was taken place in China approximately in the year 2009.  Then it was the time for screen printing starting in 1907, dye sublimation in 1957, inkjet printing in 1976 and the last one digital printing in 1993.  Along this timeline, one can see a steady development in printing technology as well as a growing demand for printed products and services. This article will show information on world textile printing output in 2009, printing market trend and the up-to-date printing technology.

The world production of printed textiles is expected to reach 32 billion square meters by 2015.

TEXTILE PRINTING INDUSTRY

World Production

During the mid of this year, GIA (Global Industry Analysts Inc.) released a report on world textile printing production showing that the world production of printed textiles is expected to reach 32 billion square meters by the year 2015.  At the moment, Asia Pacific region has the largest production in the world.  The region occupies for more than half of the world textile printing production with China and India leading from the front.

However, China’s textile town “Shaoxing county” has recently set a plan to reduce its annual textile printing and dyeing capacity in order to save energy and to cut emission. The number of textile printing and dyeing plants will be down from 200 to 100 while the annual production of printed and dyed fabrics will be decreased from 15.6 billion meters to 10 billion meters. Currently, Shaoxing’s production capacity of printed and dyed fabrics represents one-third of China’s total annual production.

Printed fabrics are primarily used in the apparel industry while the secondary is used in the interior/furnishing industry. It is expected that the demand for textile printing will continue to grow due to the widely acceptance of digital printing and technological improvements in many areas including inks and consumables, printheads and printing machinery.

Currently there are plenty of digital printers being used worldwide for textile printing. Early this year, Professor Hitoshi Ujiie’s presentation on “Inkjet Textile Printing Status Report 2010” has shown the number of digital printers in operation in 2009 as follows;

Short run sample printers

Mimaki:(TX-1, TX-2, TX-3)   2,000+ units

Medium speed production printers                         High speed production printers

Ichinose: (3210) 2020   200+ units                              Reggiani/Huntsman/HP:DReAM   30+ units

Robustelli: Monna Lisa   100+ units                           Reggiani/Kyocera: ReNOIR   12+ units

Konica Minolta:Nassenger V   100+ units               Osiris ISIS   1+ units

Sublimation transfer printers                                      Solvent printers

Mimaki: (JV4)   4,000+ units                                         Mimaki: (JV3)   10,000+ units

Roland: (Hifi Pro)   1,500+ units

Digital Printing Production

There are three major groups using digital textile printing technology. The first one is fashion designers who use this technology and modern design software to make samples. The second group is signage and graphic producers who occupy wide-format digital inkjet printing systems for the often disposable and custom-designed textile signs. The third group is the apparel industry. Since 2002 world digital textile printing has shown a growth of more than 40% annually, according to the data released in January 2010 by Pira International Research. In addition, IT Strategies Market Research has predicted that the value of digital printed apparel is expected to grow from US$990 million in 2007 to US$4.5 billion in 2012. They also forecasted that in 2012 more than 627.6 million square feet of digital printed textiles will be produced for retailing with a value of around US$1.17 billion.

There are several driving forces responsible for the fast growth of digital printing in textile industry. Two major forces consisting of customization and personalization have effected the development of digital printers. One can observe that the maturity of printing technology is now allowing consumers to print their personal artwork on apparel in just a short time. Furthermore, internet commerce has also catalyzed the growth of digital printing. Another driving force is the environmental friendliness. A reliable survey has shown that approximately 86% of UK consumers want their favorite brands to concern more on the threat of climate change by reducing their carbon footprint. However, consumers are still sensitive to high prices of digital printed apparel and this has become a challenge for the Asian apparel industry. In this case, industrial direct-on-garment printing solution can be another approach of the digital printed apparel market due to its lower investment.

Digital printing of textiles and apparels is expanding in China. It is estimated that digital printed textile market is dominated by sampling which is around 65%, 25% is large volume production, and the rest 10% is niche digital printed products. Eight-color printers are now used in China, replacing the six-color previous-generation printers. Small batches of production are more recognized due to a fast and frequent change of print design. With digital printing, a small production volume can be achieved. In China the traditional screen printing produces a minimum volume of 10,000 meters while digital printing can produce lower than 100 meters or even one meter for sampling.

Digital Printing Trend

In terms of print design, it was observed that the trend has moved into the fashion landscape little by little in each season. Première Vision has also confirmed this trend for spring/summer 2011. Digital printing heads its way to florals with exaggerated repeats, artificial-flower effects, aquatic patterns with infinite tones. In addition, countless nuances and gigantism are the main signatures of digital printing.

Currently one can see that digital printed fabrics are being applied to many products in order to provide market professionals, for examples, a fabric floor mat for a boxing ring; fabric banners and draperies for churches; wallpaper for restaurants and offices; tablecloths and lamp shades etc. In addition to printing on textile fabrics, digital printing is capable of printing on carpets as well. Carpets can be sublimated or direct printed with solvents or UV-cured inks.  At the moment, more digital printers are equipped with adjustable printheads that can be raised for printing thicker substrates such as carpets. Printing on carpets is similar to printing on vinyl floor cover except that a little more ink (with a double strike) is required.

Another driving trend for digital printing market is the environmental friendliness. More people are looking for solvent-free, water-based inks for printing on natural fibers such as cotton and bamboo. Some believe that pigment inks will be used more as technology has switched from solvent to water-based pigment inks. UV-curable pigment inks and latex inks can be used to print directly on natural fibers without the post-treatment that required in dye inks.  Dye sublimation is another technique for polyester indoor uses.

Many believe that UV-curable inks and latex inks will have a big impact in digital printing industry. This year, it’s speculated that almost 1.25 billion square feet of textiles will be produced using these two inks. Some have forecasted that by 2013, nearly 3 billion square feet of textiles will be produced in which almost 0.5 billion square feet of printed textiles will be produced from latex ink printing and about 2.4 billion square feet of them will be produced from UV-curable ink printing. Latex ink printing provides high quality, durable images and lower running costs than other water-based ink printing. Currently a lot of printers and textile media are made suitable for UV-curable ink printing while the formulation of UV-curable inks has been progressively improved. Both of these printing technologies show advantages over dye sublimation. First is the speed.  No transfer process is needed for UV-curable and latex ink printing.  Secondly, less water is used due to no transfer medium. No additional equipment such as a heat press is needed because both techniques are direct-to-textile printing. However, supporters of dye sublimation technology point out that this technique can provide better image durability and superior image quality. In addition, further developments in single-step digital sublimation printers improve speeds and reduce the transfer paper uses with in-line ink fixing units.

TEXTILE PRINTING TECHNOLOGY

Stork Prints

Stork Prints has recently introduced its new printing machine “PegasusEVO” The machine is ideal for short runs as well as high volume batches on various types of substrates. One main attraction of PegasusEVO is the possibility of upgrading an existing production facility by installing EVO printing features onto Stork Prints machines already in place for example RD4s. In this case, the newest technology can be installed at a limited cost. It is also possible to install a complete PegasusEVO printing block in an existing line.

Xennia and Reggiani

United Kingdom-based Xennia Technology (a supplier of inkjet technology and a unit of protective fabric maker Royal Ten Cate) has teamed up with Italy-based Reggiani Macchine (a manufacturer of textile dyeing/printing/finishing machines) to develop a full scale demonstration model of their revolutionary, diagonal-multi-pass digital inkjet textile printing system. The new system offers reliable printing on textile substrates in an industrial production environment at unrivalled speed and with high quality. The first full-scale version of Xennia’s textile printing system is based around Reggiani’s wide, high-accuracy belt-driven transport and incorporates Xennia’s inkjet modules, including the XenJet Auriga print engine, XenJet Aquarius fluid controllers and XenJet Centaurus and Cygnus software. In addition to Xennia’s inkjet modules, a combination of continuous substrate movement and diagonal printhead movement showing in the system can help eliminating the banding issues that can occur with a normal step and scan system. There is a wide print carriage, which gives high throughput even on very wide webs. The first demonstration model has 16 printheads and gives a throughput of 360 m² per hour. Xennia is now developing a second prototype with twice the number of printheads and also twice the throughput. Reggiani has planned to launch the new production systems onto the market in early 2011.

Xennia

During late September this year, Xennia released its XenInx Diamond general purpose UV cure CMYK ink set for an application in printing system based around a wide range of printheads.

Ink technology by Xennia.

The company has launched its XenInx range of high performance ink products earlier this year while XenInx Diamond UV cure CMYK ink and other UV cure inks have been recently released for use in third party inkjet printing systems. XenInx Diamond gives excellent color performance and good adhesion and durability when printed onto a wide range of non-porous substrates.  It also shows high levels of chemical, abrasion and temperature resistance and good lightfastness.

Kornit

Israel-based Kornit Digital (manufacturer and marketer of digital printing solutions for the apparel industry) has recently introduced the Kornit Avalanche 951 digital printer.

Kornit Avalanche 951 digital printer

The machine has been developed for high-volume production of light and dark apparel. According to the company, this dual-pallet industrial inkjet printer can produce four-color process prints at a rate of up to 300 garments per hour. Its fully automated system offers a smooth and seamless production workflow with efficient and cost-effective digital printing results for short- and long-run production. The Avalanche 951 allows apparel decorators to produce multi-color prints on a variety of textile applications and finished apparel, and is suitable for high-level direct-to-garment and traditional printers seeking to become hybrid apparel decoration enterprises.

Sawgrass

Sawgrass Technologies has recently offered the ChromaBlast digital garment printing system for the Epson WorkForce 30 printer. With the use of this compact 4 color system ChromaBlast inks and print media, anyone can expand their business offerings and can make more income with cotton transfer printing. The Epson WorkForce 30 printer for ChromaBlast is an entry-level cotton decorating system that makes starting a T-shirt or apparel decorating business affordable. This desktop printer has 8.5”x11” printing field and can produce up to 40 high-quality photo-realistic images per hour.

Huntsman

During mid of this year, Germany-based Huntsman released its Novacron XKS reactive dye based inks for industrial printers such as MS JetPrint K and Reggiani Renoir. These inks are new generation of industrial inks for high speed printing. They are water based inks with smooth runnability, reproducibility and compatibility with the latest industrial printheads.

Printing electronic circuitry              

About a year ago, Xerox introduced its new ink technology for printing electronic circuitry onto textile substrates. The process uses ink containing silver metal that can be used to print circuits on textiles, film and plastics. The ink can be used on conventional inkjet printer or even conventional desktop printers.

Xennia is now trying its XenJet 4000 with new software designed specifically for the deposition of printed electronics and other functional materials. The printer is being used in biomedical, pharmaceutical and other applications.

Currently printed electronic-circuitry substrates are being used in various applications from health care (light therapy bandages) to electronic wallpaper, heated or lit clothing, and flexible solar cell for portable power.  According to a report by just-style.com, more than 1,000 companies have already entered this market and it is speculated that these companies will be the new electronic giants in the future.