diversification
Digital Textile Printing Has Come of Age
One only needs to look at what is happening in other parts of the world to see that now is the time for companies in North America to invest resources to participate in the projected growth of digital textile printing.
Digital textile printing has officially Italy, Turkey and Spain, along with Brazil entered a new age. e global market for and India, have embraced digital textile volume of printed textile is around 27 printing to the point where they have idled billion yards per year, growing at three some of their screen printing equipment in percent. It is estimated that about 250 favor of printing textiles digitally. ey are million yards is currently printed digitally. producing yardage of all types of products e growth curve of digitally printed yards including apparel, home furnishing, has steepened over the past two to three interior decoration and signage. years and it is expected that by 2016, the The major drawbacks of printing volume will be well over one billion yards. digitally, namely speed and cost have been, Does digital textile printing finally and continue to be, addressed. Digital make sense as a mainstream solution to printers now in production reach speeds serve the needs of the signage and other of 75 yards per minute. Companies are markets? Has the technology progressed realizing running costs in the range of to the point of it being viable to more than $0.50/yard compared to $0.35/yard for a few companies that have mastered its rotary screen printing. When the bene ts complexities? Is there a network of reliable of no screen engraving, no color kitchen vendors of the various components of the and reduced manpower are factored in, the printing solutions? Is now the right time value proposition for digital printing can be to jump into the business of printing on justi ed. is, along with the exibility in textiles digitally and is there money to be design enabled by digital printing and the made at it? Let's take a look at the evolving favorable environmental impact has set the digital textile market. table for signi cant growth. e US is currently a minor player in US vs. Europe printing textiles, so when you combine One only needs to look at what is happening the growth of the business globally and in other parts of the world to see that now is the fact that the US is the time for companies in North America behind other regions of to invest resources to participate in the the world in printing projected growth of digital textile printing. textiles digitally, there is Some European countries, particularly the basis for a signi cant
Mark Sawchak, Owner, Expand Systems LLC
Visit SGIA at SGIA.org SGIA Journal ■ January/February 2013 | 13 opportunity to jump into the market now. Fabric Advantages & Disadvantages Digital textile printing is a Many of the designers, brand holders and Printing onto fabrics in general is large retailers are based in the US. e signi cantly di erent than printing onto growing market and will continue awareness among these groups regarding paper, vinyl and lms. e characteristics to grow as a viable mainstream the advantages of digital printing has grown of the bers of the textile being printed and and products are showing up on store how they are woven and what treatments are option in the specialty imaging shelves that have been digitally produced. present all a ect the printing. Considering community. Also showing up in more abundance these characteristics, there are signi cant in these same retailers is fabric or “soft” advantages in printing digitally versus signage to enhance the message being analog, such as screen printing, o set or Fabric Popularity delivered by the brand holder or retailer. gravure. ere will be some inertia to overcome by e most obvious advantage is reduced Market Polyester Cotton Nylon Silk Blends companies looking to provide the market run sizes. Being able to print short runs with textiles printed digitally in the US as at a reasonable cost enables companies to Sign and AB customers have established vendors in Asia produce samples eciently and introduce a Banner and India that provide their products. new line of printed fabrics to measure sales The advantages of digital printing, potential. With the advent of faster printers, Flag B A however, are best utilized by having the now even production runs of thousands of production closer to the retailers. The yards can be eciently printed. Another Home BA nirvana of the retailers is to have the major advantage is the exibility of design. Furnishing cash register drive the supply chain to No longer does an image need to be the point that when a product is sold separated into a manageable number of Apparel AABBA at the cash register, a message is sent colors for screen printing or some other to the manufacturers to replenish it. analog method. Technical ABA B Digital printing is a major enabler of this In Europe, it is common to nd designers Textile goal. Additionally, the global market is that know the design they are creating will Fabrics are listed in terms of popularity with changing. China’s middle class is growing be going through a digital work ow so "A" being more popular and "B" less popular. signi cantly and more of China’s resources they create designs with more than 50 are required to meet their domestic needs. colors. Some claim that this actually may e resulting longer lead times and larger be a disadvantage of digital printing. Some minimums cause retailers to carry more markets that have been served by screen inventory. printing have a need to replenish inventory
Textile umbrella and street signage printed with HP Latex Printing Technologies.
14 | SGIA Journal ■ January/February 2013 Visit SGIA at SGIA.org with more product. Often the orders for After deciding on the market, fabric, and this replenishment are small in volume and ink, selecting the proper printing platform lend themselves to digital. For example, is next. For printing on polyester there are in the home furnishing business, designs two fundamental options — direct-to- may stay in the market for more than 10 fabric, or sublimation transfer. Assuming years, but as a design ages, the popularity you opt for a wide color gamut, dispersed declines. dye ink can be used for both. ere are Concerns also have been raised whether two types of dispersed dye. Low energy digital print output could match the screen dispersed dye can be either printed direct printed product. It is possible to match or transferred. High energy disperse dye screen printing with digital, and software does not transfer well and is best suited to is available to ensure the color matching print direct. High energy dyes are typically is essentially exact. Screen printing e ects, for light fast. such as traps and mesh artifacts, can be Heat transfer requires a good quality rendered to the image. The other two coated transfer paper on which you digitally major disadvantages that have been lodged print the mirror image, and then transfer to against digital printing is speed and cost the polyester fabric in a heat press. e and recent developments of hardware and polyester does not need to be pre-treated ink have defused these issues. to accept the image. For direct-to-fabric, With regards to signage, digitally printed the best results are obtained by using a fabrics for point-of-purchase applications, fabric that is pre-treated to control the dye trade show and event decoration, and migration. interior decoration brings the advantage of It is also important to use a printer that reduced weight of the printed fabric versus a has the proper fabric handling capabilities vinyl substrates drastically reducing freight to avoid head strikes. After printing, costs and allows for more ecient storage. the image needs to be “ xed” by using e exibility and soft hand of fabric makes a heat press. The same equipment used it ideal for applications where the graphics in transferring can be used to x direct will be contoured. There is an esthetic printed fabric. Another method of xation appeal with fabric that is not possible commonly used in Europe is steam. is with other substrates. is combined with is effective for applications where ink the sustainable aspect of digitally printed penetration is important. textiles fuels the demand to the print Determining which solution is the best providers. is subjective. With a fabric that is properly treated, the quality of printing is essentially A Growing Market the same. By direct printing you eliminate Polyester fabrics comprise more than 40 the need and cost of transfer paper but you percent of all of the printed textiles that should use pre-treated fabric for best results, are manufactured today. is market share which will increase the cost of the fabric. has increased over the past two years due to e transfer process may induce more waste the global high prices of cotton caused by due to misalignment issues, which is not the recent shortages. It is not clear if cotton will case for direct print. On the other hand, any recover this share as prices have dropped print quality issues will cause wasted fabric recently, but there are certain markets that when printing direct. e bottom line is lend themselves to speci c textiles. each solution can be equally cost e ective. In the Fabric Popularity Chart, fabrics are listed in terms of popularity with “A” Speed & Width Considerations being more popular and “B” less so. When After deciding whether to transfer or direct deciding upon a digital textile solution print, the speed and width of the printer it is important to rst choose the market should be the determining factor when you want to pursue. is will lead you to choosing the optimum printer. is should the type of fabric to o er which in turn be based on your expected volume, growth will determine the type of ink you should potential and payback. It is not unusual to choose. expect a payback of less than one year and For example, the sign and banner market in some cases a few months. A convenient is served well by polyester. e fabric has method to categorize machines from sucient durability and yields very good di erent vendors is to classify them in terms print quality. ere are two types of ink of speed. Class One machines will print ve that can print onto polyester — dispersed to 20 yards per hour. Class Two machines dye and pigment. Dispersed dye will yield a will print 20–80 yards per hour. Class ree wider color gamut and it is the most widely machines will print 100–800 yards per hour. used. Pigment ink may be considered in And Class Four machines will print as fast cases where more light fastness is required. as 75 yards per minute.
Visit SGIA at SGIA.org SGIA Journal ■ January/February 2013 | 15 Another convenient rule of thumb is to ere are several resources available to help, estimate a pro t per machine hour of the including your printer manufacturer and/ printing machine. Assuming a relatively or dealer, ink supplier, fabric supplier and busy workload for the printer, the pro t software RIP provider. per machine hour can be calculated by Digital textile printing is a growing estimating the sales revenue on a price per market and will continue to grow as a viable yard basis, and then estimating the cost mainstream option in the specialty imaging elements of the yard of fabric or paper, ink community. e exibility in design, the consumed to print the yard, ink price and favorable environmental impact and the operator cost per hour. e average print increase in production speed all contribute John Mckay Center, 21 Sports Exhibit printed on the Durst Rhotex 320 with speed is then used to make the calculation. to this market’s growth and it is only a Fisher Textiles Power Stretch media, For example, a Class One machine matter of time before the North American finished with silicone edge. running at 10 yards per hour yields a pro t market jump in. of $100 per machine hour assuming a selling price of $20 per yard, and a fabric, Mark Sawchak is currently managing ink and labor cost of $10 per yard. By partner/owner of Expand Systems, LLC, a employing this rule of thumb in your digital textile printing solutions provider. business you can manage the printer assets Sawchak and his wife Ann started the business in a way that helps you maximize its money in 2007. From 2004-2007, Sawchak worked making potential. e faster the printer at Fotowear, a distributor and market leader (higher class), the more pro t per machine of digital transfer paper where he worked in hour achieved. product development and sales capacities. e Class Four printer could achieve Prior to working at Fotowear, Sawchak $2,500 per machine hour or more. e worked at Kimberly-Clark Corporation for printers have become more user-friendly nearly 20 years, serving in various marketing and the RIP software has improved and sales positions in their specialty paper signi cantly. While it is not as simple as division. plug and play due to the nuances of fabric, particularly if you print on a variety of [email protected] di erent fabric types, it does not require you to be a textile technologist to have success.
16 | SGIA Journal ■ January/February 2013 Visit SGIA at SGIA.org