A monthly column of technology rambling, rumination and reality

By: Jud Early, Corporate Vice President, Research, [TC]²

A Technology Grab Bag

Printer Potpourri
When I was a small kid, Christmas was the time that brought the Sears Toy Catalog. Some years we'd get one from "Monkey" Wards too. With page after page of goodies on display, being forced to make a choice of only one or two items was soooo distressing. Between my sisters and I, the pages were dog eared or entirely missing before Christmas rolled around. I still don't know how Santa managed to… well, back to business.

With this issue of the newsletter, I'm presenting you with page after page of goodies. I was fortunate enough to see them up close and for real last month. Now, I can bring them to you so that you can prepare your holiday wishlist too. Don't feel that you must limit yourself to just one or two printers.

As promised in the last Technology Corner, a more complete update on digital printing as seen at the ITMA Exposition is the core of this month's column. I must first make the point that I am not an expert in traditional rotary or flat screen printing. Therefore comparisons to these technologies will be made in a generic sense, and will be related more to business strategy than head-to-head performance of one technology over another.

As background, [TC]² has been involved in the advocacy of digital printing of textiles since early 1990's. Recognizing that mass customization encompassed coloration and design as well as fit, it was apparent by 1994 that direct printing onto fabric with digitally controlled systems was essential to growth in the category. At that time, printing was done with continuous ink jet machines such as Stork, or with electrostatic printers printing on paper, which was then transferred by heat to the fabric. Fabric hand was barely acceptable, and the range of fibers was limited. A multi-year research effort was begun, with exploration of the state-of-the-art in digital printing, in countries where research and development had led the US, we visited printing developers, printer manufacturers, and early adopters of fabric printing using digital processes that were available at the time. It was apparent that for digital printing to reach an operational cost that was to be effective, that a drop-on-demand system was essential. Three interns began the exploration of how a print could be engineered to wrap around the body in seamless fashion, with seams invisible where the print image crossed a seam. Other features such as darts and gores were also explored, and the software necessary to create planned distortions in the print pattern was developed. Today, the Ink Drop Boutique is a reality, serving artists, designers, and museum shops with digitally printed goods in quantities as small as one, but with greater efficiency when several items are ordered. This demonstration of digital print direct to fabric is operational daily at [TC]². Our technologists worked with developers of inks at an early stage, to assist in evaluation of the then emerging textile inks for direct print. Early development was done on a drop-on-demand medium format drum printer originally designed for paper printing. Garment components fixed to the drum with adhesive were printed with inks that were under development by some of today's major name producers. Results varied, but today inks are available that have acceptable wash test result, and fade resistant inks for outdoor signage are now in common use. It was apparent just how far the industry has come in just a few short years, as I toured the exhibit stands in Birmingham's National Exhibition Center last month.

Trends
Trend number one is that there is a proliferation of drop-on-demand machines. Many use the same head type, or a complete head/carriage transport from another manufacturer.

Trend number two is that most have arrived at what is possibly a maximum "sweet-spot" in production capability of around 14 to 15 square yards per hour.

Trend number three is the emergence of differentiating sub-systems.

Trend number four is that some manufacturers are driving toward substantially higher production rates than the 14 to 15 square yard per hour range, with some producing ten times the production, but at ten or more times the cost.

Too early to be called a trend, but as a business model, the operation of electronically linked, globally separate service bureaus to perform sampling and follow on with production quantities of fabric is bound to be emulated.

The Hardware

Machines for entry into direct digital printing were shown by a number of manufacturers.
The Stork Sapphire prints up to 65 inches in width at a rate in standard mode of 17.6 m²/hr. Speeds vary, depending upon print quality that is needed. This machine can be configured to print 32 M²/hr in bi-directional mode at 360 x 360 dpi. Recommended speed in standard mode is 9.2 M²/hr. An external ink system will be shown in the innovation section below. More also on the Stork See - U system that enables the deployment of printing sites around the world, and still allows precise color matching from one location to another.

Mimaki exhibited several printers on their stand. The newest, the Tx3-1600 is the machine that was noted in the column last month as having the blocked nozzle detection system. This machine will be available in spring of 2004, according to agents working the stand. With four pass printing the machine will do 16 M²/hr at maximum resolution of 720 by 720 dpi. Inks available are Acid, disperse, and reactive dye. Pigment printing was being done on an adjacent printer for whole garment printing, but no promise date for pigment inks to be used with the Tx3-1600. Appears to be a very promising new arrival.

Also on display was the Tx2-1600. This machine is capable of 10 M²/hr at 720 by 720 dpi. Having two sets of eight heads, this printer can run two types of ink without a change-over. The Epson piezoelectric heads provide variable drop size which is selected by the Raster Image Processor when RIPing the file to print. An adjustment for head height allows materials of up to seven millimeters in thickness to be accommodated. A front mounted dryer is optional to sped ink drying and allow rolling of goods without fear of strike-through.

d-gen is a Korean manufacturer of printers. Two models were shown, each with a distinct application. For home furnishings and apparel fabrics that are non-stretchy, the cylinder bed machine is recommended. A belt feed machine is available for fabrics that do not have good stability, or for leather goods which are not consistent in width or edge straightness. The sticky belt blanket allows the material to be fixed without stretching, and fed through the machine without pulling on the material to be printed. See the Innovation section below for a new feature that d-gen introduced at ITMA.

The Cylinder machine is shown at right. Speed for both machines is claimed o be 20 M²/hr at the equivalent of a 450 line screen. For comparison, with four pass printing, the machine is rated to print 10 M²/hr at 720 by 720 dpi. Inks include reactive, disperse, acid and pigment. All are represented to meet ISO standards for color fastness and wash/fade resistance. At a price substantially below competing machines, this company may just have a winning formula of innovation, cost/value and inks geared to meet the needs of apparel and home furnishings producers.

A'Tex, a Malaysian company exhibited its DPM machine, available in widths of 1650 mm., 2150 mm., and 3200 mm. At ten feet wide, this machine is the largest ink jet printer for non-signage applications seen by this writer. Geared toward home furnishings, it can print bed linens, or can produce sixty-three inch goods in a two-up configuration. Available with acid, reactive and disperse dye sets it can print on cotton, silk, polyester, wool and linen. Equipped with eight ink cartridges and variable resolution from 360 by 360 up to 1440 by 1440, this machine offers many combinations of speed vs. throughput.

Motoh's dye sublimation printer claims printing speeds of up to 39.5 M²/hr. Two models will be offered, one at 65 inch width, the second at 88 inch width. Equipped with Epson heads, the machine is said to operate with water based disperse dye inks printing on transfer paper. Handouts were clearly marked as preliminary data, with the machine on display appearing to be of pre-production state, not as a development machine snatched from the lab. Application areas are outdoor signage, banners, promotional goods and floor graphics. No heat press accompanies this printer, and no CAD front end.

Offered by La Meccanica of Italy, the Qualijet is one two that will be featured here that utilize the Mimaki printer head and transport system, but which have been fitted with sticky belt transfer blankets to provide improved feeding for stretchy fabrics. Also equipped with large capacity ink bottles, this printer is designed to print long yardage runs. A hot air drying system for the printed fabric is standard, as is a blanket washing station with rotating brush as standard equipment also. With its heritage in textile handling machinery, this adaptation appears to be a very substantial marriage of material handling and digital printing.

Another Italian firm, Gali exhibited machine that also is a conversion from a printer with conventional roller feed to one with a sticky belt blanket feed. Using either a Mimaki or a Roland printer head and head transport, this company builds a base with a permanent adhesive on the belt with a washing station to remove any bled through inks before the new piece to be printed is loaded. With a maximum width of 73 inches, this machine can print up to 29 M²/hr at 360 dpi, with a maximum resolution of 1440 dpi. The price of this machine also includes the RIP and color management software.

It's beginning to sound like the same old song, but yet another Italian firm, DGS is producing a printer based on Mimaki head and head transport mechanism, but with a base unit that has a sticky belt blanket for fabric transport. Production rates are quite varied, depending upon the resolution and number of passes to achieve flawless print quality. Possibilities are two pass/four pass, three pass/six pass, and four pass/ eight pass, with resolution from 360 by 360 to 720 by 720 dpi. Rates from 4.0 M²/hr in high resolution to 28.8 M²/hr in lowest resolution are available to suit the needs of any textile graphic. Although it is outside the scope of a printer review, I must mention that this company offers the most comprehensive and integrated suite of software of any vendor that I have seen. From sketching and graphic art to design or importation of print styles, the ability to manage color with quick, easy fabric characterization, even a tool that allows digitizing a flat photograph and creating a three dimensional surface that can be textured with a color or print, and with amazing realism of the drape that a fabric would have when draped as in the photograph. No representation yet in the US, but watch this company.

By now, you will have spotted the basis for one of the recognized innovation trends. With several companies offering either an OEM or conversion of another manufacturer's printer to add the sticky belt blanket for feeding tricky fabrics and leather, it is apparent to me that the handling of material to be printed has been given a level of importance second only to the means for applying ink to the substrate. Look for this trend to continue.

Now, the Big Iron
DuPont, one of the companies that have advanced ink chemistry for textile printing now has a machine that can consume some of that ink. The Artistri 2020 is actually a joint effort between DuPont and Ichinosi of Japan. With dual beams to carry the two sets of eight print heads, this machine is capable of high rates of production, or high resolution at a nominal rate. Sturdily built, this machine should provide good service with nominal maintenance. It is intended for a 24/7 production environment. Equipped with a sticky belt blanket transport, and integrated fabric dryer, it can also accommodate material thickness up to 10 mm. Ink cartridges are easily changed to minimize down time. Available in acid disperse, pigment and reactive, a complete set of dyes is offered, along with as many as thirteen colors per chemistry.

Color adjustment is made by resident tools and precise L*a*b color assignment can also be done. Print resolution is 360, 540, or 720 dpi. With three quality settings, production rates range from 11 M²/hr at 720 dpi and highest quality to 66 M²/hr at draft quality resolution and 360 dpi. Maximum printable width is 71 inches.

An interesting machine that was exhibited was the TexJet 254 system by Color Wings. Intended for outdoor signage, flags and banners, the machine is large, capable of printing up to 2.5 M in width on polyester substrate only. It is a sublimation printer with resolution of only 50 dpi. The head technology is most interesting. It is valve-jet technology, allowing large amounts of ink to be dropped onto the substrate. From printer directly to a heat press, the printed material is cooled by a bank of fans before being rolled up. Cooling avoids blocking that might result if the ink were tightly wound against the back of the ply being rolled. The company is based in the Netherlands, specializing in this type of printing.

Virtu RSTX is the 138 inch wide printer that is based on the Virtu RS. Both are by Leggett & Platt's L&P Digital Technologies. Whether in super wide or grand format, these machines are without equal for the intended purpose. Flexibility extends to the printing of flat, rigid goods up to seven centimeters thick, down to fabric substrates for bedding and drapery use. Printing at 300 or 600 dpi, the machine is capable of production rates between 30 and 33 square yards per hour in high quality mode. Capable of using either four or six colors of ink, the gamut is good, with brilliant colors evidenced in the printed samples. There are many built-in items to extend flexibility, such as having both a heat platen section for thermal cure or a cold light section for goods that are subject to heat damage. Sheet goods, such as mylar or corrugated board can be printed up to 3.5 meters in width. The UV curable inks are instantly set by the carriage mounted lamps that travel with the heads. Any uncured ink will be cured in the secondary fixing sections that are included. This is not your father's old printer, nor is it for one with a skinny wallet. However, in this class of machine, the end seems to provide justification for the end, as a number have been located in graphic arts shops since introduction. The hand of printed textiles using the UV curable ink is surprisingly good. Although too stiff to be comfortably worn, the use on comforters, draperies and upholstery will prove to be acceptable.

Wrapping up the large scale, high production printers is the DReAM machine from Reggiani. Built by experts in materials handling for the textile industry, this machine is really a collaborative effort among Reggianni, Scitex of Israel, and CIBA. As may be seen in the photo, a fabric infeed section is at the near end, with the printing section covered by clear lexan covers, with printed output flowing directly onto a drying section, where hot air is impinged on the surface to dry the just-printed inks. The finished material is rolled at the far end of the view shown. The machine is quite large, with the central printing section having the greatest concentration of technology. A heavy structural aluminum frame spans the machine from side to side, and provides the rigid foundation for the printing head carriages to traverse the width of the fabric. Totalling forty-two print heads, the seven carriages transport six heads each. The colors number six, and are made by CIBA. Printing 63 inches wide, the machine can produce 300 M²/hr in high speed mode, but to obtain the best print quality, it is rated at 150 M²/hr at 600 dpi double pass. While not yet at production rates of rotary screen printers, the production rate is near enough to justify its use for short runs of printed textile product with no clean up after the run. Signing the purchase order for one of these systems is not for the faint of heart, but when business demands higher volumes of shorter run length goods, this may be the way to develop a new business to support the traditional.

Are you printing faux fur, or carpet mats? If so, there is a machine for you, too. Zimmer exhibited the chromoTEX, a roll-to-roll machine that employs the FlatJet technology developed by Patrice Giraud at ESISAR in France. The FlatJet head is unlike any other, with nozzles that are dithered at an excitation frequency which causes the drops that emarge from the nozzle to break off in a more or less controlled manner. Resolution is about 72 dpi. The faux fur has a very real appearance. Elsewhere in the exhibition hall were machines that brush the fur to separate the strands of fiber that make up the fur, and to give it a soft, lustrous touch.

Also shown by Zimmer was the chromojet. Claiming only twenty-five minutes from your design to finished carpet mat, the chromojet is another large scale machine. AS can be seen in the brochure photo at right, the logo printed mat business is one in which there has been little competition. With the advent of digitally controlled machines that are capable of producing one of a kind mats in less than a half hour, the possibilities are limited only by your marketing skills. The technology appears to be ready for prime time.

Innovation
As noted in last month's column, a tip of the Technology Corner hat goes to Mimaki for taking the lead in monitoring for blocked nozzles on drop-on-demand printers.

d-gen gets honorable mention for the large capacity ink feeding system. Why, you may ask, is the large ink bottle so special? Well, it's not what you see that is special. As anyone knows, the cost of jettable ink is substantially higher than the paste that screen printers use. The amount of waste ink grows as machines are more highly utilized. As the head assembly moves to the cleaning station, ink is expelled from each nozzle to keep all nozzles flowing freely and to keep the heads clean as they traverse over the expensive fabric being printed. D-gen has designed a cleaning station that captures all the expelled ink as the nozzles are purged, but instead of catching all of the ink in a mix of colors, the effluent is retained in by color in separate containers. The ink can be reused without filtering, according to company officials. Asked about the need to filter to avoid contaminating the ink with foreign fly matter, we were told that there is no need, due to the design, and the closed ink recycling system. If this proves to be true, ink costs wil be fractionally reduced, improving profitability as well as the environment. There were more innovations that are in my notes, but I'll save a little for next time-(or when I am short of material!).

This review has been presented to indicate the development trends noted by this writer. No endorsement of any equipment is intended. Opinions are my own; conclusions may be drawn, but comparisons on the basis of specifications or cost, (which we have not included here) should not be taken lightly. Anyone contemplating the use of capital equipment such as this should prepare for a trip to vendor locations, with ample time at each site to run fabrics and print files of your own, with advance copies sent to each company under consideration. If you have questions or comments about this review, please drop an e-mail. From the www.techexchange.com web site, click on the "ASK JUD" icon at the bottom of the home page to send a note. While you are here, visit the Tech Talk Forum and check the library for new additions.

I'll be presenting at the AAFA Economic Outlook and Technology Seminar in NYC on December 10th. I'll report on any news in the next newsletter.

Here's wishing all of our readers a happy holiday season. See you all next year!

Next Month: Print Resolution for the New Year

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