasure. A brilliantly proactive and positive team, led from the front by Steve Baker.’

Steve Baker, Managing Director at Baker Labels and BakPak said: ‘This latest HP Indigo 6k press with ILP was a natural progression as we needed to update our original 6800. It’s our first to include an in-line primer unit – we currently coat our materials offline, so this gives us a few more options. We have a policy of ensuring our staff have the best equipment to produce top quality work with the least number of issues. This install will ensure the digital division is covered for a few more years.’