News: Technology in textile machines

Digital printing: Set to transform the global textile market
 

From production of fibres and weaving them into fabric, there are several processes and elements involved in textile industry. Digital printing is one of the processes that directly prints designs on the fabric. The current global output of digitally printed textile is growing at a steady annual rate of 25 per cent, according to Textiles Intelligence. While the worldwide share of digitally printed textile is mere 2 per cent currently, the mounting pressure of shipping products in short duration is expected to boost the share in global textile printing to 5 per cent by 2017.

The practical approach of digital textile printing has encouraged many designers and manufacturers to choose it over other forms of printing. Though digital printing has experienced sluggish growth in comparison to traditional printing, it is gradually catching up with the changing dimensions of the textile industry.

Global push

A market study by Smithers Pira projected the digital textile printing market to grow at 20.1 per cent annually through 2019. Experts have also predicted that global digital textile printing production will be around 1.6 billion square metres annually by 2019. As many as 650 million square metres of fabric was digitally printed until the second quarter of 2014.

The reasons for a steady growth of digital textile printing are numerous. Digital printing is not only a higher creative form of textile printing; it also provides greater design flexibility, compared to screen printing. Designers prefer digital printing for small prints, as it is more cost efficient. One of the biggest plus points of digital printing is its eco-friendly form with lesser physical inventory levels leaving smaller amount of carbon footprints.

Digital printing involves direct printing on fabrics with printers, which saves almost 95 per cent of water and energy usage is reduced by 75 per cent, leading to minimum textile waste. Designers like Mary Katrantzou, Alexander McQueen and Basso & Brooke have often used digital textile printing in their designs. Moreover, manufacturers that rely on digital textile printing easily adapt to swift changes in global trends in comparison to people involved in other forms of printing.

These factors support the rising graph of digital printing in global textile sector. Nevertheless, the future growth of digital textile printing widely depends on deeper penetration of digital printing into commercial print production. The machine manufacturers also need to develop technologically advanced production printers in order to survive competition from conventional forms of textile printing machinery.

Other than the competition from traditional printing methods, another technical hitch was the print speed of digital printing, something which has been taken care of. From adding more heads in a row to increase the firing frequency or increasing the number of nozzles, modern digital textile printing machines are advanced and offer great printing speed.

Technology takes digital printing to new level

Since the advent of digital printing technology in the early nineties, several technologies have been developed. There are high speed single pass printing machines that complement the speed of rotary screen printing. International Textile Market Association, to be held in November 2015 in Milan, will also witness launch of high speed printers from machinery manufacturers.

With revised technology and progress in technical terms in digital printing, cost of digital textile inks has also declined. Digital printing is also experiencing effective sourcing and enhanced manufacturing processes, resulting in overall cost-effectiveness. Furthermore, mergers and investments in the digital textile sector can also provide a boost to the entire sector. This will lead to launch of innovative products and services.

The digital printing world has seen innovations like Continuous Ink Jet, Thermal Ink Jet, Thermal Transfer, Piezoelectric Ink Jet, Electrostatic and Electrophotography. Each method has its own distinctive features and advantages. Also, with development in ink chemistry, it is possible to digitally print almost all types of fabric with the help of ink-jet technology.

Making right moves

Several advances in technical aspects have opened new avenues for digital printing. While use of digital textile printing is currently concentrated to developing nations, experts predict a rise in digital textile printing production in the European countries.

Some of the European textile industries are chalking out plans to reshore production units to European countries in order to cater to the local residents' demands. As digital textile printing is apt for the fast fashion market, European companies are likely to invest in digital printing.

Digital printing has also proved an asset in the luxury apparel segment. Luxury apparel retail brands can produce small quantities of high quality, limited edition pieces of digitally printed apparel at low costs. Manufacturers are also expanding digital textile printing in offering customised apparel pieces to customers, who can choose a design of their choice and get it digitally printed on textile products.

Expansion of digital textile printing in home textiles is also set for growth, as consumers update furnishings and beddings on a regular basis. As of now, digital printing in home furnishings represents around 7-10 per cent of the total digital printed global production. The slow growth in this segment is due to the lack of wider width digital printers.

With customisation, digital printing can further expand. Companies can offer consumers, a freehand to choose designs from the catalogue and get their personal fabric or textile products like t-shirts, stoles, etc digitally printed from the store.

 

There are also ample opportunities available for digital textile printing in non-consumer applications like soft signage. Soft signage involves advertising and marketing signage, which is printed on fabric rather than paper or vinyl. Clients usually order soft signage in small quantities and digital textile printing can easily produce short print runs at low cost.

India story

The growth of digital textile printing in developing countries like India has contributed significantly in global growth, too. India's digital textile printing production was 30-40 million square meters in the previous year and is estimated to grow at 29 per cent annually and reach 75-98 square meters by 2017. In India, digital printing is already on its way to grab the share of conventional textile printing methods. This trend is expected to catch the imagination of many other nations.

Today fast fashion concept has led to cutting down of production and shipping time. Earlier, new collection was launched twice or thrice in a year, but now trends change every now and then. The shipping time has been cut down to 6-8 weeks against the earlier time of six months. This change in shipping time has made digital printing a perfect option for manufacturers. This printing depends on just-in-time production and fast changes in fashion trends. Thus, digital printing is being adopted in countries like Brazil, Turkey and China. Europe is also following the trend, as fast fashion concept is a norm now in most of the European countries.

Digital printing is making steady progress, but the growth tempo depends on the acceptance of digital technology by the mainstream supply chain in textile sector. Countries like India and China are making the most of the digital printing and this augurs well for the future.

♦ References

►https://www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/7555/digital-printing-set-to-transform-the-global-textile-market

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