TECHNOLOGY SECTION
The Wide World of Fabric Printing
Abridged from article by Toni McQuilken, originally published by
PrintingNews.com
There are a myriad of types of jobs that can be produced by wide-format printing. Printers and designers have come up with highly creative uses of the technology, and innovation will only continue as inks, printheads, and substrates continue to improve. One category in particular is starting to gain some real steam—fabric printing— and one subset in particular is gaining momentum: garment printing.
The Magazine 22
SUMMER 2017
Patrick Clark, founder of NextWave Media Solutions, is one printer in the United States who sees a major shift coming in how clothing is created. He is the first to run an EFI Reggiani press in North America and has big plans for what’s next.
“The ability to do short run, on-demand apparel printing has great advantages,” said Clark. “Because of the technology, and because of the practicality, it’s now become a reality in our marketplace. The ability to—at a decent price—produce a garment on demand, and not just custom pieces, but any garment, is incredible. We can efficiently produce pieces not just for micro production houses, but for any retailer, and this is the way Amazon and other big players will fulfill their production in the future. It’s on demand so they don’t have to carry billions of items, they can just produce whatever is required, in whatever size is needed.”
Companies in Europe are having some success with this model, with clothing house Zara a prime example. Clark notes that they have shortened design and production times, using wide-format digital technologies, to achieve tighter cycles than ever before. “It used to take six weeks to get the first design approved, and they would be selling up
to 14 months in advance,” he said. With new technologies, however, he notes that Zara is taking just six weeks from the design phase to purchase availability.
Things to Keep in Mind
As exciting as being able to custom-print clothing that is the exact color and size needed on demand is, there are still challenges to face. In particular, notes Tommy Martin, product manager, Textile & Apparel Business Development & Marketing, Mimaki USA, “Currently there is no universal textile ink that will print to all fabric types. Preprocessing, production, and post-processing is dependent on the type of fabric. Other printhead technologies are an untapped market for direct-to- fabric printing such as spot colors, color promoters, pretreatments, UV coatings, flame and heat protection, etc.”
Martin notes that for anyone considering adding fabric printing of any type, including garments, the key is to determine what you’ll be printing on. In addition to knowing what inks and printheads are best for that specific type of fabric, he says, “Also, is the fabric stretchy in all directions or firm? Stretch fabrics require a transport handling system like a belt that stabilizes it during printing to minimize movement and stretching. Each process requires additional post-processing equipment to cure and finish printed fabrics.”
To get costs down to the point where, for example, a store could have their entire inventory custom produced on a daily or weekly basis, it will require automation. Automating sewing isn’t quite there yet, Clark says, but there are some companies doing very interesting things in the space, so a solution that begins to incorporate those elements is not as far off as some might think.
Color consistency is another key requirement. When two people buy the same shirt from the same designer, they
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