Double sided printing on HP Latex 560/570

Hi, we are potentially looking at buying HP Latex 570 printer. One of the main features which really interest us is the double sided printing. Looking through the various HP marketing material available on internet, I found that the high accuracy between two sides can be achieved. Can someone please confirm what this means in term of tolerance? How accurate is the registration between two sides? Our print file size is 650x500mm. Thanks

The specified registration accuracy of double-sided printing in the HP Latex 570 is +/- 1mm/metre, which means that you should be able to produce double-sided prints up to about 3m in length with good registration between the two printed faces.

Please note that the double-sided capability in the HP Latex 570 is intended for blockout materials (i.e. where the material is opaque) rather than a double-sided backlit type if application, which requires an even higher level of registration accuracy.

For the best results, please check the substrate database (you can do this directly from the printer's front panel or on the web at https://www.printos.com/ml/#/medialocator) for substrates that have been specifically certified for double-sided printing - these are identified as those having a sub-type of either "Blockout banner (2 side printable)" for PVC banner materials or "Polyester (2 side printable)" for textile banners.

#2 Thanks for the reply. Is the +/- 1mm tolerance applicable to all the sides of the print? We recently had a demo for HP Latex 570 printer where we tested double sided feature. The material used was heavy duty blockout pvc banner. The registration between side A and side B was fairly accurate in print/scan direction however, it was off 10mm in media feed direction. The file size was 650x500mm and we only printed 1 copy each side so the printed length was only 650mm. Can the registration accuracy be improved in the media feed/length direction?

Actually the +/- 1mm/m mainly refers to the media feed direction (since registration in that direction is generally more difficult than in the scanning direction).

Sounds like something was not quite right in your demonstration - I would certainly expect registration in the media feed direction to be much better than 10mm for a relatively small print such as the one that you describe.

Is it possible that you could have the demo repeated to try and get a better result? It's hard to say with any certainty why it did not work as expected in your demo, and I think it should be possible to do better if you were able to repeat the exercise.

For reference, the double-sided procedure is detailed on pages 77-79 of the User Guide, and there are some recommendations there as to how to get the best results.

#4 Is the +/- 1mm/m registration tolerance an official specification from HP for printing double sided banners on Latex 570? If so, it would be better to send material and print files over to HP to test. We already tested while we had demo and it looks like we are not going to get any better results than previously achieved.

I don't think it is actually stated on the data sheet, but I'm confident that it should be significantly better than the 10mm that you saw in the demo. Now, there is some dependency on the material, so yes, I would agree that sending the materials and files over to HP for testing would make sense.

#6 Thanks for your comment. I’m expecting to get an answer from HP as to what is the official specification for double sided print accuracy. Hopefully someone from HP will answer my question here.

Actually, I am from HP

I have not yet been able to find an "official" statement regarding the registration accuracy when printing double-sided prints. There is a specification for length accuracy in general, which is +/- 1mm/m, and the User Guide suggests that the double-sided registration accuracy is sufficient for jobs up to 3m in length.

#8 That’s great. Who do I need to speak to in Hp in order to arrange the testing for us? We already had two demonstrations and had no success. Will you be able to help?

Your reseller should be able to arrange this for you. In case of any difficulty, please let me know (rana@hp.com) and I will try to help.