International visitors, fellow printers and executives from HP and national reseller CPI headed to the company’s Melbourne facility last night for a first look at the high-speed flatbed machine.

Magnify managing director John Duplock (pictured) said the FB7500, which was launched at Fespa Digital this year, “completes our business”.

“We can now confidently say we are a screen printing business built on a digital platform. There is nothing we can’t do,” he added.

Duplock told ProPrint that the purchase complements the firm’s existing HP Scitex Turbojet TJ8500, which was installed three-and-a-half years ago.

“Within six months [of the TurboJet’s arrival], we were running two shifts per day, seven days a week, but it left a void in this business. We were trying to sell ourselves as a screen printer, but we needed to produce double-sided work.”

“I needed a flatbed that printed as fast as my TurboJet and at as good a quality,” explained Duplock.

The install makes the seven-year-old company one of HP’s largest sites in the region.

HP Scitex sales and marketing manager Bruce Caldwell told ProPrint that the FB7500 “was built from the ground up by HP”.

“It’s based on a lot of research HP has done into the analogue industry, specifically screen printing,” added Caldwell.

Earlier this year, ProPrint asked HP’s vice-president, graphic solutions for Asia-Pacific, VS ‘Harry’ Hariharan whether the FB7500 was the ‘killer app’ heralding screen’s demise.

“It’s getting there, but we’ll need a few more generations to take out screen,” he said.

Click here for a review of the HP Scitex FB7500 on printweek.com.

Comment below to have your say on this story.

If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at editorial@sprinter.com.au.  

Sign up to the Sprinter newsletter