37 www.signlink.co.uk Issue 266 - August | September 2026 UNDER THE HOOD | HP R-SERIES + NEOLT ▼Printbureau, recently purchased a HP Latex R530 from Papergraphics whichwas subsequently installed alongside an existing HP Latex 560 The downside of being water-based is that more energy is required to dry the ink than to cure UV. HP has continued to develop and refine its Latex inks over several generations, reducing the energy consumption along the way. In the R530, ten printheads allow for the usual CMYK plus light cyan and magenta, white, an optimiser (primer), and protective Latex Overcoat for scratch and scuff resistance. Supporting resolutions up to 1200 x 600dpi, HP says the R530 will provide the same quality on all media, whether flexible or rigid. Extending the Appeal However, HP isn’t the only vendor which can offer hybrid roll-based printers: Agfa, EFI, Durst/Vanguard, and ColorJet are just some of the alternatives, and the company admits that its machines aren’t the fastest in comparison to others. However, raw print speed alone is only part of the overall productivity equation. While roll media can be loaded and largely left to run, rigid boards and similar need to be fed in and taken off the printer as each is completed. That typically doesn’t quite happen fast enough to warrant people standing either side all the time, just loading and unloading, while having one person doing both will create intense bursts of activity between each board or sheet – and yet is likely to introduce delays between removing one and loading the next as the same person can’t be both sides of the machine at once – but still with unproductive waiting time in between that isn’t really long enough to do much of anything else. With labour costs rising constantly and the availability of suitably skilled staff apparently dropping in inverse ratio, it’s increasingly impractical and expensive to dedicate staff to tasks like these. The answer, of course, is automation. While robotic load and unload systems have been an option for the fastest flatbed printers for some years, they’ve been very much the high-end option for the biggest print shops with very large volumes. What HP has done in conjunction with Italian post-print finishing specialist, Neolt, is to come up with an automation option for HP’s R-series hybrid printers that is an appropriate match for the printers’ throughput. HP describes as a ‘significant’ productivity increase for work on pre-cut rigid boards. The Neolt unit’s loading and unloading tables can hold up to 40cm depth of material, and there is an automatic levelling system that adjusts height according to material quantity for optimal alignment and performance. The loading system uses a vacuum suction cup unit with independent motion control, allowing precise and automated sheet feeding directly to the printer. The stacker system features pneumatic motorised rollers for smooth panel ejection and is open to integration with cutting systems as well. The configuration suitable for use with the HP Latex R530 and R1000 can handle media up to 1600 x 1500mm, while the model for the R2000 goes to 2500 x 1600mm, so big enough for the standard 8 x 4ft board format if you have the larger Latex printer, with optional extension tables for both formats available. HP says it’s suitable for paper-based materials, self-adhesive vinyl, roll-ups and boards, including corrugated plastic types, Plexiglass, Dibond/aluminium, various foam boards, paperboards, and cardboard. Media under 180gsm or heavily wrapped cardboard are not recommended. At the other end of the scale, media loading capacity for up to 400kg means that some quite dense materials can be handled. Papergraphics confirms guide pricing at under £40,000 for the 1.6m configuration for use with the HP Latex R1000 and R530 models, and under £50,000 for the 2.5m version to suit the Latex R2000. The Neolt Feeder and Stacker will be on display at The Print Show in September with HP presenting it running in conjunction with the Latex R1000 Plus printer, so you will have a chance to assess its capabilities in the flesh at the show. What HP has done in conjunction with Italian post-print finishing specialist, Neolt, is to come up with an automation option for HP’s R-series hybrid printers that is an appropriate match for the printers’ throughput Shown working in conjunction with a Latex R2000 at FESPA 2026 in Barcelona, and available in the UK through exclusive reseller Papergraphics, Neolt’s Automatic Feeder and Stacker for R-Series brings some of this capability to much smaller enterprises, bringing automated feeding and stacking capabilities to all the R-series models, including the R530, both new and in existing installations. This allows for unattended operation and what
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