Suiting Applications and Demands

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1 feature The Aleph LaForte printer and dryer at the 2017 SGIA Expo. (Image courtesy of Aleph.) Choosing the Right Inkjet Textile Printing Solution, Part 2 In Part 1 of this series (January/February 2018), we enumerated the reasons for choosing inkjet for printing particular textile applications. We compared inkjet textile printing with screen textile printing, listing the advantages and disadvantages of both. We discussed inkjet textile inks and the inkjet printheads matched with many of the currently available inkjet printers for textiles. While digital textile printing includes decorating roll fabrics, cut pieces and sewn garments as well as sublimation transfer paper printing, we will focus on production roll-to-roll inkjet textile printers for Part 2. Specifically, what industry observers Johnny Shell, SGIA; 1 Dr. Lisa Parrillo Chapman, North Carolina University; 2 and Mark Sawchak, Expand Systems 3 have designated as Class 4 for single-pass and Class 3 for scanning head printers with throughput speeds of linear meters plus per hour. 4 The roll-toroll printers in these categories have print widths generally ranging from meters with a few 5-meter print width printers for soft signage. Some of the directto-fabric printers can also print sublimation dyes on paper for indirect fabric decoration, while other inkjet printer solutions for textiles are dedicated to either direct textile printing or indirect transfer printing. In preparation for this series, we traveled to Italy to meet with several leading textile printer manufacturers, including MS srl, EFI Reggiani and Aleph. We covered developments presented at the 2017 SGIA Expo in New Orleans and have interviewed key manufacturers and suppliers about their products and advances. Suiting Applications and Demands Textile print providers are adopting inkjet printers that match their applications. For example, producers of polyester fabric soft signage are called upon to print cloth backdrops and overhead signs for exhibition displays where the booth sizes The processing speeds of single-pass inkjet systems now approach, equal or surpass those of rotary screen printers. By Vince Cahill and Claire Hunter, VCE Solutions Visit SGIA at SGIA.org SGIA Journal May/June

2 are typically based on just over 3-by-3- meter units. Inkjet printer manufacturers, including d-gen, Mimaki, Durst, Agfa, EFI VUTEk and others, have responded with 3.2- and 3.3-meter-wide inkjet printers for printing polyester-receptive disperse dye inks directly onto fabric or sublimation dye for indirect transfer printing. EFI Vutek and Durst also provide 5-meterwide soft signage inkjet printers. The current global market for digital textile printing is estimated at well over $2 billion, production at approximately 1 billion square meters and growing at about 12% annually. As a result, inkjet printer manufacturers are busy developing solutions for established and emerging applications, including clothing, home furnishings, industrial fabrics, displays, flags and soft signage. Inkjet printer manufacturers and their partners are developing systems that capture excess dye and reduce the amount of dyes released as effluent after washing and finishing. They have developed and are refining design and production management software that improve the efficiency, predictability, accountability and effectiveness of inkjet textile printing. Ink companies have developed very soft hand and washfast pigmented inks for fine fabric printing. The processing speeds of single-pass inkjet systems now approach, equal or surpass those of rotary screen printers. Many of the constraints for the adoption of inkjet print solutions are subsiding while new opportunities, applications and solutions are appearing and emerging. As they do, textile printers have to ponder and choose between single-pass and scanning head solutions. While the throughput speeds of single-pass systems are attractive for companies with substantial demand, the much lower capital costs and redundancy of scanning head systems can win the purchase order from companies with less demand and smaller budgets. John Provost, Ph.D., Provost Ink Jet Consulting Ltd., estimated that a printer company would have to print about 5 million meters of fabric per year to economically justify purchasing a single-pass inkjet textile printing system. 5 Considering WTiN Intelligence s estimate that the US digital textile market is the fifth-largest worldwide with more than 51 million square meters of 2016 production representing 5.4% of world production capacity only the largest US digital print producers would be able to justify the expense and return on investment (ROI) of a single-pass inkjet textile printer. Considering WTiN s estimate of doubledigit growth for inkjet textile printing in the United States, noting 30% growth during the first half of 2016, we are likely to see adoption of single-pass inkjet for textile printing much like in Western Europe, Turkey, China and India. In its 2016 report, The Future of Digital Textile Printing to 2021, Smithers Pira projects the growth of digital textile printing worldwide from 870 million square meters in 2016 to 1.95 billion square meters in 2021, a 17.5% CAGR. It also projects the value of the printed volume of digitally printed fabrics will more than double at a CAGR of 12.3%. 6 As demand for digitally printed textile solutions grows, so will the need for Class 4 printers and the increase in volume will begin to justify their acquisition. Some manufacturers of single-pass inkjet printers are bridging the gap from Class 3 to Class 4 production by opening demonstration centers. There are several demonstration facilities near Como, Italy, the area where many companies are printing fine silks and other fabrics digitally. We visited the Konica Minolta demonstration facility, where we saw the company s singlepass SP-1 in operation and learned it was printing orders of textiles for other textile printers and potential SP-1 purchasers. We also visited the MS demonstration center. Epson and its partners have opened centers near Como as well. While the first single-pass inkjet textile printer was the continuous inkjet (CIJ) Osiris, subsequent single-pass direct textile inkjet devices use piezo inkjet (PIJ) printheads, primarily Kyocera KJ4B, Fujifilm Dimatix Samba and StarFire and Konica Minolta KM head designed for its SP-1. The following section describes the leading inkjet solutions for the various printed textile applications starting with single-pass Class 4 systems. Class 4: Single-pass Inkjet Textile Printers MS LaRio MS was the first company to introduce and place a single-pass inkjet textile PIJ printer, the MS LaRio. The LaRio uses full width arrays of Kyocera KJ4B printheads capable of providing 600 dpi resolution and 16 grayscale levels with drop volumes ranging from 4 to 72 picoliters. Its print speeds up to 75 linear meters/minute throughput for four-color printing and 35 linear meters/minute for eight-color printing rival those of rotary screen print systems. With over 22 print systems placed worldwide, the LaRio is available in print widths up to 3.2 meters wide. MS offers the LaRio as an open ink system for certified acid, reactive and disperse dyebased inks. In addition, it s used to print on paper and directly on cloth. Pigmented inks for the printer are also now available. The LaRio is an open system for its software and includes embedded diagnostics for its systems functions. SPGPrints PIKE SPGPrints introduced its single-pass 1.85-meter print width PIKE at ITMA 2015 in Milan, where it ran its six-color system using CMYK plus orange and blue. It now offers a nine-color version featuring fabric penetration fluid for print through applications, such as flags. SPGPrints offers reactive, acid and disperse dye inks for use with the PIKE. The printer s 43 Fujifilm Dimatix Samba printheads per color are mounted as part of an Archer print bar. The Samba PIJ heads offer in-head ink recirculation and can jet drops at 32 kilohertz per nozzle. They print in grayscale with variable drops from 2 10 picoliters and offer a native resolution of 1,200 by 1,200 dpi. SPGPrints claims throughput speed of linear meters/minute, with projected print production of 3 10 million meters per year, which the company calculates would consume 65, ,000 liters of ink per year. SPGPrints also notes that its ink price covers printhead replacement when necessary. Konica Minolta: SP-1 At ITMA 2015, Konica Minolta did not display a model of the SP-1, but rather bussed interested parties and journalists to its nearby demonstration facility to see the SP-1 in operation. We witnessed the printer compensate for an intentional printhead jetout on the fly in less than a second. The print system s in-line camera monitors the print continuously to insure the intended result. The SP-1 s Error Detection-Correction system compensates for jet-outs relying on adjacent nozzles to bridge any gap a nozzle jet-out would produce. Konica Minolta developed a single-pass printhead for use on the SP-1. The company offers reactive and disperse dye ink sets for use on it. They offer the printer in four-, six- and eight-print color configurations on 1.6-meter and 1.83-meter print width models. Konica Minolta reports the SP-1 s production output at different resolutions as follows: 10 SGIA Journal May/June 2018 Visit SGIA at SGIA.org

3 6,400 square meters/hour at 720 by 360 dpi 4,300 square meters/hour at 720 by 540 dpi 3,200 square meters/hour at 720 by 720 dpi 2,500 square meters/hour at 720 by 900 dpi Shenzhen Runtianzhi Flora Textra Shenzhen Runtianzhi manufactures the Flora Textra single-pass inkjet system, which appeared after ITMA It uses Dimatix Samba PIJ heads delivering 1200 by 1200 dpi resolution plus grayscale capability with 2.4 picoliter primary drop volume and picoliters maximum. It offers production speeds of meters/ minute. Flora claims a maximum speed of 120 meters/minute. The Textra comes with a maximum print width of 1.73 meters and can hold rolls of substrate up to 1.2 meters in diameter. Flora promotes the Textra for both direct textile printing and indirect dye sublimation paper printing. HopeTech BD01 and BD02 The HopeTech BD01 single-pass inkjet printer has a print width of 1.8 meters, while the BD02 has a print width of 2.6 meters. These printers have a choice of PIJ heads: Kyocera KJ4B-QA06 (600 dpi; 5 12 picoliters), Dimatix Samba (1200 dpi; picoliters) or Dimatix StarFire SG-1024 (400 dpi; picoliters). The HopeTech single-pass printers are four- to eight-color print systems with print speeds up to 75 meters/minute for systems with the Kyocera and Samba heads and 70 meters/minute for systems with StarFire heads. HopeTech offers these print systems for decorating textiles directly, dye sublimation paper transfer printing, wall covering and wood board printing. The company indicates that its printers can use acid, reactive and disperse dye inks, pigmented aqueous inks, as well as UV and solvent-based inks. HopeTech offers in-line unwinding, drying and rewinding models for its single-pass systems. It also manufactures its HF01, HF02 and HF03 scanning PIJ head textile printers. Atexco Vega One The single-pass Atexco Vega One was shown at ITMA 2015 using Kyocera KJ4B printheads generating 4 30 picoliter drop volumes. The company claims throughput speed of 80 linear meters/minute and offers acid, reactive and disperse dye inks for use with it. While Atexco continues to promote its scanning-head textile inkjet systems on The Class 3 MS JP Textile Print Production Line. (Image courtesy of MS Printing Solutions.) its website, it offers only limited information on its Vega One we surmise that it is still under development. Other Introductions and Possibilities Other single-pass inkjet textile printers seen at the 2015 ITMA that have yet to be fully commercialized include the PyungAn narrow- and wide-format devices, Tacome KERAjet Textile TS7 and a Swiss4Tex AG prototype. TPF 2017 attendees in Shanghai witnessed the introduction of the HopeTech BD01 and BD02 and the Flora Textra, as well as announcements of NKT New King Time KingJet K8-S and K10-X inkjet 8- and 10-color printers, and Teckwin s collaboration with Jilong to develop singlepass printing for textile application. Several developers of single-pass inkjet for ceramic tile printing, such as KERAjet, HopeTech and NKT, have adapted their expertise for single-pass textile printing systems. Inkjet textile leaders EFI Reggiani and Japan s Miyakoshi are likely to introduce their single-pass inkjet textile print systems before ITMA Class 3: Scanning Head Inkjet Textile Printers Class 3 printers are scanning head devices with production speeds greater than 100 linear meters/hour. The category includes printers from MS, EFI Reggiani, Konica Minolta, SPGPrints, Durst, Aleph, La Meccanica, Epson Robustelli, Zimmer Maschinenbau, Miyakoshi, d.gen, Mouvent and NKT New King Time. While Class 3 inkjet textile printers produce more slowly than Class 4 printers, they often provide the speed necessary for short-to-medium run production without the much higher upfront investment of capital. Single-pass printers also typically require a larger plant area than Class 3 printers. Scanning head systems commonly can readily compensate for clogged nozzles with overprinting, while single-pass systems must use more advanced strategies to address jet failures. Companies offering both Class 3 and Class 4 systems, such as MS, Konica Minolta and SPGPrints, provide fast production scanning inkjet textile printers, which can satisfy a large portion of current market demand, while opening opportunities for Class 4 solutions. Many textile print providers employ multiple Class 3 printers to meet demand. For example, Stamperia di Cassina Rizzardi, a textile printer in Como, uses 16 Class 3 Robustelli Monna Lisa inkjet textile printers to reportedly print five million linear meters of fabric per year, equating to 70% of the company s textile print production. It acquired an MS LaRio recently, boosting the digital portion of its textile print production to 80%. 7 Another Italian company, Canepa, uses 10 Monna Lisa printers to decorate 1.3 million linear meters of fabric representing 65% of its textile print output. 8 Dover s MS Printing Solutions The MS Class 3 JP6, JP7, JPK Evo scanning head textile printers and JP4 dye sub paper inkjet all use Kyocera KJ4B heads like the aforementioned Class 4 LaRio and Class 2 printers. On a recent visit to the MS Headquarters and Demonstration Showroom in Italy, we saw system developments and advances that will begin to emerge from this leading textile printing and processing company. MS offers its printers as open systems for both ink and software. It does embed remote diagnostics and a job cost report web server on its printers for faster maintenance, troubleshooting and print job evaluation. The company also manufactures steamers and dryers for textile finishing processes. EFI Reggiani EFI Reggiani is a leading provider of digital and analog textile printing, yarn treatment, pre-print coating and preparation and Visit SGIA at SGIA.org SGIA Journal May/June

4 post-print finishing equipment. It claims a leading market share of worldwide digital textile printing equipment, representing about a third of the market. Its Class 3 direct textile printers include the EFI Reggiani VOGUE, ReNOIR PRO Fabric, ReNOIR TOP Fabric and ReNOIR FLEXY. The company also offers versions of the ReNOIR PRO and TOP for sublimation printing on transfer paper, in addition to its ReNOIR ONE, ReNOIR Compact and NEXT printers for sublimation paper printing. During our visit to EFI Reggiani near Bergamo, Italy, we observed active development of solutions for reducing the environmental impact of textile printing and finishing, including removing dye from wash water. Aleph When we visited with Aleph in Como, we saw its construction of robust inkjet printers, drying and steaming systems, and software product development. Aleph recently acquired venture capital to advance its development and marketing expansion plans. Under its LaForte brand, the company produces two industrial Class 3 inkjet fabric printer models and two industrial inkjet paper printer models, with each model featuring two printhead configurations. It also offers two lower production Studio inkjet printers and four Studio paper printers for sublimation. All the Aleph printers use Kyocera printheads with 600 dpi native resolution and variable drop volume capability from 4 60 picoliters. The industrial LaForte 16-printhead fabric printer offers a production speed of 540 square meters/hour. The 12-printhead version prints at 390 square meters/hour. Both the 16 and 12 head printers produce a maximum resolution of 1200 dpi, offer four-, six- or eight-color configurations and are available in print widths of 1.85 and 2.2 meters. They can print reactive, acid, pigment, sublimation and direct disperse dye inks. Konica Minolta Konica Minolta s Nassenger Line includes several Class 3 inkjet textile 1.85-meter print width printers using the company s water-tolerant independent channel KM 1024i PIJ heads with a 360 nozzle-per-inch native resolution capable of printing reactive, disperse and acid dye inks. The KM 1024i has a concave printhead nozzle surface that is designed to prevent fabric head strikes. Printers with the KM 1024i heads include: Nassenger Pro 1000 uses 81 heads and reportedly is capable of a maximum production speed of 1000 square meters/hour at 540 by 360 dpi and 600 square meters/hour at 540 by 720 dpi. It can print nine reactive or disperse dye colors. Nassenger 10 is available in a nine-color configuration with 81 heads or eightcolor configuration with 72 heads. It produces print speeds from square meters/hour. Konica Minolta offers reactive, acid and disperse dye colors for the Nassenger 10. Nassenger 8 comes in eight- and ninecolor models with four heads per color and two heads per color versions. We judge the four-head per color models as Class 3 at production throughput of square meters/hour and the two-head per color models as Class 2 with about half the production speed of the four-head per color version. Konica Minolta offers this printer with reactive, acid and disperse dye colors. Nassenger Pro 120 is a slower Class 2 printer. SPGPrints SPGPrints (formerly Stork) has been a leading supplier since its founding in 1947 of rotary screen and subsequently inkjet 12 SGIA Journal May/June 2018 Visit SGIA at SGIA.org

5 textile printing solutions. Its recently spun-off VECO Precision division has provided precision metal products to industry, including nozzle plates for inkjet printheads. Stork (SPGPrints) pioneered inkjet printing for textiles with a CIJ for proofing and sample printing. At ITMA 1999 in Paris, it introduced a CIJ solution for roll-to-roll printing, but eventually partnered with Italian textile printer manufacturers to sell PIJ printers and Stork s textile inks. At ITMA 2015, SPGPrints exhibited its PIKE single-pass inkjet textile printer and previewed its JAVELIN highspeed scanning head Class 3 printer. Like the PIKE, the JAVELIN uses Fujifilm Dimatix Samba printheads. It prints reactive, acid, and in 2018, sublimation dye inks at up to 366 linear meters/hour. SPGPrints offers the JAVELIN in two print widths: 1.85 and 3.2 meters. It uses six Archer Technology print bars, each with six Samba printheads. It prints variable drops from 2 10 picoliters with resolutions of 600 by 1200 dpi and 1200 by 1200 dpi. Archer Technology enables accurate jet firing from a throw distance of 3 6 millimeters. The increased throw distance reduces the likelihood of head strikes. The JAVELIN and PIKE are closed systems using SPGPrints ink exclusively. d.gen We classify most of d.gen s inkjet textile printers as Class 2. However, the Teleios Grande G5 and possibly the Teleios Grande/H6 3.3-meter print width printers qualify as Class 3 textile printers. The company claims the Teleios Grande GS s throughput speed is either 154 square meters/hour or 185 square meters/hour printing at 1,200 dpi, and the Teleios Grande/H6 s speed at 600 dpi is either 142 square meters/hour or 177 square meters/ hour. The Teleios Grande G5 is an eightcolor printer and the Teleios Grande/H6 is a six-color one. Both print disperse dye and pigment ink. They were designed primarily for direct printing of disperse dye on polyester for soft signage and for home textiles with direct disperse dye or pigment. They use native 600 dpi Ricoh Gen5 PIJ heads with primary drop volume of 7 picoliters capable of printing eight gray levels. The d.gen Papyrus G5 is a 1.88-meter print width inkjet direct textile printer available in six- and four-print color versions using Ricoh Gen5 heads, with production speeds as high as 138 square meters/hour printing sublimation ink and pigment on transfer paper. EFI Reggiani ReNOIR printed textile. (Image courtesy of EFI.) Durst Durst developed several robust scanning head inkjet textile printing solutions beginning with its Rhotex 320 for printing sublimation dye for soft signage, which it introduced in The following year witnessed Durst s launch of its Kappa 180 textile printer for the apparel market, and 2013 saw the arrival of the Kappa 320. Durst followed with the Rhotex HS for high volume soft signage; the Rhotex 180 TR double duty direct print and transfer paper printer for soft signage and the Rhotex meter print width sign fabric printer. Currently, Durst offers its Rhotex 180 TR, improved on its Rhotex 320 with the Rhotex 325 and recently introduced its Alpha Series of inkjet textile printers including its Alpha 330, Alpha 190 and Alpha 180 TR. The Alpha meter print width inkjet targets the printing of home textiles, including linens, tablecloths, duvets, drapes and curtains, in addition to flags and banners. Durst indicates it can print 1,470 square meters/hour with one pass and 300 by 600 dpi resolution. Its printing blanket uses a permanent adhesive and integrated blanket washing and drying system. They offer the option of 32 or 64 Durst Alpha Slots heads with variable drop volumes of 7 picoliters, 14 picoliters and 21 picoliters. The printer offers two standard print resolutions of 300 by 600 dpi and 500 by 600 dpi. The Alpha 190 can print 990 square meters/hour with one pass at 300 by 600 dpi resolution. It features the same printheads and resolution as the Alpha 330, but with a 1.9-meter print width. It targets the apparel industry and is built to handle elastic knit fabrics. The Alpha 180 TR offers a print width of 1.85 meters. It uses updated Durst QuadroS PIJ printheads with 7-picoliter binary drop volume and optional variable drop printing with 7-, 14- and 21-picoliter drops. Its production resolution is 800 by 600 dpi, at which it can print 200 square meters/ hour. Its standard operation mode is to print sublimation dye on transfer paper, but Durst offers an optional Direct Print Kit for printing directly on coated and uncoated polyester fabric that is more than 50% polyester. Durst dye sublimation inks for this printer include CMYK, light cyan, light magenta and light black. Epson-Robustelli Epson acquired Fratelli Robustelli in July 2016 after many years of joint development going back to the introduction of the first Monna Lisa printer in At ITMA 2015, Robustelli, with its partners Epson for printheads and For.Tex s.r.l. for textile inks debuted the Monna Lisa Vinci and Monna Lisa Evo Tre inkjet textile Class 3 printers. Both use the high-resolution Epson T2 Precision Core PIJ heads and print 12 colors of Genesta acid, reactive, disperse dye-based, dye sublimation or pigment inks. The Monna Lisa Vinci can print up to about 1,000 square meters/hour and the Monna Lisa Evo Tre prints 740 square meters/hour. Reportedly, about 85% of the high-fashion print providers in Como use versions of the Monna Lisa digital textile printer, which accounts for more than 58% of Como s inkjet textile printers. The high resolution Epson heads deliver favors their use for printing the high-value fine silk fabrics for which the Como area is known. By December 2016 in Como, Epson and For. Tex created the Innovation Research Lab for developing ink technology. With its newly acquired F.lli Robustelli, Epson created The Printing Research Center for textile printer technology. Both joined Epson s previously established Textile Solution Center in Como. Mimaki La Meccanica In October 2017, Mimaki acquired La Meccanica, which manufactures inspection, packing and fabric feed and rewind machines, in addition to inkjet textile printers. The company s QualiJet TIGER 88 is an eight-color scanning head printer using 16 Kyocera KJ4B printheads with 16 gray levels from 4 72 picoliters. It can print 12 picoliter drops at 600 by 600 dpi Visit SGIA at SGIA.org SGIA Journal May/June

6 at speeds of 260 meters/hour with 100% coverage. It is designed for printing acid dye. The company offers the TIGER 88 in 1.85, and 3.25-meter print widths. The company s eight-color QualiJet LEOPARD uses eight Kyocera KJ4B heads and comes in three print widths like its TIGER cousin. It can print 12 picoliter drops of acid dye at 600 by 600 dpi at speeds of 163 meters/hour with 100% coverage. Mouvent Mouvent TX801 is an eight-color scanning multi-pass system using Mouvent s Cluster Technology integrating Fujifilm Samba PIJ printheads. The TX801 can print fabrics up to 1.82 meters wide with roll diameters up to 40 centimeters. The company claims print throughput of 200 square meters/hour with apparent 2,000 dpi resolution using the grayscale capabilities of the native 1,200 by 1,200 dpi of the Samba heads. Mouvent introduced the TX801 at ShanghaiTex in November Mouvent is a Bobst Group company located in Solothum, Switzerland. Zimmer Kufstein Zimmer Maschinenbau GmbH offers its Colaris Infiniti printers as 1.8- and 2.6-meter models with the choice of up to 32 Seiko SPT 1024 GS heads or Fujifilm Dimatix StarFire SG1024 printheads in small, medium or large droplet versions. The Infiniti offers four and eight-color configurations. The Seiko head machines print 360 by 360 dpi with one pass and 360 by 1,440 with four passes. The Seiko head 1.8-meter print width version prints 300 square meters/ hour and 2.6-meter print width version prints 360 square meters/hour, both with two passes producing 360 by 720 dpi. The Fujifilm Dimatix StarFire head produces 400 by 800 dpi with two passes and 400 by 1,200 dpi with three passes. The StarFire 1.8-meter print width version prints 300 square meters/hour and the 2.6-meter print width version prints 360 square meters/hour, both with two passes producing 400 by 800 dpi. All the Infiniti models print reactive, acid and disperse dye. The StarFire head models also print VAT dye. The Zimmer Colaris Textile Printer uses up to 64 S StarFire SG1024 PIJ heads with the choice of its small (SA: picoliters), medium (MA: picoliters) or large (LA: picoliters) grayscale models. The Colaris Textile is available in 1.8-, 2.6- and 3.2-meter models. The company offers the printer in a starting six-color version with two heads per color. The company can scale the printer up to 8 colors and a total of 64 heads. The 1.8-meter version can print 1,370 square meters/hour, the 2.6-meter prints 1,600 meters/hour and the 3.2-meter version prints up to 1,670 meters/hour. The Colaris Textile offers an open ink system for reactive, acid, disperse dyes and other fluids. Other OEMs of Class 3 Inkjet Textile Printers Several other inkjet equipment companies are introducing and offering Class 3 inkjet textile printers. Some that have produced Class 1 and 2 printers are expanding or planning to offer Class 3 solutions. Mimaki s purchase of La Meccanica and Epson s purchase of Robustelli lifted their inkjet textile printer offerings into Class 3. Several Chinese manufacturers, such as Oric Digital Technology Co. Ltd. and NKT New King Time, are moving into high-speed inkjet textile printer manufacturing. Toshin Kogyo, the Japanese pioneer inkjet textile printer original equipment manufacturer that produced the DuPont textile printers, introduced its Class 3 Ichinose 2050 inkjet textile printer at ITMA Trends Textile printing is changing in many ways. The average print production run length is decreasing. Digital textile printers can not only produce the shorter run lengths more cost-effectively, but advances in inkjet textile printing are making it cost-effective as compared with analog textile printing, even for longer print runs. The decline of retail markets and the growth of internet sales favors inkjet and other digital printing and processing. Web-to-print capabilities enable greater customization and higher print value. As markets demand greater design variety and fashion changes, inkjet textile printing can facilitate the required shorter production cycles. The quick response and just-intime delivery inkjet textile printing enables can reduce inventory risk and waste while increasing value. Digital processing and inkjet printing enables distribution and print market strategies that will bring product production closer to market, reducing shipping time, delays and costs. Inkjet textile printing is more sustainable than analog methods due to requiring less energy and producing less waste than analog processes like screen printing. Improvement in pigment inkjet textile inks are providing greater wash, crock and sunlight exposure fade resistance with soft hand suitable for printing even fine silks. As inkjet technology advances with the arrival of single-pass systems that match and exceed the production speeds of rotary screen printing and as microelectromechanical systems and robotic technologies produce faster, more accurate and more capable inkjet printheads and print systems inkjet textile print will take additional market share from analog textile printing. As inkjet printing for graphic arts printing begins to place spectrophotometers in-line to monitor and direct correction of print color, inkjet textile printer manufacturers will likely follow to meet customer demand for specified consistent color. Better for the environment and, becoming more cost-effective and responsive to customers, the trend for textile printing is digital. 1 Johnny Shell, org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/ Presentation_Shell-1.pdf 2 Dr. Lisa Parrillo Chapman, features/2016/05/itma-technology-digitalprinting/ 3 Mark Sawchak quoted in digitaloutput.net/stacking-up-sublimation/ 4 Inkjet textile roll-to-roll printers four classifications based on their production throughput. Class 1 denotes printers with production speeds of 5 30 linear meters/hour Class 2 printers with speeds linear meters/hour Class 3 printers with speeds linear meters/hour Class 4 denotes single-pass printers with speeds of linear meters/ minute 5 Do Single Pass Printers Have A Future? by Dr. John Provost, pp 18-25, Digital Textile, Issue 7, Also available at: Textile/Issue_7_2017/ / offline/download.pdf 6 news/2016/november/growth-for-digitaltextile-print-market 7 news/c2jen3ot/ms-printing_case- Study_SCR-LaRio_web.pdf 8 watch?v=8lubhy5tqko Vince Cahill began screen printing in 1969, eventually managing an operation in Frederick, Maryland, and establishing The Colorworks, a custom screen printing business with Claire Hunter, which they sold in In 1995, they established VCE Solutions, a print consulting business. In 2003, they formed Industrial Printing Solutions to distribute digital printers. 14 SGIA Journal May/June 2018 Visit SGIA at at SGIA.org