Mouvent is a Swiss start-up company focused exclusively on delivering the future of digital printing using pioneering digital technology. Mouvent offers a fully integrated solution, developing, engineering, testing and industrializing digital printers based on the Mouvent™ Cluster Technology, a highly integrated cluster design arranged in a modular, scalable matrix. The company develops the controlling software, the inks and coatings, and provides a full service range.
For India, Mouvent identified Fortuna Colours & Prints LLP as key distributor for its digital textile printing solutions. Vinod Krishnamurthy, one of the co-founders of the company, started digital printing on textiles in 1998. The company launched Mimaki, Reggiani, Hong Hua, Kornit, Huntsman and almost a dozen brands, ranging from ink over software to machines.
“We were the first to set-up a center for textile printing, servicing the industry as nobody wanted to buy a 100,000 euro machine with 500 euro inks,” Krishnamurthy explains. “We printed for top designers in the country and we partnered with manufacturers before. But when we enter into a partnership, we want to share the responsibility for the service, support and ownership of the technology as we are not interested in box moving. This is one of the reasons why we jumped at the opportunity to organise sales and support for Mouvent in India.”
Mouvent has high expectations of the partnership. Ghislain Segard, Global Marketing and Sales Manager for textile machines at Mouvent, said, “We picked out India as one of our four key markets for the rich and long history of their textile industries. It is here, where innovations in textile printing are appreciated for their intrinsic worth, and we expect the Mouvent™ Cluster technology at the heart of our textile printing solutions such as the TX801 to catch on very quickly.”
The company recently participated in Gartex 2018, which took place from August 18-20 in New Delhi, India, where it showed for the first time in India their revolutionary digital inkjet textile printer TX801. Just as with similar high-profile tradeshows in China and Turkey, Mouvent’s innovative TX801 digital textile inkjet printer made heads turn at Gartex. The ultracompact TX801 prints with up to eight colours and, although it is a scanning type machine, can complete up to 50 per cent of the print jobs in a single pass, delivering top-of-the-bill productivity of 200 sq mtr/ hr without compromising on quality.
The reason why the TX801 drew so much attention is its use of the revolutionary MouventTM Cluster Technology which uses clusters instead of fixed size print bars by colour, arranged in a modular, scalable matrix. This results in one system that can be simply adapted to all substrates of all widths, for all markets. Its print quality is extremely high with an optical resolution of up to 2,000 dpi. The machine can process knitted, woven and non-woven textiles with a maximum fabric width of 1,820 mm with roll diameters of up to 400 mm.
“The TX801 showed how innovation guided by the needs of the market results in a pioneering product that delivers what that market has been waiting for,” said Segard. “The industry experts who saw the machine were delighted with its extremely high print quality that remains constant even at very high production speeds, as well as its precision and scalability. And we are very happy that companies will be able to immediately profit from the competitive advantage the TX801 is bound to deliver through our strategic partnership with Fortuna Colours & Prints LLP.”
“We are very happy that we can help Mouvent bring the TX801 to customers in India. The Indian textile market is extremely varied, interesting and rapidly changing, and the TX801 perfectly responds to the need for a very high quality, productive digital textile printer,” Krishnamurthy said. “It came as no surprise to us that the presentation of the machine was met with such enthusiasm. After all, the Indian textile production market consists of companies producing exclusive high-quality textiles as well as huge-scale mass-produced products. The solutions Mouvent can offer are very well-suited to this market.”
When asked if the company has set any target for India market, Vinod said, “We are not company driven with targets, and believe customers are our partner, so our aim is to get the right customer with a mind set to adopt our technologies. We want the technology to be understood, adapted and inspiring you to publicize to the Indian environment. So, currently we are not looking at no. but good establishment. We already have started to set up a showroom in India, and are still waiting for some other operations which need to be established so the customers can come and see the fabric getting printed through performance of the Mouvent printers.”
Talking about the sales and services they’ll be providing Vinod said, “So, we have a Mouvent service center based in Gurgaon which is dedicated to live demo and services. Here a client can come to do tests, understand the technology, so we are providing total solution. That’s one part. Secondly, all our engineers are well trained and continue to report and discuss with the Swiss service team. It’s like a Swiss support center where all the persons are being guided, supported and trained. We at Fortuna are there to manage the sales network. Service is a key part and it is something which keeps our technology up.”
Speaking about how Mouvent technology is different from others Ghislain Segard explained, “We don’t just sell any product but a new way to print with our technology, which has huge benefits. Our TX801 is an eight-colour multi-pass digital textile printer producing highest print quality on textiles with up to 2,000 DPI optical resolution at high printing speeds. We are able to print 200 sq mtr but our target is to provide an industrial single pass engine. Today, Mouvent is a new technology governed by a new market and we don’t want to sell it all over the world but to few selected countries. We have chosen few countries including Italy, Turkey, China and India, and before arriving to any country we make sure to have complete technical support and spare parts availability.”
Commenting on the digital printing market in India he said, “India being a textile hub, printing is very much needed. There has been a phase from certain speed of 20 sq mtr to speed of 200 sq mtr and more. Now, the speeds are going to jump more. More people will look into doing large projects, they need full support and I think the market is going to be very positive but how well the companies are going to adapt is going to be the challenge.”
“Confidence in the technology is the key driver. The company that gives the key technology buyer must have confidence that they are able to run that technology. That’s what the key is. That’s what our vision is. India will adapt digital in every segment like home textiles, fashion, label so digital is something you can’t ignore. Everybody will adapt it,” said Vinod.
Speaking about the response from the India market he said, “We are using a special head, and the technology built around a head gives us very good quality. Quality is very surprising for a lot of people who visited our stall. Those with printing experience will understand that it has excellent saturation of colours, which is a huge challenge when you want the rotary to shift into digital and that’s a very key point for us. So, I think people understand and when you see it’s a new technology and we are not expecting every second person to buy. There will be key players, key companies who will adapt to this technology and make a success story with us. Then eventually many will follow. But as far as product is concerned everybody is excited as they have never seen a technology like this.”
“Digital will be ahead in every market. Mouvent has already shown a new technology in Labelexpo, and Mouvent is going to come up in textiles, and packaging so you’ll find us in various segments. Mouvent will continue to develop a vast product portfolio for the different printing markets and roll out its products worldwide,” said Segard.
When asked about the future market prospects Vinod said, “I believe by 2025, there’s a good chance of 30 per cent jump which is huge by number in digital textile printing market share in India. As far as my company is concerned, I expect good percentage growth in next few years”