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.