PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week Lahore 2011 Muse Collection

Muse Womenswear collection at PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week 2011 Lahore reflected a strong, confident woman, who isn’t afraid to experiment and think outside the box.

Muse Womenswear collection at PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week 2011 Lahore reflected a strong, confident woman, who isn’t afraid to experiment and think outside the box.
Muse was inspired by the quintessential style icon, who mixes and matches pieces to be unique. With this collection, the female shape was accentuated with harem pants; color mixed with an armor of gold embroidery to add a cool, modern spin to Eastern wear. Pleated midi-length shirts kept the mood seductive. Cut in classic and contemporary silhouettes, the collection was based in silks and embellished with paillets, beads, pearls, and laces.

producing digital textile printing

1.18 Other key elements

Many disciplines and competencies contribute to producing digital textile

printing. In addition to print head design and manufacture, material handling

engineering, and ink chemistry, are textile manufacture and pre-treatment, post-

print finishing, design, raster image processing (RIP), and color management

software.

Monti Antonio S.p.A. of Thiene, Italy, has developed vacuum heat presses

that can produce print-through with digital printed images for flags, banners, and

scarves. Other manufacturers of post-processing equipment are also expanding

the capabilities and applications for digital textile printing.

Color matching and management software and equipment are helping digital

textile designers and printers distribute and print at multiple locations around the

world with colors that match exactly. Printer±ink±media profiling and climate-

controlled environments are enabling digital textile printers to reproduce print

images repeatedly. Digital textile printing is entering an era of greatly improved

reliability that replaces personal skill with scientific and numeric precision.

digital textile printing Equipment and manufacturers

1.17 FESPA 2005

Equipment manufacturers introduced a number of new garment and textile

printing systems at the FESPA 2005 Conference in Munich, Germany. The US

Screen Printing Institute of Tempe, Arizona, USA offered four T-shirt printing

devices. USSPI sold about 300 of its Fast T-Jet printers between their

introduction at SGIA in October 2004 and the beginning of FESPA on 31 May

2005. USSPI listed this device at US$10,995 and reportedly uses about $0.40

worth of ink per image. It can print about 15±20 12 inch by 12 inch images per

hour. USSPI offers its Fast T-Jet LF-2000 Jumbo for US$24,995. This device can

print up to 23.5 inches by 36 inches for oversized T-shirts and beach towels. The

company exhibited its Fast T-Jet XL-600 Giant with a price tag of $84,995. This

eight-color printer reportedly can print 60±120 T-shirt images per hour with ink

that costs less than $0.40 per image. USSPI also presented a video depicting its

adaptation of the DuPont Artistri printer for T-shirt printing. USSPI claims that

this new device can print from 300 to 400 T-shirts per hour. It utilizes carts with

10 mounted platens (five per side) for holding shirts. Operators place the shirts on

the platens and remove them away from the printer after printing. USSPI claims

ink costs per print range from $0.10 to $0.30 and lists the printer for US$240,000.

Kornit Digital Ltd exhibited its Kornit 931 dual platen inkjet T-shirt printer

and introduced white ink for printing dark-colored garments. Kornit indicates

10 Digital printing of textiles

that it has enhanced the production capability of its 931 printer to produce from

320 to 400 T-shirts per hour. Its light solvent ink and fabric coating permits

printing a wide range of fabrics. Kornit recently added 360 360 dpi capability

to its list of higher print resolution capabilities. This lower resolution enables

faster production with image quality that suffices for most T-shirt printing. The

931 with white lists for about ¨200,000.

Textile printing and processing equipment manufacturer, MS s.r.l. of

Caronno Pertusella, Italy, has introduced its MS-One T-shirt printer. MS reports

that it can print an A4-sized image in 30 seconds and an A3-sized image in 60

seconds. The MS-One prints resolutions from 360 360 dpi to 1440 1440 dpi,

lists for ¨14,000 and comes with a two-year warranty. MS offers its JetPrint

material handling system for use with wide format plotters currently on the

market. This permits material transport adjustments for improved image quality.

MS includes a blanket-washing module with blanket drying, a print drying

module, motor-driven fabric winding and unwinding, a pressing cylinder, an

anti-static bar, and a material spreading and uncurling device. MS also offers

two inkjet coating and printing devices: the MS-Coat & Print and the MS-Coat

& Print SG Plus. These devices pretreat and print simultaneously inline. The MS

Coat & Print SG Plus adds fixation and steaming.

Colorprint snc of Gallarate, Italy, exhibited its Twister hybrid T-shirt printer

that can print images up to 40 cm wide. This carousel device combines a multi-

station screen printing press and a multi-color piezoelectric inkjet printer. It can

screen print a white as a base for the inkjet printing process when decorating

colored garments. It can also add screen printed effects, such as glitter, puff, and

metallic colors, to enhance and add dimension to digital garment printing.

Colorprint's Twister inkjet printing device offers eight pigmented colors ±

yellow, magenta, cyan, black, red, dark blue, green, and gray ± for its water-

based device and a maximum resolution of 1440 1440 dpi. Colorprint also

offers the Twister as a solvent-based inkjet system. It claims a throughput speed

of 100 T-shirts per hour and lists the Twister for ¨60,000.

ATP Color of Senago (Milano), Italy, has developed its M-series three-platen

T-shirt printer that the company reports can yield up to 50 T-shirts per hour with

600 600 dpi resolution with four-color process inks. It uses Epson printheads

and lists for ¨50,000. ATP Color offers its T-series dual gantry Epson-based

sticky belt textile printing system capable of printing resolutions up to 1440

1440 dpi. It provides both the T- and F-series printers in versions that can handle

media widths from 162 cm to 320 cm. The double gantry T-series lists from

¨120,000 and the single gantry from ¨74,000. The F-series lists from ¨54,000.

Algotex s.r.l. of Crevalcore (Bologna), Italy, introduced its Rainbow Jet four-

color process inkjet printer series. Algotex offers three devices each with XAAR

piezo inkjet print heads and solvent based inks for printing textiles, flags, and

banners in addition to vinyl and paper. The RB 250 uses eight XJ 128 PIJ print

heads and can print 185±370 dpi images on materials as wide as 2.5 meters. At

The evolution and progression of digital printing of textiles 11

its lowest resolution the RB 250 can print 27m2/hr, and at its highest image

quality about 15m2/hr. The RB 325 also uses eight XJ 128 PIJ print heads and

can print 185±370 dpi images on materials as wide as 3.2 meters. At its lowest

resolution the RB 325 can print 32m2/hr, and at its highest image quality about

18m2/hr. The RB 325 TOP uses 12 XJ 126 PIJ print heads and can print 200±

400 dpi images on materials as wide as 3.2 meters. At its lowest resolution the

RB 325 TOP can print 42m2/hr, and at its highest image quality about 25m2/hr.

As mentioned earlier, at ITMA in Paris in 1999, Stork of Boxmeer, the

Netherlands, exhibited a number of continuous inkjet printing systems that it had

developed and two drop-on-demand piezoelectic printers that it had rebranded

and enhanced with Stork software. While Stork has since discontinued its efforts

to develop a continuous inkjet short-run production printer, it has refocused its

efforts on enhancing digital printing systems that other manufacturers have built

through its Stork Digital Imaging BV division. Stork continues its partnership

with Lectra of Paris, the world leader in textile and apparel software. Mimaki

supplies its TX series of printers to Stork, which has branded them as the seven-

color Amba and eight-color Sapphire and Sapphire II. It also continues to offer

the Konica, now Konica-Minolta, PIJ wide-format textile printer under its

Zircon brand name for disperse dye printing of polyester and other receptive

polymeric fabrics.

Stork Digital Imaging BV exhibited its Sapphire II at FESPA 2005. Stork

also promoted its Digital Print Asia (DPA) joint venture with the Yeh Group that

has its production facility located in Samutsakorn, Thailand. Stork has

developed a certification system with DPA called Stork U SeeÕ that guarantees

its customers that design samples produced in one of Stork's sampling service

offices can be reproduced accurately at its bulk production location in Thailand.

Stork has located its sampling service offices at Boxmeer in the Netherlands,

New York City and Giridara Kapugoda in Sri Lanka. Stork offers its sampling

production up to 50 meters long at its service offices and production over 50

meters long from its Thai production center. This business system combined

with inkjet printing offers customers the possibility of shorter print runs, less

inventory risk, production to match shorter fashion cycles, unlimited colorways,

and no repeat length limitation.

Hollanders Printing Systems BV of Eindhoven and Boxmeer, the Nether-

lands, introduced its ColorBooster textile production inkjet printer. It reports

90% production uptime based on its beta experience. The Hollander value

proposition for its customers is to offer the flexible advantages of digital printing

and processing in a high image quality system that can operate around the clock

with a minimum of operator intervention with low operation cost. It installed 14

of these printers between June 2004 and May 2005 as beta tests and reports

customer satisfaction running production operations with the ColorBooster. It

employs 16 piezo drop-on-demand print heads with 180 nozzles each to produce

360 360 dpi to 2880 2880 dpi images with eight print colors. Hollanders

12 Digital printing of textiles

claims the ColorBooster can print at 80m2/hr printing four-color 360 360 dpi

prints (2 4 colors) at 25±50% coverage and 39 m2/hr at 100% coverage. It

claims the ColorBooster can print at 50 m2/hr eight-color 720 360 dpi at 25±

50% coverage and 22m2/hr at 100% coverage. It prints fabrics up to 2.3m wide

with images up to 2.23m wide.

Hollanders ColorBooster employs an inline print head arrangement that

maintains print order during bidirectional printhead scanning. This eliminates

certain types of banding and contributes to color consistency. Its open ink

system carries a five-liter reservoir and ink buffer for each of its eight print

colors. It also includes an anti-sedimentation system that continuously

circulates ink to keep colorants from settling out of solution, and users can

replenish ink without interrupting operation. The Hollanders inkjet print heads

can shoot pigmented inks, acid, reactive, disperse and disperse±sublimation

transfer dyes. Hollanders Printing Systems indicates that its system with a

combination of techniques can achieve a high level of print-through

penetration that manufacturers of flags, banners, and silk scarves require.

The ColorBooster system includes color management that Hollanders says can

match colors precisely. Hollanders Printing Systems offers an open ink system

with the end user selecting its ink supplier. The ColorBooster also includes a

newly developed material transport system that can adjust cloth tension for

each substrate and maintain tension during printing. The ColorBooster

automatically step-corrects to compensate for material thickness. It includes

a computer climate controlled system for the printing process. The company

claims the ColorBooster can print as many as 80,000m2 of fabric per year. The

ColorBooster lists for ¨145,000.

d.gen International, Inc., of Seoul, Korea, offers textile inkjet printing

models based on Roland Epson-based printing systems. These include the

Artrix d.gen 740 TX/Be with a maximum print width of 1.879m and the d.gen

1000 TX/Be with a maximum print width of 2.6 m. Both use 12 Epson PIJ print

heads that can generate textile prints from 450 360 dpi two-pass six-color

prints at 28m2/hr to 1440 1440 dpi 16-pass prints at 3.5 m2/hr. These systems

employ a one-liter continuous ink feeding system for each color. Textile

printers can use reactive, acid, or disperse dye inks or pigment inks with this

print system. d.gen offers the 740 TX/C with a cylinder material handling

system for thin fabrics such as silk chiffon for ¨43,000. It also offers the

Teleios for direct disperse±sublimation dye printing built on the same printer

bases as the d.gen 740 TX/Be and 1000 TX/Be. It offers disperse dye in cyan,

magenta, yellow, black, light cyan, light magenta, orange, green, gray, and

deeper black. The Teleios d.gen 1377TX/74 lists for ¨50,000 while the d.gen

1377TX/100 lists for ¨90,000.

d.gen unveiled its 7474 TX Heracle dual gantry inkjet printing systems. It

employs a sticky belt and can print a maximum width of 1.879 m. It carries 24

print heads, 12 on each gantry, and can print at a maximum resolution of 1440

The evolution and progression of digital printing of textiles 13

dpi. This device was still in beta testing but d.gen reports that it will be available

by the end of 2005. It prints reactive, acid, and disperse dye or pigment ink. In

four-pass, 360 dpi mode, the Heracle will print 36.5m2/hr, and in the four-pass

720 dpi mode it will print at a rate of 21.4m2/hr. d.gen has yet to announce a

price for the Heracle. This sticky belt device will likely compete with the sticky

belt machine from DuPont.

Kimoto Ltd of Rumlang, Switzerland, introduced four inkjet printers, which

it calls the Philyasystem. At the core of each of these devices is a Roland printer

with Epson print head technology producing resolution up to 1440 dpi. Kimoto

designed one of these devices, the TBS-1600, with an adhesive belt transport

system for controlling textile during printing. Kimoto offers the printer for use

with four- or six-color water-based ink sets. It lists for ¨82,500. Kimoto reports

having one of its Philyasystems beta-testing in Italy.

Digital Textile and garment printers

1.16 SGIA 2004

At SGIA 2004, held from 6 to 9 October 2004 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA,

Kornit Digital of Moshav Magshimim, Israel, exhibited two robust inkjet

garment printers using Spectra AAA print heads, the single platen 930 and

double platen 931. Kornit configures its Spectra AAA print heads to shoot 77

picoliter droplets, thus enabling fast printing and greater ink deposit and color

saturation. Kornit uses mild solvent-based inks with its 930 and 931 printers, but

its versatile print heads can also fire water-based and UV-cure inks. Kornit has

configured its printers to yield 450 450 dpi, 540 540 dpi, and 630 630 dpi.

Kornit has focused its production efforts on its 931 printer in response to market

demand for a high production T-shirt printer. It also increased the frequency of

drop generation from its print heads, thereby increasing print throughput to

about 300 printed garments per hour for its 931.

Also at SGIA 2004, the US Screen Printing Institute (USSPI) introduced its

Fast T-JetTM garment printing device based on the Epson 2200, and Jumbo Fast

T-JetTM garment printer based on the Epson 7600. These devices print at 360

and 720 dpi resolutions. The Fast T-Jet is the lowest cost inkjet garment printing

device available. It can print a double-hit 12 inch by 12 inch print at 360 dpi in

about two minutes and the same size image at 720 dpi in about four minutes.

USSPI also offers a number of platens for its printers including a cap platen.

digital printing device

1.15 Drupa 2004

One digital printing device at this quadrennial exhibition in Duesseldorf

presaged potential developments for digital textile printing. Sun Chemical and

Inca Digital introduced a high-speed single pass inkjet printer for decorating

corrugated cardboard for the packaging industry. It employed a full-width array

of Spectra PIJ print heads. This half-meter wide demonstration model points the

way to digital high-speed production printing for a wide range of applications

including textile printing.

production digital textile printing

1.14 ITMA 2003

ITMA 2003 at Birmingham, UK, during October 2003 marked the introduction

of a number of breakthrough developments for digital printing on textiles and

the beginning of production digital textile printing of yard goods. The key

developments involved companies with considerable experience building con-

ventional textile printing equipment, including Ichinose, Reggiani, Robustelli,

and Zimmer.

· DuPont Ink Jet exhibited two of its Artistri 2020 printers with its Japanese

partner and machine builder, Ichinose Toshin Kogyo Co. Ltd. The Artistri

2020 uses 16 Seiko Instruments PIJ print heads arranged with eight heads on

each of two gantries. This configuration enables the use of two different ink

types or using the same ink on both gantries for greater production speed. The

device prints rolls of fabric up to 1.8m wide at print resolution of 600 dpi at a

production rate of about 30m2/hr. Its roll-to-roll adhesive print blanket

system enables printing on woven, and knits, including elastomeric fabrics.

The Artistri system and inks can print on nylon, silk, cotton, polyester and

blend materials including DuPont Lycra blends. The 2020 stood out from

other production inkjet printers because its 2020 devices were printing

pigmented and disperse dye ink sets while competitive devices were printing

less challenging acid and reactive dyes. DuPont also offered fiber reactive

and acid ink sets for its inkjet printers. DuPontTM ArtistriTM inks are

available in cyan, magenta, yellow, black, light cyan, light magenta, orange

and blue for reactive dye; cyan, magenta, yellow, black, light cyan, light

magenta, red and blue for disperse dye and pigment; and cyan, magenta,

yellow, black, red, blue, green, orange, fluorescent yellow and fluorescent red

for acid dye. The DuPont dyes require post-print fixing typically used for

conventional fabric printing. The Artistri system also includes the DuPontTM

ArtistriTM Color Control and Management System (CCMS) and RIP

software. ITMA marked the emergence from beta testing and the commercial

launch of the Artistri 2020. By February 2006, DuPont had placed about 160

Artistri 2020 printers in locations around the world. Sign and banner

manufacturers in addition to other product samples and small to medium

production fabric printers have acquired this device.

· L&P introduced a UV-curable dye for use with its Virtu system. Sub-

sequent versions of the Virtu print line have achieved print speeds of about

200m2/hr.

8 Digital printing of textiles

· Mimaki unveiled its TX3 fabric printer with more robust material handling

capability than the Mimaki TX2 to tension and print difficult-to-handle

fabrics such as elastomeric fabrics. The TX3 provides advanced material

handling like that provided for the TX2 on the DUA Graphic Systems Srl

(DGS) Cromos textile printer.

· DGS of Como, Italy, also exhibited its other software and textile printer

offerings at ITMA. DUA Graphic Systems expanded from a supplier of

software solutions to the screen engraving industry, to a digital printing

software provider and value-added manufacturer of advanced textile handling

devices for existing digital printing systems. In addition to the Cromos printer

based on the Mimaki TX2, DGS offers the Star G8, based on the Encad

Novastar 850, the Colorspan Fabrijet XII, and the Luxor 7 based on the

Mimaki TX printer. DGS supplies these systems with its Match Print II

software. In February 2005, DGS and DuPont announced a marketing

partnership for the sale of the Artistri 2020 and Match Print II software.

· Reggiani, in cooperation with Scitex Vision and Ciba, introduced its DReAM

textile printer using 42 Aprion 512-nozzle PIJ print heads for this six-color

digital textile-printing device. Reggiani reports that the DReAM can print

600 dpi throughput at a rate of 150m2/hr. Reggiani had installed over a dozen

of these devices by May 2005, most of which are located in Italy.

· Robustelli, in partnership with Epson, launched its Monna Lisa textile printer.

This device is capable of printing very high-resolution images for which

Epson print heads are known. The Monna Lisa features half again as many

print heads as the Mimaki TX2, along with improved material handling.

Robustelli has placed about a dozen of these printers in Italy.

· Zimmer exhibited its Chromotex printer using arrays of `Flatjet' piezoelectric

stimulated spray nozzles. It also showed its Chromojet carpet mat inkjet

printer.

During 2003, Mimaki exhibited its GP 604 garment-printing device with 60 cm

(24 inch) print width. Mimaki also offers the GP 1810 inkjet garment printer

with 1.8m (73.2 inch) print width.

Digital Textile DPI Exhibition

1.13 DPI 2001

In the spring of 2001 at the Atlanta DPI Exhibition, Leggett and Platt (L&P)

introduced its Virtu series of UV-cure printers that it built for printing mattress

ticking and for other applications.

digital textile in Heimtextil 2001

1.12 Heimtextil 2001

DuPont introduced the Artistri 3210 at Heimtextil in Germany in January 2001. It

used Spectra's water tolerant Nova Q PIJ print heads shooting DuPont Artistri

inks on a Vutek 3.2 meter wide media platform. Its print width is 3.05 m. DuPont

promoted these devices for the printing of home furnishings. In 2002, DuPont

unveiled its Artistri 2020 printer using DuPont modified Seiko Instruments PIJ

print heads on an Ichinose sticky belt textile transportation system.

what is Drupa

1.11 Drupa 2000

At Drupa 2000, DPS and Aprion unveiled their Magic PIJ print head system that

will subsequently drive the Reggiani DReAM printer.

what is FESPA and ITMA

1.8 FESPA 1996

As previously noted, Perfecta introduced a TIJ textile printer at FESPA 1996.

Idanit exhibited its high-speed 162 Ad that demonstrated the advantages of large

arrays of print heads for production printing, albeit targeting paper and vinyl

sheet printing.

Around the same time, Matthew Rhome of Bradenton, Florida, applied for a

patent for an inkjet printer (on 19 July 1996) and the US Patent office awarded

him patent number 6,095,628 on 1 August 2000. The original Rhome printer

used thermal inkjet print heads. More recently, Mr Rhome developed a T-shirt

printer using Brother PIJ print heads, which the company exhibited at the ISS

Exhibition in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during March 2005.

In the early 1990s, Sawgrass of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, USA, won a

number of patents for thermal transfer and inkjet sublimation printing. In the late

1990s, it developed an indirect process called Natura for printing garments using

electrophotography for use on white and pastel colored cotton and cotton±

polyester blend garments. This process produces lighter hand and more vibrant

color than resin-based toners. Other manufacturers have developed electro-

photographic printers to produce sublimation transfers for receptive garments,

accessories, and fabrics.

FESPA and ITMA 1999

FESPA (for screen and digital printing) in Munich, Germany, and ITMA (for

textile production and decoration) in Paris overlapped during June 1999.

6 Digital printing of textiles

Perfecta exhibited its flatbed textile printer using XAAR XJ-500 print heads at

FESPA.

1.10 ITMA 1999

Stork displayed its full line of digital printers at ITMA 1999 in Paris. It exhibited

its Amethyst, a seven-color continuous inkjet that Stork developed for use with

reactive and acid dyes for printing cellulosic and protein fibers. The Amethyst

generated a 254-dpi matrix with gray levels for very high apparent resolution. It

could print at a maximum throughput speed of 17.5m2/hr. Stork also exhibited

its Zircon drop-on-demand piezo inkjet based on the Konica eight PIJ print head

printer. Stork configured this device to print disperse dyes. It produces 360 dpi

and throughput of 6.9m2/hr. Stork also exhibited its Amber PIJ printer based on

the Mimaki seven-color 360±720 dpi TX device. Stork offered the Amber for

printing reactive dyes for cellulosic fabric printing. It also exhibited a dual

chamber steamer for fixing digitally printed dyes. Stork ran into technical

hurdles with the Amethyst, resulting in its discontinuation. It continues to

rebrand Mimaki and Konica printers enhanced with Stork software.

Encad showed its four-color TIJ 300 dpi textile printer at ITMA. In addition to

Stork's versions, Mimaki exhibited its seven-color TX PIJ inkjet and Konica

exhibited its eight-color 360 dpi PIJ printer configured for either disperse or

reactive dyes. A number of other value-added manufacturers, including DGS of

Como, Italy, developed improved material handling and software for the Mimaki

printer. As mentioned previously, Ichinose Toshin Kogyo Co. Ltd demonstrated

its 12-color 300 dpi TIJ Image Proofer printer outputting 4±12m2/hr. Perfecta

Print AG exhibited its Print Master four-color inkjet. Salsa (formerly Signtech,

now part of Nur Macroprinters) exhibited one of its solvent printers as a digital

textile banner printer.

Digital grand format and textile printing

1.7 Digital grand format and textile printing

During the 1980s, a number of companies developed digital methods to print

billboards, building wraps, and large banners. In 1987, Gerber Scientific built

large-drum digital grand format printing systems for billboard maker Metro

Media Technologies (MMT), which has since become the largest supplier of

digitally printed large and grand format graphics worldwide, with digital

production locations in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

MMT prints on textiles in addition to paper and plastic substrates. In 2002,

MMT unveiled two of the world's largest inkjet billboard printers with their

MegaDrums that measure 63 feet in circumference and 32 feet wide.

MMT's competitors in the advertising and billboard markets quickly

followed with their thrust into digital printing. In 1989, Vutek introduced its

801 digitally controlled airbrush billboard printer and in 1990 offered its 16-foot

wide 1630 billboard printer. Other equipment manufacturers, such as Belcom,

Data Mate Company Ltd, LAC Corporation, Matan/Scitex, Nur Macroprinters,

and Signtech/Salsa also developed grand format printers for MMT's

The evolution and progression of digital printing of textiles 5

competitors. These manufacturers have employed a variety of digital printing

technologies including airbrush/valve jet, continuous inkjet, and piezo inkjet.

Fabrics and fabric-reinforced vinyl have provided the primary substrate for

grand format digital graphics banner and building wrap applications.

Geoff McCue filed a patent in 1990 for an inkjet computer to screen mask

printer. Gerber Scientific acquired the rights to the McCue patent and produced

a device to print a photo mask on photo emulsion coated screens. Stork of the

Netherlands and Luescher of Switzerland combined to acquire the patent from

Gerber. The inkjet masking systems based on the McCue patent provided the

advantages of digital imaging to improve the cost and speed of analog print pre-

press.

In the fall of 1993, a group of engineers led by Patrice Girard formed

Embleme that developed a continuous inkjet garment-printing device that used

water-based UV-cure inks, Imaje CIJ print heads, and Fusion Systems curing

lamps. Embleme established the feasibility of printing garments and operated a

shop that offered customers digital printing of customer generated designs on

sportswear.

largest textile printer

1.6 Seiren

In the early 1980s, the largest textile printer in Japan, Seiren of Fukui, began

developing the possibility of inkjet printing of fabric directly. In 1989, it

undertook to build a manufacturing facility for printing fabric digitally. By 1991,

Seiren had added inkjet printing to complement its analog operations. It had a

few hundred piezo inkjet printing devices constructed for its digital printing

operations. It brought its considerable expertise with fabric inks to build a digital

textile printing business with an annual gross sales volume in excess of $100

million by 2000. Seiren digitally prints textiles for automotive upholstery, active

and swimwear, banners, and apparel. It has also developed the process of digital

dyeing. Seiren opened ViscotecsTM stores where customers could order fabrics

tailored to their needs. It has also developed information technology (IT) to

supply online response to consumer and industry demand for printed and dyed

products. Seiren created a model with its ViscotecsTM digital system for agile

manufacturing that connects its mass customization production operations

directly to the market. It has extended its digital printing of fabric around the

world with production facilities in Japan, the United States, China, Thailand,

Italy, Belgium, and Brazil.

Thermal inkjet and textile printing

1.5 Thermal inkjet and textile printing

In 1977, Canon's Endo discovered the principle of thermal inkjet when placing a

flame on the side of a pipette containing liquid that then emitted a drop of that

liquid. Soon after, researchers at Hewlett-Packard encountered a similar

phenomenon. Canon and HP applied these discoveries to the development of

thermal inkjet print heads. Canon called its version `Bubble Jet'. In 1984, HP

introduced the first commercial desktop inkjet, the HP Thinkjet. Canon's Bubble

Jet office printer followed in 1985 with the introduction of the BJ-80. Canon and

HP licensed their inventions to each other and to other manufacturers, including

IBM, Siemens, and others. Lexmark took over the IBM license when it

purchased IBM's printer division. Canon developed a Bubble Jet textile printer

in the mid-1990s that printed fabric up to 1.6 meters in width at a throughput

speed of a square meter per minute. The unit did not gain market acceptance due

to its high sticker price and limited production capability, but it demonstrated a

model for designing, printing, and processing textiles digitally that others have

followed. Canon used a material transport system from Ichinose, which later

introduced its own twelve-colour inkjet textile printer using HP thermal inkjet

print heads that it exhibited at ITMA 1999 in Paris. This device also did not gain

market adoption. Ichinose later partnered with DuPont to produce the Artistri

2020 printer using modified Seiko Instruments piezoelectric print heads. This

device has won significant market adoption with about 160 printers installed by

February 2006.

Perfecta, in conjunction with Zund, debuted a textile flatbed printer using

Hewlett-Packard thermal inkjet print heads at FESPA 1996 at Lyon, France.

Encad offered an inkjet textile printing system using Lexmark thermal inkjet

print heads for proofing and short-run production in 1997. Despite a strong

marketing effort, market adoption did not match company expectations and

Encad eliminated its textile division.

4 Digital printing of textiles

In 1984, Canon introduced a digital laser copying system, the NP-9030,

following its 1979 development of its LBP-10 laser beam printer. Canon con-

tinued to develop laser technology, resulting in the release of its CLC1 colour laser

copier in 1987. This technology provided a means for producing four-colour

process heat transfers for garment, accessory, and promotional product printing.

Digital carpet printing

In the early 1970s, Milliken of Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA, developed a

digital carpet printer, which it launched in 1975 as the Milliken Millitron. This

device fires continuous streams of dye from an array of nozzles along the full

The evolution and progression of digital printing of textiles 3

print width. Targeted streams of air deflect drops that do not contribute to the

image are recycled. Undeflected drops continue on to strike a web of white

carpet. Milliken advanced this technology from its early 10 dpi resolution to

over 70 dpi. In 1976, Zimmer announced its carpet printer. Today, most printed

commercial carpeting is digitally printed.

1.4 Sublimation

In 1973, RPL Supplies Inc., a company now in Saddle Brook, New Jersey, USA,

developed a process for transfer printing digitally generated video images to

fabric. This company and others developed this process with impact and thermal

sublimation dye ribbon for use in customizing and personalizing gifts and

promotional products.

The origins of digital textile printing technologies

An early example of textile printing is found on a block-printed tunic dated from

the fourth century CE.1 Evidence suggests that carved block printing, also known

as xylography, originated about the fourth century in China and initially found

use in printing textiles and short Buddhist texts that believers carried as charm

protection.1,2 Sui emperor Wen-ti ordered the printing of Buddhist images and

scriptures in an imperial decree of 593. The British Museum houses the oldest

known block-printed book, the Diamond Sutra, dated 868 CE from Dunhuang,

China. Block printing of textiles began to flourish in Surat in Gujarat (India)

during the twelfth century for the printing of wall hangings, canopies and floor

spreads.3 The printing of textiles spread around the world along the Silk Road

and through the spice trade.

While we can only infer the origins of textile printing from the few artifacts

that have survived, digital printing evolved in an age of record keeping. In 1686,

Edme Mariotte suggested the basis for inkjet printing with the publication of his

seminal work on fluid dynamics, `Traite du movement des eaux et des autres

corps fluids'. It included observations on drop formation of fluids passing

through a nozzle. Ebenezer Kinnersley added to this foundation when he

demonstrated that electrical current could pass through water in 1748. During

the following year of 1749, l'Abbe Nollet examined the effects of static

electricity on the flow of drops from a capillary tube. Lord Kelvin (Sir William

Thomson) received the first patent for an inkjet printing system in 1867,

`Receiving or Recording Instruments for Electric Telegraphers'. Eleven years

later in 1878, Lord Rayleigh (Sir John William Strutt) described the role of

surface tension in drop formation. The 1920s and 1930s witnessed patent

applications and issuances for inkjet recording devices, including notable

inventions from Richard Howland Ranger and Francis G. Morehouse in 1928,

Clarence W. Hansell4 for an electrically charged recycling device in 1929, and

Kurt Gemscher in Germany in 1938.

During the same year, 1938, Chester Carlson invented analog electro-

photography in Astoria, Queens, New York. It took Carlson and his subsequent

partner company Haloid over 20 years and a few intermediate steps along the

way, such as the Haloid A1 in 1949 and Copyflo in 1955, to deliver a successful

office plain paper copier with the Xerox 914 in 1959. The A1 failed for the

purpose that Haloid intended it as an office copier, but succeeded as a plate

maker for commercial printing. Digital laser versions of electrophotography

produced transfers in the 1980s to decorate fabrics, particularly T-shirts and

other sewn garments and accessories. Researchers at Georgia Tech and North

Carolina State University investigated the feasibility of printing fabric with

electrophotography with some success.

In 1959, the Research Labs of Australia began exploiting its invention of

developing electrostatic images with liquid toners. Xerox and others developed a

similar liquid toner variation on electrophotography for wide format printing,

electrostatic printing. In 1979, Xerox introduced its 2080 engineering copier.

Xeroxcolorgrafx, Raster Graphics, 3M, Nippon Steel-Synergy Computer

Graphics, Calcomp, Silvereed, Phoenix Precision Graphics and others advanced

this technology with the development of E-stat printers during the late 1980s and

1990s. Almost all of these companies have discontinued production of their

electrostatic printers. Only 3M of St Paul, Minnesota, USA, currently supplies

and supports an electrostatic printer, the Scotchprint 2000. Hilord supplies both

pigment resin and sublimation dye toner for electrostatic printers. Beta Color of

Ontario, California, and others have developed processes for using Scotchprint

2000 for cost-printing polyester and Nylon 6.6 fabrics with sublimation toners.

In 1949, Elmquist applied for a patent for `Measuring Instrument of the

Recording Type'. Two years later in 1951, Siemens released the first com-

mercially produced inkjet printer based on the Elmquist patent, the Elema

Oscilomink. Carl Helmuth Hertz and Sven Eric Simmonsson applied for patent

on high-resolution continuous inkjet in 1965. This invention and other inven-

tions of Dr Hertz and his colleagues at Sweden's Lund Institute of Technology

led to the development of the Stork and Scitex Iris proofing systems. This type

of continuous inkjet technology features mutual charged droplet repulsion that

produces very fine ink droplets at a very high frequency. It can produce high

apparent resolution images with many gray or halftone levels. It suffers,

however, from slow print production speed, a slight background from stray

droplets, and the complications inherent with recirculation of unprinted toner

drops. This process uses dye-based colorants that lack the level of permanence

that pigments provide. The textile and fashion design industries have used these

systems since their introduction. Stork also developed a successful proofing

system for the commercial print industry in conjunction with DuPont.

In 1967, Professors Sweet and Cummings of Stanford University in

California applied for a patent on a binary continuous inkjet array. In 1968,

printer manufacturer A.B. Dick commercialized Sweet's invention with the

Videojet 9600. This device launched the marking and coding industry on its

digital path. While early applications of this technology were primarily for

coding cans, containers and other packaging, it was capable of marking fabric as

well.

digitally printing and dyeing of fabrics

1.1 Introduction

The saga of digitally printing and dyeing of fabrics, yarns and garments involves

a past of a few decades, a dynamic present and likely a bright future. This

introduction accounts for the origins and evolution of textile printing to digital

solutions. It identifies some of the many creators and pioneers of these techno-

logies and assesses their impact on the textile printing industry. It discusses a

few of the false starts that in turn contributed to sustained successes of digital

printing technologies for textile decoration. It uses the exhibitions that have

witnessed the introduction of innovative digital technologies for textile printing

as road marks that indicate trends and point the way to digital textile printing's

bright future.

In focusing on the market demand for textile printed applications, it attempts

to answer questions such as:

· What are the market forces driving the adoption of digital technologies for

printing textiles?

· What are the characteristics and qualities of digital printing that either favor

or discourage its adoption for meeting market demand for decorated fabric

and fibers?

· What are textile applications that digital printing can supply more cost

effectively than existing analog printing methods?

· How is technology evolving to address market demand?

· What are the global trends that shed light on the future of digital printing of

textiles?

This chapter opens the door and invites the reader into the exciting world of

digital textile printing. It introduces this volume's tour of the many chambers of

the digital textile print edifice that subsequent sections describe.