HP today announced the opening of a dedicated demonstration and training centre at Moscow State University of Printing Arts (MSUP), which will boast key digital printing equipment from the company's Graphic Solutions Business (GSB) portfolio.
The new demo centre was officially unveiled at an opening ceremony in association with both Laboratoria Reklamnuh Technologiy and Nissa, representing HP Scitex and HP Indigo equipment respectively, in Russia. Fully operational from today, in association with these local HP partners, the facility will provide invaluable educational tutorials and workshops for MSUP's students, as well as accommodate HP Open House events, customer demonstrations, and special seminars.
MSUP's students are typically training for careers in publishing houses, print shops, book-selling organisations and packaging and design. Numbering around 7000, these students will benefit from a broad line-up of HP's innovative GSB printing equipment. This includes the HP Indigo press 5500 offering high-quality, short-run, personalised printing; as well as the recently launched HP Scitex FB500 Printer, a versatile and robust UV flatbed solution which enables printing onto virtually any rigid or flexible media at up to1200 x 600dpi resolution.
Also part of the digital print arsenal is the 2.6m-wide HP Scitex LX600 Printer which can produce signs and graphics for a wide range of indoor and outdoor applications. The LX600 also uses HP's water-based latex ink technology for an improved printing environment and odourless prints.(1) Finally, the recently introduced, at up to 140m2 per hour, HPZ6200 Designjet Photo Printer will complete the demo centre's impressive array of equipment.
HP Indigo installation provides initial spark
HP's new Moscow demo centre follows MSUP's earlier purchase of its first HP printer in 2007, when it installed an Indigo press as the basis of its digital printing laboratory. This was subsequently followed by a seven-colour HP Indigo press 5500.
The acquisition of HP Scitex printing equipment will broaden the syllabus for students. In addition to Indigo's high-speed VDP offering, this will look at the wealth of application possibilities achievable via the multi-substrate capabilities of both flatbed and roll-to-roll wide-format inkjet technologies. Indeed, in order to properly develop tailor-made tuition courses, MSUP lecturers visited HP Indigo in Israel and HP Scitex in Barcelona for operator training and to learn how to get the most out of the equipment.
As has traditionally been the case with MSUP's HP Indigo equipment, students will be expected to prepare laboratory assignments and coursework for trial printing on the new presses, in order to complete their courses.
"Digital technology has already bought many advantages to the university and our dedicated HP demo centre will most certainly deliver a new level of benefits to students and the wider Russian Graphics Arts market," said Professor Alexander Tsyganenko, rector, Moscow State University of Printing Arts. "The wide-range of HP digital printing devices we now operate will dramatically broaden the scope of our training programme and further students' increased appreciation of digital's immense attributes and the plethora of business opportunities these present.
MSUP's heritage goes back to 1930, with the creation of the Moscow Graphic Arts College. Several years later the college began to instruct the whole scope of graphic arts and publishing curricula and is today a recognised educational and scientific centre within Russia and neighbouring countries.
(1) Printers using HP Latex Inks use internal heaters to dry and cure the latex polymer film. Some substrates may have inherent odour.
