HP Inc.’s print service providers (PSPs) are mobilizing industrial facilities worldwide to deliver print products and help in the global effort to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. Many PSPs are working with limited staff to adhere to health regulations, while retooling production lines to support the effort. 

“We greatly appreciate our print partners and their employees for their unrelenting dedication and are pleased we can also play a part in supporting the huge effort taking place,” says Santi Morera, general manager and global head of HP’s Graphics Solutions Business.

Nosco of Illinois, a subsidiary of Holden Industries, a supplier of digital print solutions for folding cartons, labels and flexible packaging, has focused heavily on pharma and healthcare by using multiple HP Indigo digital label press equipment to produce packaging testing kits, drug products, syringes for hospitals, face masks, and hand sanitizer during the current crisis with the virus. Millions of labels have already been produced and production will continue to support the needs of the pharma and healthcare market.

Custom Label of California is a supplier with a designated “essential business” status producing products for healthcare, food and more. As a result of a spike in orders, HP has shipped emergency ink supplies the same day to the site to ensure no disruption in production. “One of the largest increases in incremental volume is for packaging for ready-to-eat food due to the shift from dining out to making food at home,” says Lars Ho-Tseung, president and CEO, Custom Label. “Volume is also increasing for labels and packaging for over-the-counter drug products for flu symptoms.”

Duggal Visual Solutions, a New York City commercial print service provider, has also teamed up with Kings County Distillery, a Brooklyn Navy Yard neighbor that has converted its efforts to produce hand sanitizer. The two companies are producing, bottling and labeling the products that are in short supply in the US. Duggal is printing the paper-based labels on its sheetfed HP Indigo 12000 presses.

“Neighbors are helping neighbors, taking the tools you have to partner and create immediate solutions,” explains Marc Lovci, vice president at Duggal. “Kings reached out at to our Indigo department to create the labels, including diecutting and adhesive.”

Duggal Visual Solutions has retooled its production facility to produce face shields for medical staff and first responders in New York City. “Over the past week, we assembled a task force to address the shortage in health care safety equipment and immediately saw we could quickly produce face shields. Over 150 volunteers are coming to work to make this life-saving equipment, producing 120,000 units in the first week, with a total order of 360,000 units,” adds Lovci.

Duggal Visual Solutions occupies 250,000 square feet of production space, in five buildings within the historic Brooklyn Navy Yard. Labels are printed in the Indigo Digital Press division.

In China, Foresee Images Technology of Shanghai, printed labels for medical equipment, such as sterilized wet wipes. The customer required labels in  same-day turnaround, within six hours, for a print job that typically requires a week to complete. 

Kirkwood Printing of Wilmington, MA,  also mobilized for overnight delivery of outdoor signage printed for drive-thru testing centers set up by a locally headquartered national pharmacy. The signage, produced on HP Latex R2000 printers, helps direct people around the area. In addition, point of purchase posters are being printed on HP Indigo digital presses for many retailers to advise of store closings. “Shortly after this crisis began, we began diverting resources to COVID-19 related needs, providing materials as fast as possible for signage to inform the public,” states Mark Nappa, chief sales officer of Kirkwood.

Meanwhile, Dispackaging in Spain is using its HP Latex R series printers to produce face shields to help cope with the lack of protection for health service workers. Production of the low-cost masks has reached 50,000 units a week.