FESPA 2013

DIGITAL TEXTILE 32
LARGE TURN-OUT FOR
F
ESPA 2013 and European Sign Expo,
held in London in June, had more than
22,000 individual visitors across their fve
days, which exceeded the attendance at
the Munich FESPA in 2010. And with over half the
visitors spending more than one day at the show,
a total attendance of 37,460 visits was recorded.
After the UK, the largest visitor groups were
from Germany, Benelux, France, Italy and Spain,
with visitors from beyond Europe making up 15%
of the total visitors.
For the digital-textile community, there was
plenty of interest in both machinery and ink.
This included a one-day, free textiles session of
the daily Jet Set Conference, which was hosted
by Digital Textile editor John Scrimshaw and
attracted 267 participants.
All the major digital-textile machinery
manufacturers exhibited, as well as a number of
the leading ink suppliers, with a specifc focus
on disperse dye sub ink developments. As in
previous years at FESPA exhibitions, the major
focus areas were polyester soft-signage printing
(using both the disperse dye-sublimation transfer
and the direct-to-fabric printing approaches) and
DTG (direct-to-garment) digital printing.
Top apparel and home-textile digital-print
machinery manufacturers Reggiani and MS
Italy were both showing new machines using
the Kyocera KJ4B print heads, adapted to print
transfer paper with disperse dye-sub inks at high
production speeds. MS Italy was showing two
machines for paper printing, the high production
MS JP7 All Paper and the MS JP4; Reggiani
was showing a ReNOIR Compact 180 Subli, an
all-paper version of its well-established ReNOIR
digital-printing machines.
Also, for the frst time at FESPA, Epson
exhibited its SureFire SC-F dye-sublimation
printers (in 44in and 64in widths), using its
own disperse dye-sub inks (for which it has
recently taken out a Sawgrass Technologies
disperse-ink licence).
The major market share of disperse-dye
inks in digital textiles (estimated to be now
well over 50% of the total digital-textile market
and bringing in substantial revenues to the
Dr John Provost gives his personal
appraisal of product developments on
display at FESPA 2013
TEXTILE APPLICATIONS
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FESPA 2013
ISSUE 4 33
ink, print-head and print-machinery suppliers) was further
reinforced by new introductions of polyester direct to fabric
digital-textile printers by MTEX (manufactured by POD Iberia),
with its MTEX1800 printer, and by Konica Minolta with its
Nassenger PRO 120 printer.
An interesting aspect of Konica Minoltas new PRO 120,
which was announced during the show, is the companys
partnership with Sensient Technologies, which will supply the
disperse-dye sublimation inks for the printer. This is the frst
time that Konica Minolta has not used its own textile inks in one
of its digital-textile printers.
It was also interesting to see MTEX, a relative newcomer to
the digital-textile market, showing a new digital-textile printer,
the MTEX500 (for both knitted and woven textiles), using
the new Ricoh Gen 5 print head. During the show, MTEX
announced two further new printers, the MTEX 5032 and MTEX
Turbo Sub. The MTEX 5032 (3.2m wide) uses disperse dye-sub
inks, with Epson DX5 print heads; the Turbo Sub (1.8m wide)
uses Ricoh GEN 5 print heads. POD Iberia is a company to
watch, as it expands into new markets.
The focus of the digital-textile ink manufacturers at FESPA
clearly refected the increasing market demand for disperse
dye-sublimation inks, with the major Italian suppliers both
launching new ranges. Kiian introduced two ranges of
disperse dye-sublimation inks, Digistar E-Gold and HI-PRO, for
all generations of Epson DX print heads. J-Teck3 launched its
new J-Cube RF40/KF40 series (RF40 for Ricoh print heads and
KF40 for the Kyocera KJ4B print heads).
Sensient, as mentioned previously, is now supplying the
new Konica Minolta Nassenger PRO 120, and also launched
ElvaJet Alpha inks, which Miroglio Textile Group has pioneered
for its E.Volution platform, launched at Premire Vision Paris in
February (discussed in detail in Digital Textile Issue 1, 2013).
The other major area at FESPA for digital textiles was the
DTG (direct-to-garment) market, and the usual small-footprint
machines were at the show. Kornit, celebrating 10 years in the
DTG business with a re-branding initiative and announcing that
it now has 1,000 machines in the market, was for me one of
the most interesting stands. Its new Avalanche 1000 (and the
Avalanche 1000 Hexa, with six print channels, introducing red
and green in addition to CMYK), with 24 Polaris Fuji Dimatix
print heads, is now probably the highest-productivity DTG
machine available.
However, I fnd the wide-format Allegro fabric printer the most
interesting as a concept, as it is the only digital-textile printing
machine available, which has the pretreatment stage, digital
pigment printing (with a new range of pigments NeoPigments
discussed in Digital Textile Issue 3, 2013) and fxation unit, in
one continuous production unit.
Although the original Allegro was launched at ITMA 2011
in Barcelona, what was shown at FESPA is believed to be a
completely new model (with Fuji Dimatix Polaris print heads),
which will be undergoing end-user Beta testing in the near
future. A total one-pass digital-textile printing concept can only
expand interest in digital textile printing and it will be interesting
to watch Kornits market progress with the Allegro.
NeoPigment output from Kornit Allegro digital textile printing machine
MS JP4 entry-level transfer paper printer
MS JP7 All Paper transfer printing digital printer
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FESPA 2013
ISSUE 4 39
Durst Responds to
Soft Signage Demand
The latest soft-signage
industrial inkjet printer
from Durst aims to offer
the high-resolution printing
of polyester at increased
speed in response to
rising demand for the
digital printing of textile
promotional media.
The Rhotex 322 is
capable of printing up to
140 sqm/hour and up to
1200dpi resolution in six
colours with a drop size of
7-21 picolitres. Quality
is not compromised by
speed, says Durst, due
to the latest Quadro
Array level 3 greyscale
print-head technology.
Polyester fabrics
printed with Rhotex
water-based disperse
dye inks are recyclable
and disposable. The
dyes themselves
are odour free and
produce no VOCs. The
machine prints CMYK
as standard, with the
option of CMYKLmLcLk
and/or spot colours.
According to Durst
the Rhotex 322 is highly
reliable, capable of 24/7
unattended printing. The
automatic, self-cleaning jet
system further allows for
continuous operation.
The Rhotex 322 is aimed
at the wall covering and
home textile markets,
although it could also
be used for fashion
applications.
MS Highlights
Paper Printing
MS Italy sees fashion as the
principal market its latest
high-speed dye-sublimation
printer.
Making its debut at FESPA
2013, the entry-level MS
JP4 prints on transfer
paper and is aimed at
apparel markets, including
sportswear, although the
machine can be utilised
to print smaller fags and
banners, the companys
Paolo Milini told Digital
Textile.
Operating at maximum
speeds of 155 sqm/hour, the
JP4 is the fastest plotter on
the market, according to MS.
A compact machine with
a 180cm print width, the
MS JP4 maintains highly
accurate 600dpi x 600dpi
photorealistic resolution.
The JP4 boasts an open
ink system and 16 levels
of greyscale. Utilising four
Kyocera print heads, the
drop size of the MS JP4
varies from 4pl to 72pl,
offering customers added
versatility.
In line with the neat design,
the paper exits the machine
at the same side it enters,
having passed under
the 1.2m dryer located
underneath the unit. The
MS JP4 is aimed at apparel
manufacturers looking to
react quickly to the demands
of fast fashion.
Dursts Rhotex 332 is the companys
latest response to the rise of soft
signage
The MS-JP4 is aimed at the fashion textile market
POD Iberia Launches Fast Direct
Dye-Sub Printer
POD Iberia unveiled the
MTEX Turbo Sub wide-format
direct-to-textile digital printer.
This new, fast dye-sublimation
machine has an integrated
infrared fxation unit and
delivers printing speeds up to
110 sqm/hour and resolutions
reaching 1200dpi.
Equipped with six Ricoh
Gen 5 print heads, the
machine is claimed to be
three times faster than other
direct sublimation machine
currently on the market and
POD says it was specifcally
designed for customers
with high-demanding print
production. The printing width
is 1830mm.
The full version, with fxation
in-line, extraction flter and UFI
(user friendly interface) come
WIDE FORMAT PRINTERS
Continued on page 40
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