Japan Coast Guard: Making the seas safer with an HP PageWide printer

Japan Coast Guard is an organisation dedicated to ensuring the safety of Japanese coastal waters. Nothing surprising about that. But what you might not expect is that they achieve this using an HP PageWide XL 8000 printer. This is an intriguing example of how HP clients use print to solve problems, so Perfect Colours is sharing HP’s new video in which members of the Japan Coast Guard talk about exactly how and why the PageWide XL 8000 makes all the difference to their work – and to safety on the high seas.

A high demand for high-quality print

When we think of a coast guard service, we generally think of uniformed men in powerboats, speeding to rescue sailors in peril or intercept pirates and traffickers. So how can a wide-format printer contribute to these high drama moments? 

In fact, Japan Coast Guard has a Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department which is responsible for producing and regularly updating more than 2,000 highly accurate sea charts a year. According to Makoto Momosaki, the department’s principal cartography officer: “Urgent, high-volume print jobs often arise, so the department needed a high-speed, large format print solution. The Coast Guard service decided that HP PageWide technology was the best fit for its needs.”

“HP PageWide is superior to other printers because it can print 30 sheets per minute and it’s capable of printing 18 sheets of A0 per minute,” adds senior graphical names officer Tomoo Fijii. “It has capabilities other printers can’t match. Ships rely on nautical charts for their safety so print quality is important. Clarity must be uniform from the centre to the edge and HP PageWide achieves this.”

Using print to solve problems

Jon Telling, our sales director, comments: “This is a perfect example of using print to solve problems – and in this particular case, to save lives. We’d love to hear about the problems our own clients are solving by using print, and how it positively impacts your business or that of your clients. Watch the video and let us know your own story.”

Watch the Japan Coast Guard video here – or use our contact form to let us know what you’re doing to change the world with print