GP Hummingbird Builds Pre-Press Workflow Solution BY MIKE AGNESS
Digital presses have revolutionized packaging, delivering high-impact col- or and creating a new paradigm for versioning and customization. Despite its innovations, however, digitally printed packaging has not always offered solutions across the full spectrum of sizes and quantities. Georgia-Pacific (GP) Hummingbird digital packaging solutions has overcome that barrier by producing digitally pre-printed rolls for a full range of customer needs, from specialty versions to everyday large runs.
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“GP Hummingbird really incubated at Georgia-Pacific’s Color-Box, one of the largest corrugated litho providers in North America,” recalls Rob- ert Seay, Vice President, Digital Print Solutions, Georgia-Pacific. “They did something innovative. They took the work into pre-print, which included laminators and flatbed die-cutters – and the corrugated market.” Along came the HP PageWide T400, complementing the other equip- ment. The company already had laminators where rolls or sheets could be made into combined board and its box plants were converting offset pre-print from a roll press. Now it could take the rolls right off the T400, and already had the tools to make that work, immediately. “The wide web digital press let us attack high graphics print completely differently. Then, it morphed and became its own business,” Seay adds. GP Hummingbird was proof of concept that digital could work as an off- set alternative. When the HP T1100 was announced, Hummingbird was the first packaging supplier in North America to provide 110-inch wide web ca- pability for digital pre-print at lengths. Recently, Georgia-Pacific announced the purchase of an HP PageWide T1190 Press, the world’s highest-volume digital corrugated packaging solution, providing an east-west footprint. It will assure redundancy, provide scale, and let GP Hummingbird improve turnaround time while reducing shipping and logistics costs. “Much of our value proposition is supply chain efficiency. We can help different corrugated converters, turning around high volumes quickly. It’s easier to ship rolls of pre-print than boxes,” notes Seay. “Anybody can or- der our rolls, but we focus on those who know how to run pre-print. Onsite packaging engineers can help optimise layouts and packaging structures.” Varied Customer Base Serving many converters, GP Hummingbird has to consider how its workflow will be used everywhere. Customers will deliver a piece of art- CONTINUED ON PAGE 14
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www.boardconvertingnews.com
September 13, 2021
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