FESPA’s Print Make Wear microfactory feature, to be held at FESPA Global Print Expo 2019 from May 14 to 17, will have products by 19 exhibitors. The products will be showcased within two separate tours, one focused on roll-to-roll technologies and the other on garment decoration. The technology demonstrations will be supported by talks and catwalks.
The roll-to-roll tour will be split into two separate workflows, one on pigment printing and the other on dye-sublimation printing. The pigment printing workflow route will include design software from Adobe Creative Suite and EFI Fiery DesignPro with Adobe CS, fabrics provided by Premier Textiles, EFI Optitex pattern design and marker making, Pre-press production files from EFI Fiery, RIP and pigment printing inks from Mimaki, a Klieverik dryer, and cutting solution from Gemini.
The dye-sublimation printing workflow will include Adobe Creative Suite design software, fabrics provided by Premier Textiles, a selection of transfer paper from CANAPA, RIP and dye-sublimation inks from HP and Klieverik heat transfer machine. Gemini will supply its product design and decoration software, Gemini CAD pre-press production files and a cutting solution.
Running alongside the roll-to-roll tour will be the garment decoration tour, which includes digital printing technologies as well as automatic and manual screen printing solutions. The exhibitors on the garment decoration tour will include Grafco colour separation technology and inks for the Vastex manual screen printing press, FairTrade fabric garments provided by Neutral, a Chiossi e Cavazzuti dryer, folding and packaging system by Thermotron, Easiway screen reclamation, an MHM automatic screen printing press, Magna Colours’ inks for the automatic screen printing press, a manual screen printing carousel from Vastex and a Vastex Little Red dryer. A Tesoma tunner dryer will be used for the automatic screen printing, and a Stahls heat press will be used for hot foil decoration.
Print Make Wear will also feature daily ‘fireside chats’ where visitors can hear from experts on key industry topics including the Micro Factory and Customisation, moderated by Jenny Holloway from Fashion Capital and including speakers from EFI, Mimaki, HP and Gemini; Sustainability and Efficient Manufacturing, hosted by Elissa Decker of Moss, and Lars Bech, CEO of Neutral, featuring speakers from Premier Textiles and Magna Colors; Automating the production workflow, comprising speakers from Gemini, EFI and HP; and Designing for digital print and color management, to include speakers from Adobe, AVA and EFI.
Sustainability will be a key theme at FESPA 2019 this year and FESPA will champion a number of initiatives within the Print Make Wear feature to be more environmentally responsible. The garments used for the direct-to-garment textiles will be provided by Neutral, a market-leading producer of sustainable apparel and accessories to the B2B market, which use FairTrade cotton and have been awarded the EU Ecolabel for meeting high environmental standards. Water-based inks from Magna Color will also be used on the automatic screen printing press.
Graeme Richardson-Locke, technical support manager at FESPA, comments, “Over the years FESPA’s commitment to textile printing and garment decoration has developed and we’ve considerably expanded our visitor proposition in this area in line with growing industry demand. For Print Make Wear 2019 we have put together a programme that represents the different facets of the garment manufacturing community and are confident that this will help garment manufacturers understand the range of technologies at their disposal.”
