Digital printing is the fastest growing printing technology in the textile industry. It contributes about 4-5% market share of the overall textile printing market, with CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 20%, according to EFI Reggiani.

Meanwhile, in the digital printing market, about 70% printed textiles are consumed by fashion industry.

“The digital transformation is in progress,” emphasized Ms. Adele Genoni, General Manager, EFI Reggiani, in a press conference at ShanghaiTex 2017. She pinpointed the buzz words for textile printing are “faster”, “greener” and “customization”, which are also the value propositions of digital printing.

For the market trends, sportswear in particular is one of the most potential sectors for digital printing, including not only the garments, but also the outdoor and footwear products.

“The manufacturers of the sportswear sector are improving their technologies. They want higher productivity as well as innovations in fabrics. This poses opportunities to the digital printing industry as the new fabrics used have to apply direct to print technology for better effects,” explained Mr. Michele Riva, WW Sales & Marketing Director, EFI Reggiani.

At the company booth, the new EFI Reggiani VOGUE was officially launched and on display. It is an industrial textile printer designed for superior-quality direct-to-textile printing in fashion applications.

“The EFI Reggiani VOGUE is very flexible. Whether it is for apparel and accessories, sportswear or footwear, this new printer can handle it,” said Ms. Adele Genoni.

The new printer prints at resolutions up to 2,400 dpi with 16 printing heads, 8 colors and 4- to 72-picolitre drop sizes. Using virtually any type of textile ink, it also boasts an innovative recirculation system that saves ink and reduces maintenance.

Besides, an innovative new enclosed print head design on the VOGUE simplifies the carriage layout and ensures easier print head removal. A new composite carriage with a steel head plate eliminates the need to align individual heads.

The printer also automatically detects substrate widths, centres images and sets margins for jobs. As a result, operators no longer need to measure fabrics before loading them.

The EFI Ecosystem incorporates the latest digital technologies

EFI described its whole range of digital textile printing products and services as “The EFI Digital Textile Ecosystem” model, covering the whole process from design (Optitex 2D/3D design software), print preparation (EFI Fiery DFE), printing (EFI Reggiani printers and inks), pre-post treatment (EFI Mezzera lines) to cut & sew (technologies from partners).

At the show, the version 6.5 of the EFI Fiery proServer DFE made its debut. It can be used with all EFI Reggiani digital textile printer models and features advanced color management and screening technology.

The DFE also provides important production tools including shrinkage correction and step-and-repeat management, plus a set of design tools to create repeats, color ways, manage seasonal pallets and create color ranges.

Meanwhile, EFI also launched the cloud-based EFI GO app. With this advanced new tool, users can have mobile access to statistics and data in their textile production operations, such as printer status, print queue, speed and ink tank levels, etc. Thus they can better identify and track inefficiencies while staying apprised on overall manufacturing costs and performance.

EFI Reggiani also unveiled that it will introduce the high performance single-pass printer model in 2018. This new model can handle a wide range of fabrics, achieve color consistency, and increase productivity without compromising flexibility.

“The Chinese market has a bigger need for single-pass digital printers. The Chinese customers are looking for reliable machines with less water consumption to stay competitive as well as comply with the environmental regulations,” remarked Ms. Adele Genoni.

EFI China employs 80 people and EFI Reggiani has local sales team including Chinese fully dedicated engineers. The spare parts and inks stocks centers are located in Shanghai and Hong Kong, while the Demo Center is located in Kunshan, providing fabric samples testing and training for printers and software.

SPGPrints: more Chinese printers are benefiting from digital printing

In China, a number of textile printing facilities are benefiting from the fast lead-times, high productivity and extended color gamut brought by SPGPrints’ inkjet machine systems.

“Time to market is most important for gaining business from the global brand owners,” commented Mr. Denis Jahic, Area Sales Manager, Digital Textile, SPGPrints. “The regional Chinese fashion market is growing fast. They, too, are seeking a similar delivery model of shorter product cycles, and substantial volumes delivered at short notice.”

Digital printing with simple workflows, low manpower requirements and uninterrupted production, is the solution to meet these challenges.

Furthermore, with labour costs rising, and stricter government environmental legislations, Chinese manufacturers must find ways to control costs and eliminate waste as well as emissions.

China is one of the top five markets for SPGPrints, with regular growth every year. “We see a lot of potential in Chinese market, and we are fully dedicated,” emphasized Mr. Denis Jahic.

JAVELIN inkjet printer running live onsite

The quality and flexibility of SPGPrints’ powerful Archer technology for digital textile printing, featured on a JAVELIN inkjet printer running live, plus a comprehensive range of inks, were the highlights of the company at ShanghaiTex 2017.

In regular live demonstrations of the JAVELIN, visitors gained a first-hand appreciation, in real-time, of the technology’s ability to deliver optimum saturation, precision and speed, on a wider range of fabrics.

The multi-pass JAVELIN printer uses SPGPrints’ unique Archer technology, with the company’s own inks developed specially for this technology, as well as Fujifilm Dimatix Samba print heads to fire variable drops of ink (2-10pL) from a distance of up to 4mm on to the substrate.

This can achieve a color gamut that is wider than the high-definition (HD) gamut of other digital textile printing solutions, according to the company. With output up to 367 linear metres per hour, JAVELIN is designed for textile printers requiring up to 2 million linear metres per year.

According to Mr. Denis Jahic, several more SPGPrints JAVELIN printers are set to go into production at Chinese textile printers during the final quarter of 2017.

Also highlighted were SPGPrints’ inks for digital printers using Kyocera print heads. Acid, reactive, disperse and sublimation inks are all manufactured by SPGPrints at its newly expanded 1000m2 ink production facility, located at the company’s Boxmeer (Netherlands) global headquarters.