Kornit Digital, a global market leader in digital textile printing innovation, has announced the introduction of the Kornit Atlas. Following the success of Kornit’s Storm HD6 and Avalanche HD6 / HDK, the Atlas is the first instance of the company’s next-generation direct-to-garment printing platform, providing garment decorators and screen printers a unique tool for mastering the current and future challenges of the textile supply chain.
The Kornit Atlas is a heavy-duty system created for super-industrial garment decoration businesses. It was designed to deliver a typical annual production capacity of up to 350,000 impressions, optimizing production efficiency and cost of ownership. The Kornit Atlas is aimed at highly productive garment decorators, mid to large size screen printers and innovative businesses looking to combine state-of-the art technology with lowest cost of ownership. The system is equipped with new recirculating print heads and comes with a newly developed ink, NeoPigment™ Eco-Rapid. The Kornit Atlas is equipped with a unique printing engine, featuring an enhanced version of Kornit’s HD technology, complemented by a professional RIP (raster image processing) software solution, and produces prints that meet the highest standards of retail quality and durability. The all-new Atlas comes ready for Kornit’s future releases of its cloud-based business intelligence, productivity analytics and optimization software platforms, scheduled to be released in the second half of 2019. It will allow for easy future network connectivity required to support fleet management and optimization of global multi-systems and multi-site enterprises.
Omer Kulka, Kornit’s VP of Marketing and Product Strategy, comments, “This is a huge leap forward, not only for Kornit, but also for the direct-to-garment industry as a whole. We have delivered the Atlas on the collective feedback of thousands of Kornit systems’ operators and on the experience collected from hundreds of millions of printed garments – simply put, the Atlas is the best and most cost-efficient direct-to-garment printing technology for high-quantity and high-quality production requirements. On top of that, the Atlas has been designed in a modular and future-ready way, driving quick and easy implementation of new developments in the future. At Kornit, we remain focused on constantly introducing technology that allows the industry’s leading brands to better connect with their customers and to adapt to the rapid changes in consumer preferences, impacting the fashion and apparel industry and are driven by the talent in our global research and development division.”
The new NeoPigment™ Eco-Rapid ink is a main driver of the Atlas’ retail quality prints. It provides an industry-leading white ink opacity, matched to those of conventional screen inks, and meets highest durability standards on multiple fabric types. Its increased colour gamut and saturation allow for deep full tones and precise spot colour matching. The new ink has been developed with sustainability in mind, carries the Oeko-Tex Eco-Passport certification and is GOTS pre-approved. The new Eco-Rapid ink will be integrated with new Storm HD6 and Avalanche HD6 / HDK systems and will also be retrofitted to existing Kornit HD systems. Kornit intends to switch all existing HD customers to NeoPigment™ Eco-Rapid during the year 2019.
The launch of the Atlas completes an extensive period of beta testing, with extremely positive feedback from early adopters. Deborah H. Merrill, President of the Delta Group, parent company of DTG2Go, comments, “Many of the Kornit Atlas’ innovative capabilities, including the wrinkle detection and pallet ergonomics, present clear productivity benefits. The new Eco-Rapid ink provides impressive brilliance and color gamut, meeting all wash test standards with no discernible scent. We are glad we had the opportunity to beta-test the Kornit Atlas and are certain it will become a key component within DTG2Go’s production line.”
Jon Lunt, Co-Founder and Director at T Shirt & Sons, adds, “Using the Atlas, T Shirt and Sons achieved a significant boost in garment decoration production through the peak holiday season. In several weeks of rigorous testing in a high-volume production environment, the Kornit Atlas – with its new Eco-Rapid ink set – was a revelation, doubling our output with very high-quality prints and the reliability this high-pressure season demanded.”
The system can be viewed in live demonstrations at Kornit Digital’s booth at the ISS Long Beach show, taking place January 18-20, 2019, and in all of Kornit’s experience demo centers around the globe shortly after, as well as at Fespa Munich from May 14-17, 2019, and ITMA Barcelona, June 20-26, 2019. In addition, the company is planning Open House events to demonstrate the new systems in April in its regional subsidiaries.
