Richard Stuart-Turner reports on the latest hardware developments in the thriving digital textile printing market.
Constantly talked up over the last few years as one
of the most promising areas of large-format, digital
textile printing requires little introduction. The sector is
experiencing major growth – particularly in the areas of
soft signage, fashion and home textiles – as the demand
for personalised goods continues to take hold, and there
is no sign of things slowing down.
According to Smithers Pira, a total of 870m m2 of fabric
were printed on digital equipment in 2016 – worth $1.29bn
(£940m) – and this volume will increase at an average
annual rate of 17.5% in the years up to 2021, consuming
nearly 1.95bn m2 in that year and equating to a market
value of $2.66bn.
With such a positive outlook for the market, the most
recent European Fespa show, held in Hamburg last May,
was unsurprisingly awash with new textile technologies and
we can expect to see another raft of developments at the
2018 event, which will take place at Messe Berlin from 15
to 18 May.
As a warm-up of sorts, January saw the 2018 version
of Heimtextil, the international textile and garment
manufacturing trade fair held annually in Frankfurt. While
new printer launches at the show were thin on the ground,
there were plenty of hints as to where the market is
heading.
HP had one machine running on its stand – the Latex
570 – but the company made a conscious decision to focus
less on hardware this year.
“We were trying to move away from showing the
oven – it’s more important to show what comes out of it,
and so our Heimtextil stand was really about showing
applications,” says HP business development manager
for printed decorative applications, Terry Raghunath.
HP has continued to update its Latex portfolio,
adding two mid-range 3.2m-wide options in the past
few months – the Latex 3600 and 3200. Both machines
are able to print textiles and canvas at speeds of up to
44m2/hr.
“The textile market is a huge opportunity and whoever
is not sniffing there is probably missing the point. Our
Achilles heal has always been the washability with the
inks, but there are more and more textile materials that
we can start to use now,” says Raghunath.
“The Latex technology has been gaining a lot of
awareness and has become a reference on the market,
so as it has been gaining more penetration, media
manufacturers have been waking up to the fact that they
need to develop media for this technology – we’re seeing
this in wallcoverings, window blinds and many other
applications that we’re going after.”
The company will also broaden its textile printing
horizon in the coming years, according to Mike Horsten,
HP Graphics Solutions Business EMEA sales manager
for large-format graphic production. “There is a very high
push from our senior management to open up textiles
beyond Latex,” he says. “Today our focus is Latex, which
is going to protect us for the long-term, but there will be
different technologies coming online.”
HP was running wallcovering printing demos on its Latex 570 at Heimtextil and was far from the only
exhibitor concentrating on this area. Industrial Inkjet
(IIJ) for instance, used the show to update wallpaper
manufacturers on its digital wallpaper printing system,
following more than two years of R&D with partner Konica
Minolta.
The firm says this system will compete with
conventional printing methods in terms of productivity and
cost-per roll and can print on media including paper, PVC
and non-woven – coated and uncoated – at high speed.
There are no restrictions on image length and mural-wall
images can be printed back-to-back without a gap.
Mimaki showed a range of kit at Heimtextil, including
its Tx300P-1800 – highlighting the machine’s dual ink
capability by demonstrating both dye-sub onto polyester
and pigment onto natural fabrics using the same device.
It also demonstrated the Tx300P-1800B, showing how
the belt option adds the stability needed for printing onto
stretch and lightweight materials.
“The advancements that Mimaki has made over the
last few years has ensured that print quality and speeds
are constantly improving. Another major development
is that we are consistently seeing running costs coming
down,” says Brett Platt, textile product manager at Mimaki
distributor Hybrid Services.
Platt says one of the main reasons the home textile
market is growing so quickly is recent advancements in
pigment ink technology.
“Historically, natural fabrics could only be printed with
reactive inks, which require steaming and washing to
finish. However, advanced pigment ink technology only
requires heat to fix and the process is far easier. From an
investment point of view, the development of pigment inks
have meant that you don’t need a factory with a steamer
or a wash line to produce high quality textiles.”
Furthermore, Platt adds advancements in polyester
fabrics are enabling PSPs to more easily branch out into
the production of soft signage, sportswear and home
interiors with an entry-level sublimation transfer printer.
“Making the transition into sublimation transfer printing
is an easy move as the media handling of transfer paper
is very similar to that of general signage substrates.
The handling of natural fabrics is more complicated than
transfer paper, however Mimaki machines such as the
Tx300P-1800B are designed to keep media stable.”
High on Durst’s list of priorities is the continual
development of its Alpha Series printers and Alpha Ink P,
the one-step pigment ink it has developed especially for
these machines.
“Standard materials such as cotton and polyester
do not require pre- and post-treatment with this ink, so
the entire digital production process is accelerated and
simplified,” says Durst textile printing segment manager,
Martin Winkler.
“The Durst Alpha Series features different
configurations and print widths for industrial printing
of fashion garment and apparel, home textiles and
upholstery. This efficient and economic digital textile
production has step-less quality up to 1,450m2/hr.
At Fespa last year, Durst marked the European show
debut of its 3.2m-wide Rhotex 325 printer, which Winkler
says has been “extremely well received in the market”.
“One of its incredible benefits is featuring the dual properties of direct-to-textile and printing on transfer paper.”
For PSPs looking to print wider, a significant recent
development came from ATPColor, which last year debuted
what it claims is the world’s first 5.3m-wide grand-format textile
printer with integrated inline fixation. This one-step process
means users do not need to load and unload both the printer
and the calender.
Meanwhile, EFI’s latest superwide-format textile addition is
the 5.2m-wide Vutek FabriVu 520, which incorporates Reggiani
technology. This machine can print at up to 446m2/hr, with a
resolution up to 2,400dpi, and is suitable for producing items
including banners, flags, backlit displays and wall murals. EFI
says it can handle both direct-to-textile and transfer printing with
an easy changeover using the same inkset.
More recently the manufacturer, which showed printed
samples rather than machinery at Heimtextil, has launched the
smaller Reggiani Renoir Flexy, a 1.8m-wide machine capable of
printing at up to 400m2/hr with a resolution of up to 2,400dpi.
This printer can handle fabrics ranging from knitted to woven as
well as low- and high-stretchable materials.
“The Flexy can be used for sampling and small production. It
was created for the entry-level segment of the garment market,”
says EFI Reggiani sales and marketing director, Michele Riva.
EFI has also just launched its Fiery Textile Bundle, a set of
design and production workflow innovations for the Reggiani
machinery. The bundle includes new Fiery DesignPro Adobe
Illustrator and Photoshop plug-ins, to enable users to create
professional textile designs efficiently, as well as version 6.5 of
the Fiery proServer digital front-end.
The company says version 6.5 is an advanced offering for use
with wide- and superwide-format printers that offers high-quality
textile production, with support for multiple ink types and colour
technology and the production tools to handle step and repeat,
changes in fabric dimensions during production, and brand
colour accuracy.
“In 2018 we have a roadmap where we will have new
developments in equipment, in chemistry and in the depth of
applications possible. In terms of products, we will continue
our developments in pigment because this is an area where we
believe there is huge potential,” says Riva.
Mutoh showed its ValueJet 1938TX and 1948WX models at
Heimtextil. The 1938TX is a 1.9m-wide direct-to-textile printer that can print on closed and open non-stretch and limited
stretch fabrics while the 1948WX is an industrial highquality
1.9m-wide dye-sub printer.
The 1938TX incorporates a newly engineered high-end
fabric feeding, tensioning and take-up system which Mutoh
says guarantees “worry-free” feeding and transport of
fabrics.
Mutoh commercial marketing manager, Nick Decock,
says the environmentally friendly nature of textile printing
particularly appeals to PSPs and their clients. “The lower
production cost versus analogue technologies – no setup
cost, even for one-offs – and the environmental comfort
– there is no need to clean plates after printing – makes
digital print equipment environmentally friendly.”
On the smaller side of the digital textile printing market
are the direct-to-garment printers that are generally used
for producing promotional items such as t-shirts, hoodies
and sweatshirts – add-on applications for so many largeformat
PSPs and worth a look here because of that.
Kornit Digital’s recently launched Storm Duo, which
runs at a maximum speed of 190 garments per hour, is
targeted at light fabric printing, while the company’s Vulcan
can print 250 light or dark garments per hour and is
developed for mass production and customisation.
While this kit may be ideal for screen printers
considering a move to digital, or those dealing with high
volumes, there are plenty of alternatives available for PSPs
producing shorter runs or just getting started in this area.
Ricoh has just entered the direct-to-garment fray for the
first time with two new printers, the Ri 3000 and Ri 6000.
These machines, which use Ricoh’s water-based pigment
ink, print at speeds of up to 27 seconds per garment.
“The demand for decorated garments is expected to
continue to grow as it becomes easier to create and order
these items,” says Ricoh Europe head of commercial inkjet
business, Graham Kennedy.
“The textile print market is changing – the main
important trends are to be able to deliver fast and with
no minimum order quantity. This drives the demand for
digital print solutions rather than conventional analogue
technologies.”
Epson’s direct-to-garment printer the SureColor SCF2000,
which prints onto a wide range of cotton or cotton
blend products, is well established on the market. The
company says its future developments in this area will
focus on more automated maintenance and a lower cost
of ownership.
“In this Industry 4.0 era people are always looking
for more intelligent systems where operators are there
to confirm quality, rather than be the critical element to achieve quality,” says Epson Europe market development
manager, Heather Kendle.
The SC-F2000 was on Epson’s Heimtextil stand along with
the Monna Lisa Evo Tre 650m2/hr industrial textile printer
and the first showing in Germany of the company’s new
SureColor SC-F9300 dye-sub printer.
Kendle says the SC-F9300 is designed primarily for fast,
high-volume printing for clothing, textiles and soft signage, as
well as other printed merchandise.
“For the first time Epson has taken its Precision Dot
technology into its dye-sub products including a halftone
module, look-up tables and micro-weave, helping to make an
instantly noticeable difference to print quality, and make it
easy to get quality results straight out of the box.
“Furthermore, Epson’s wide gamut CMYK input profile
combines with UltraChrome DS inks to ensure the maximum
possible colour gamut, for accurate reproduction of even the
most complex designs.
“It operates at up to 108.6m2/hr and is a completely
Epson solution, comprising printer, inks and software, that
maximises uptime, with improved take-up and other reliability
features to eliminate common industry problems such as
cockling and head strikes.”
Heimtextil served to highlight the multitude of applications
that are now possible with digital textile printing and
Fespa in Berlin will likely build on that in May. Textiles is
set to dominate the agenda once again and the printer
manufacturers will start to show their hands over the next few
weeks, so watch this space closely.
