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FLAAR Reports moving more into reviewing and evaluating textile printers, textile inks, dye sublimation, and calendering heat presses

FLAAR has been studying textile printers since the late 1990's and our reports on wide-format inkjet textile printers have been available since 2001. But in 2007 we moved more into textiles and for 2008 issues about five new reports on textile printers. For 2009 we are considering adding additional coverage of dye sublimation inks and workflow and printers as well as the new UV-curing textile inks (not regular UV-cured inks for roll to roll UV printers, but a special relatively new UV-curing process especially for textile printers.

FLAAR will also be checking on price comparisons and general costs of textile printing machines.

Textile ink chemistries

acid dye textile ink,

reactive textile dye,

pigmented textile ink

disperse dye ink for direct sublimation

disperse dye ink for printing on transfer paper first

Textile ink, major brands

Yuhan-Kimberly

Sensient

Sawgrass

Kiian

Ciba

And many others

Here is Dr. Hellmuth analyzing the DigiFab StampaJet printer at SGIA 2008.

Textile printers

Yuhan-Kimberly: wallpaper printer, silk & cotton printer; dye-sub and grand format (VU-180)

DigiFab StampaJet

ATPColor

Splash of Color

Algotex Rainbow, Italy

Mutoh textile printers

Roland textile printers (usually retrofitted under other names)

Mimaki textile printers (usually retrofitted under other names)

• Velotex Xpress (Mimaki JV33 with dye sub system underneath)

Shima Seiki

MS Printing Solutions

d-gen

Yuhan Kimberly MC3 premium printing some samples at SGIA 2008.

Calendering machines for dye sublimation onto polyester

More and more textile printers have calendering built in: you print directly on the fabic and in a lower area the system heats the ink and sublimates it within the fabric itself. This is considered not as bright as if you print onto paper and heat press onto the raw fabric, but that requires TWO systems: a printer and a separate calendering machine.

But if you are a serious full time textile printer, you will prefer a calendering machine:

• Monti Antonio
• Klieverik
• Transmatic and AIT
• Pratix
• DigiHeat from DigiFab

Dye Sublimation Transfer Paper

Coldenhove

Beaver

Qualimage Swiss Inkjet Solutions offered Transjet sublimation paper

Wide-format Inkjet Fabrics and textile materials

3P Inkjet Textiles is the one we know the best, because I have been to their main office in Germany

If you need help on deciding what inkjet fabrics are best for signage, tradeshow graphics, banners, flags, backdrops, house furnishings such as curtains or wall coverings, murals, table cloths, clothing items such as ties, scarves, shirts, then thes upcoming FLAAR Reports are crucial.

Textile RIP software

Evolution RIP from DigiFab is the one I know best; Dr Wirth is another (I have visited another Dr Wirth division office, 6to5 3D scanning, outside Frankfurt), and several other textile RIPs are available.

Textile printer manufacturing companies which have dropped out

ColorSpan DisplayMaker FabriJet XII

Encad NovaJet 1500 DX textile system printer (1998)

Stork Amethyst, Storm Amber, and most original Stork branded textile printers are not really made any more (Stork may still exist on paper but lacks viable presence at trade shows)

L&P Virtu, but their textile model, ironic since they originally started their printer division to print onto their own mattress covers. But they quickly realized that the world of textile printing outside their own company had other standards that would be very complex for them to interact with, plus creating a tech support system would require a staff larger than they were willing to hire and train.

Textiles for wallpaper and upholstery

The question is whether wallpaper should be printed with a solvent, eco-solvent, mild-solvent or textile printer. Or maybe a UV-curable roll-to-roll printer?

FLAAR will be studying more about these questions and providing the answers during 2009. The downside of solvent printers is outgassing of solvent smell.

The downside of most older grand format printers is their print resolution is inadequate for a mural seen in a room at close viewing distance.

The downside of water-based printers is the high cost of coated inkjet media.

So we continue to look for better solutions for wallpaper.

Upholstery is more a textile application and most of the Yuhan-Kimberly and many of the Digi-Fab printers can handle that.

Textile printers for ties, scarves, and clothing

Yuhan-Kimberly has one of the best displays on all kinds of samples of textile printing (in their main office, DTP Link, in Seoul).

Trade shows for digital textile printers

VISCOM Italy, SGIA, and FESPA Digital have plenty of textile printers every year. ITMA is only every several years but has even more textile printers.

Trade magazines for learning about digital textile printers

Fabric Graphics magazine is a great resource. You can visit their booth at GraphExpo trade show (or, for 2009, at Print '09 in Chicago). FLAAR has a booth there also.

There are also articles on soft signage and digital printing of textiles in Digital Graphics, The Big Picture, and Digital Output magazines. For Europe try SIP magazine.

Books for learning about digital textile printing

Woodhead Publishing Limited has books on textiles, indeed they specialize on textile technology.

FLAAR Publications on textile printing are also available

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First posted January 14, 2009.