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| Issue date:23/08/2010 |
| ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel - Aug 2010 Issue |
| Source:Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel |
| by Michelle Phong |
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| A migration trend to digital printing is underway due to technological maturity and a number of favourable market trends. More premium, personalised-designed fashion are now made by digital printing in Europe and North America, whereas Chinese producers are interested in highly productive solutions for quick-to-the-market garment, carpets, and more |
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| Price-friendly, digitally printed carpets are getting more popular among consumers (photo: Nantong HomeDec) |
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Globally digital textile printing has been growing at more than 40% annually since 2002 from virtually zero, based on the data from Pira International Research released in January 2010.
There are three major groups using digital textile printing technology. The first group is fashion designers who often make use of this technology together with modern design software to produce samples cost-effectively.
The second group is signage and graphics producers, usually equipped with wide-format digital inkjet printing systems for the often disposable and custom-designed textile signs. Moreover, more finishes and special effects can be made possible with digital printing.
The third group is the apparel industry, which is progressively moving to digital textile printing as the printing systems, inks and software have been improved in recent years to enhance the balance of quality and costs, including the time cost.
In fact, digitally printed apparel is the fastest growing segment in the digital textile printing market, according to Yuval Neria, Director, Product Marketing & Business Development of Kornit. Mr Neria shared his views at the recent FESPA 2010 exhibition in Munich, Germany. Such apparel is forecast for a 100% growth from 2009 to 2014. In addition, based on the data of IT Strategies Market Research, value of digitally printed apparel is anticipated to grow from US$990 million in 2007 to US$4.5 billion in 2012.
A migration trend to digital printing is underway due to a number of favourable market trends. Technological maturity has allowed end consumers to print out their personal artwork on apparel they desire in short runs. Customisation and pesonalisation have been two major forces that drive the ongoing development of digital printers. Meanwhile, Internet commerce acts as a catalyst to spur these highly custom clothing among end consumers.
Very fine design can be printed on apparel by digital printing. Picture on the right is a close-up of the print (Photo: Kornit) |
Environmental friendliness is also increasingly an integral part of the unique selling proposition among apparel decorators to meet the mounting expectation of green living among consumers.
In a recent research, about 86% of consumers in the UK said they wanted their favourite brands to help combat the threat of climate change by reducing their carbon footprint, said Euan Murray, General Manager at the Carbon Trust. The findings were compiled from a survey of 2,047 British adults interviewed in February 2010. The findings have been weighted and are a representative sample of all UK adults.
As the global economy has regained part of its momentum but consumers are still price-sensitive, the Asian apparel industry needs to find new ways to survive in the market. Industrial direct-on-garment printing solution can be practical for new entrants of the digitally printed apparel market. Entry-level machine achieving prints on various substrates and finished apparel requires less investment, allowing manufacturers to diversify their businesses at a potentially lower risk.
Engineered to provide affordable printing with high quality performance, the Kornit Breeze 921 industrial and compact direct-on-garment printer is capable of printing on both dark and light garments such as t-shirts, pants, jackets and so on. The machine is also integrated with an automatic pretreatment system to achieve capital and operational savings.
Mr Neria believed that this machine is suitable for screen and embroidery businesses entering the digital apparel market. New online market can be explored as the Kornit printer can be easily linked for online shopping. Buyers or consumers can order online at any time by choosing the media (fabrics/apparel etc), colour and design.
More suppliers for the manufacture of digitally printed goods include Reggiani, Fujifilm Dimatix and Mimaki.
Digital and cool transfer printing are growing
Not only in Europe and North America, production of digitally printed textile and apparel products is also expanding in China, according to Atexco Digital (杭州宏华), which is one of the leading machine suppliers in the country.
General Manager of Atexco Digital, Jin Xiao-tuan (金小团), said in an earlier speech that the annual growth of digital printed textiles is over 10%. The volume of such textiles was expected to jump to 50 million metres by this year-end from 17.8 million metres in 2001.
A number of characteristics can be observed from the current digital textile printing in China. First, technological improvement has allowed users to produce with an eight-colour printer, instead of six colours on the first-generation printer. Second, the print design changes frequently and quickly, whereas the production is more often a small batch. Traditional screen printing in China produces in a minimum volume of 10,000 metres, but digital printing can produce fabrics below 100 metres or even one metre for sampling, explained Mr Jin.
He estimated that the Chinese digitally printed textile market is dominated by sampling (65%), whilst 25% is produced in larger volumes. The rest of 10% is niche digitally printed products.
High-speed digital printing without using a screen will be increasingly popular in China, marketing manager of Atexco Digital, Du Sien (杜斯恩), told ATA Journal at the recent ITMA Asia+CTIME 2010 fair in Shanghai. For instance, the new Honghua VEGA 2500 high-speed digital textile ink-jet printing system for industrial production without finishing makes green printing a reality.
“By using reactive inks, pigments inks, and etc; there is no need to have a subsequent finishing process. Moreover, the Atexco inks offering good colour fastness without steaming minimise the use of water, heat and inks. Clean production is truly achieved with the Honghua VEGA 2500 for apparel and home textile manufacturers,” he said.
An official approval is now obligatory to increase the pollution limit for textile manufacturers operating in China; hence, apparel makers can penetrate into new market segment with the eco-friendly digitally printed goods that have minimal environmental footprint, according to Mr Du.
Another advantage of digital textile printing is the speedy design-to-delivery cycle, the fastest within a day, said Mr Du. The DBP-1600 digital textile belt printer offers multiple benefits to users, including a higher speed at over 20 square metres per hour, more design patterns, and 360 nozzles per colours. When fabric sourcing and pre-treatment is done in proximity, it is possible to achieve a one-day design-to-delivery process and this can be especially attractive for apparel manufacturers who have their own brands and marketing channels and who are demanding swift market responses.
Digitally printed carpets are another promising area for Chinese weavers. The advanced Carpet-jet system of Atexco Digital produces 8,000 to 24,000 square metres a day. Sixteen to 24 colors in design are achieved by 1024 to 3072 high-frequency electromagnetic jets. The sales performance of the digital textile printers were good at the Shanghai fair, Mr Du added.
Looking ahead, the development of more affordable inks is essential to further promote digital textile printing in China.
Another eco-friendly textile printing technology is cool transfer printing, according to a Chinese company called Newtech Textile Fabric Printing, which has adopted the Cooltrans technology from Grosse. By following procedures from cool transfer ink-jet printing on samples and then cold transfer printing on paper, printed fabrics can be made by cold pad-batch approach, the company explains. Users are able to save up to 65% energy and two-thirds of water.
Shanghai Shengcai Digital Printing Company (上海盛彩數碼印花) in China, for instance, has used transfer printing for the manufacture of varied fabrics, apparel, home textiles, nonwovens and automotive textiles.
An impressive start, limitless creativity for digital printing on fashion
Digital printing appeared to many weavers as an answer to a demand for reactivity, immediacy and differentiation on the part of their clients. By contrast, classic printing technologies still lead in terms of subtlety, the way colours are rendered and large quantities.
There were the fractal reptilian prints of designer Alexander McQueen for the spring summer 2010 collection, Prada’s post cards, the 3D renderings of Marios Schwab and the psychedelic prints of the design duo Basso & Brooke, pioneers in the field.
Without a doubt, digital printing is moving into the fashion landscape a little bit more each season. The new visual explorations revealed at Première Vision for spring summer 11 confirm this trend. Digital processes pave the way to florals with exaggerated repeats, artificial-flower effects, aquatic patterns with infinite tones. Countless nuances and gigantism are the main signatures of digital printing.
Potential but limitations too
Digital procedures have their aficionados and their arguments for the process are getting more convincing. The principal characteristic put forward is the absence of chromatic restriction.
A dozen colours is a lot for traditional printing techniques, while with digital printing, there is no problem in exceeding 16 million colours. But for those with a real understanding, the digital versions are far from the serigraphic excellence of flat screen-printing or the colouristic neatness of a rotary printer. Traditional printing permits plays on opacity, layering of transparency and more.
One weakness recognised by all is the way digital printing renders colours, which are often lacking in depth. But predictions are that digital machines will soon be capable of using molecules of pigmentary inks (or their equivalents), which will improve the density of tones.
The capacities of digital printing are immense and this infiniteness is exciting. But be careful not to drown in it, point out experienced designers. It is a tool, facilitating creation but not a good replacement for a designer. And what about the transition to actual production? Overall, the inks are less expensive in traditional printing. On the other hand, there is no engraving step in digital printing. Which means an economically more interesting solution for small runs.
However, the progression of digital printing is undeniable. Frédérique Levêque, head of the digital platform at the Institut français du textile et de l’habillement de Mulhouse, underlines, “Day-to-day, digital printing is gaining ground both in ready-to-wear, lingerie and home furnishings.” And it will continue to improve its fashion impact.
(Extracted from the Daily News of Première Vision) |
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| Copyright © Adsale Publishing Limited. Any party needs to reprint any part of the content should get the written approval from Adsale Publishing Ltd and quote the source "ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel", Adsale Textile English Website - www.AdsaleATA.com. We reserve the right to take legal action against any party who reprints any part of this article without acknowledgement. For enquiry, please contact Editorial Department. |
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| Copyright © Adsale Publishing Limited. Any party needs to reprint any part of the content should get the written approval from Adsale Publishing Ltd and quote the source "ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel", Adsale Textile English Website - www.AdsaleATA.com. We reserve the right to take legal action against any party who reprints any part of this article without acknowledgement. For enquiry, please contact Editorial Department. |
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