Technology

The Ricoh Ri 2000 prints 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution on a wide range of garments, from traditional t-shirts or tote bags to an extended application range of canvas shoes, baseball caps or long sleeve shirts. It also supports the production of textile face masks and safety vests via the flexibility of the quick-change magnetic platen mechanism and the automatic table height adjustment that easily switches between garment types.

“The new generation of DTG printer represents Ricoh’s continued commitment to deliver industry-leading inkjet solutions, empowering our customers to grow their business,” said Graham Kennedy, director Industrial Printing, Ricoh Europe. “Working closely with early adopters in the continuously growing DTG market during product development, Ricoh customers can now enjoy the benefits of a DTG turnkey solution. The Ri 2000 meets the needs of innovative digital print providers, custom apparel online retailers, as well as traditional businesses offering added value by printing on garments. It joins Ricoh’s DTG portfolio that already includes the Ri 100 and Ri 1000 devices as the production flagship.” The Ricoh Ri 2000 will be available in EMEA from November onwards.

Kornit Digital, a worldwide market leader in digital textile printing technology, is pleased to join the 2020 Innovate Textile & Apparel Virtual Trade Show, WTiN’s annual global exhibition highlighting the true innovators in technology, production, and value chain leadership for the textile and apparel industry.

For this year’s event, which is free to attend, Kornit will be exhibiting its latest capabilities for digital direct-to-garment and roll-to-roll production, including the only single-step process for delivering durable, retail-quality impressions on multiple fabrics within minutes. Visitors will find opportunities to learn more about:

• Kornit’s portfolio of industry-leading DTG systems, offering brands and fulfillers pushbutton efficiency in any quantity, to eliminate inventory risk and waste.
• Kornit Presto, the perfect foundation of any micro factory production concept, for consolidating operations and minimizing supply chain risk.
• Kornit’s new Softener solution, which enables photorealistic detail combined with handfeel meeting the most rigorous demands of high fashion and home décor.
• Kornit’s range of available pallets, empowering brands and fulfillers to expand their catalog and offer customers any applications they demand, including baby and children’s apparel, zipper hoodies, handbags, and the industry’s first DTG solution for custom neck tags.
• Kornit’s acquisition of Custom Gateway, which promises end-to-end production efficiency, for building or enhancing online stores, ensuring visibility and control across multiple production sites, optimizing the production floor, and getting products out the door quickly, meeting the speed and logistics challenges of the e-commerce age.

In addition to sharing diverse customer testimonials, Kornit will be hosting live consultations with system experts, to answer all questions and present Kornit’s value proposition for ongoing business needs. The company will also be leading a seminar presentation during the event.

“While we certainly miss the face-to-face engagement traditional trade shows offer, the upside of these web-based expositions is that there’s no limit to the systems, applications, and personnel Kornit can and will leverage to present its case for mastering the e-commerce age with efficient, sustainable digital capabilities,” said Chris Govier, Kornit Digital Managing Director—EMEA. “With our expanding suite of workflow and visibility software, Kornit gives manufacturers large and small the ability to scale their end-to-end business, while eliminating overproduction risks and establishing responsible production practices. These systems are critical to surviving the retail apocalypse and COVID-like disruptions, and event attendees will see why.”

Visit Kornit Digital at the 2020 Innovate Textile & Apparel Virtual Trade Show, and learn how the company’s end-to-end solutions for on-demand production can help surpass efficiency, profitability, scalability, and sustainability targets for years to come.

By developing a special method for Brother GTX, GTXpro and GTXpro BULK DTG printers, it is now possible to make an excellent print on 100% dark polyester with high washability at reasonable printing costs and time. The new method has already been tested successfully on various polyester materials.

For this new method you need a GTX or GTXpro DTG printing machine, same Innobella Textile inks (GTX & GTXpro), standard pretreatment (GTX & GTXpro), a petreatment machine and heat press. The only additional item which you need is the special software/firmware package and a guideline made for dark polyester printing. This new software/firmware package is free of charge available through the Brother certified distributors until June 30, 2021, then it will be invoiced.

As there is a very large variety of polyester textiles available in the market (different quality, brands, colours, etc.), the period until end June 2021 is suitable for testing, gaining confidence and skills in these special treatments and procedures. To ensure that your polyester textiles can also be printed on without any problems, you may contact your certified Brother dealer in the EMEA region to have your materials tested there or you can get the new software/firmware package and the how-to-do instructions from the dealer directly to test it with your own GTX or GTXpro printer.

X-Rite Incorporated and Pantone LLC, global leaders in color science and technology, today announced new subscription-based pricing for its industry-leading color formulation software, Color iMatch, and quality control software, Color iQC. The new subscription model provides manufacturers and material suppliers greater flexibility and predictability for their operational budgets while ensuring they have access to the most up-to-date color formulation and quality control software. Included in the subscription offering are regular software updates and access to online training materials designed to help new and experienced users accelerate color development for the paints and coatings, plastic, and textile industries.

“In order to meet today’s challenging times, manufacturers need access to the latest technology without breaking their budgets,” said Richard Knapp, Product Manager, X-Rite and Pantone. “Our new subscription model makes budget planning easier and allows customers to stay competitive with the latest color formulation and quality control technology at an affordable cost. With X-Rite’s commitment to regular software updates, formulation and QC managers can have confidence they are using the most up-to-date software to help them submit bids quickly, win new business, and deliver the best products to their customers.”

Color iMatch is an intuitive, job-oriented color formula management software. It intelligently processes color data to provide optimal initial color matches and reduce wasteful formulation attempts. Color iMatch features a smarter multi-flux matching engine with a revolutionary new search and correct algorithm that enables better utilization of legacy data. With Color iMatch, lab managers and formulation professionals can streamline complicated workflows and deliver better color matches in fewer steps for faster formulation times, cost savings, and reduced waste. Color iQC is a quality control solution that monitors color from specification to material suppliers to manufacturing and final assembly. It delivers tight tolerances through connected solutions and expands from controlling quality to assuring quality.

The benefits to Color iMatch and Color iQC subscription-based pricing model include:
• Notifications of all software updates for improved planning;
• Access to all software updates remotely without on-site installation;
• New online training materials exclusive to the subscription model;
• One fixed subscription cost for improved budget planning; and
• Ability for new customers to test formulation or quality control software without incurring a large capital expense.

With MindCUT Studio, Zünd offers a powerful, modular software suite for automated textile cutting. MindCUT Studio excels in flexibility and modularity. It offers highly efficient nesting for plain fabrics as well as pattern matching and a seamless print & cut workflow for digitally printed textiles.

As is the case in many other industries, the proliferation of digital technology has had a profound impact on the textile industry. Consumers enjoy the affordability of tailor-made clothing and custom-made upholstered furniture. With more design and configuration options available, manufacturers are streamlining their production processes through automation and increased flexibility, thereby finding ways to successfully deal with increasing market pressures and ever shorter product life cycles. With MindCUT Studio, Zünd offers a modular software solution that largely automates digital textile cutting – from capturing materials, to creating production markers, and facilitating parts removal – in a well-designed, thoroughly integrated, comprehensive digital workflow.

In the first step of the process, a camera system captures the material, its exact position and dimensions. It makes no difference whether the fabric is patterned, plain, or digitally printed. For printed textile applications, an Over-Cutter Camera system captures all registration marks simultaneously. In case there are no register marks, the OCC can alternatively record the position of images based on printed outlines. If no cut data is available, there is an option to generate it automatically in MindCUT Studio. Material defects can be marked in advance to avoid being noticed only after cutting.

The system can also automatically recognize patterns and any distortions that may have occurred. When compensating for distortions, the dimensional accuracy of the parts and their exact placement on patterned fabric are precisely maintained. The software also provides pattern-matching options, regardless of whether the textile has a stripe pattern or is plaid.

MindCUT Studio can automatically import standardized data and process it. The system recognizes both part and marker-based data. In addition, MindCUT Studio lets the user create individual markers. The software uses powerful nesting algorithms to lay out parts on the fabric for maximum material usage and automatically creates production markers.

For efficient parts removal, the operator must be able to quickly and unmistakably identify each piece. MindCut Studio provides color coding and parts information both projected onto the cut pieces and displayed on the monitor.

Zünd knows how to build robust turnkey cutting solutions with state-of-the art specialized tooling, sophisticated vision systems, and highly efficient digital workflows. This empowers the user with ultimate flexibility when it comes to cutting applications, choosing materials, and controlling delivery times. MindCUT Studio contains all essential functions for the different processing phases in digital textile cutting. With a variety of additional options, the software can be tailored to individual needs.

Brother At Your Side has launched the Brother GTXpro, their latest direct to garment printer which is currently available at their certified dealers. Brother experienced success after launching the mass production machine GTXpro BULK a few months ago. The GTXpro provides the benefits of an operator friendly high-end direct-to-garment printer accompanied with leading technology from Brother.

Features:

Newly Designed Industrial White Print Head
• Newly developed white print head technology with inside ink circulation, which results in using less white ink for cleaning.
High-Speed Print Mode
• The new design of the white print head features more nozzles compared to previousmodels. This addition results in a 10% faster printing with special “fast mode” print settings.
Optimized Maintenance Process:
• Automatic cleaning processes significantly increases productivity.
Environmentally friendly
• OekoTex Passport and GOTS 5.0 certified Innobella Textile Inks
Operator friendly
• Installation and training by an authorized Brother DTG technician
• Additional Print Height Sensor: The new sensor technology detects if the platen is too low in order to reduce ink mist and ensures high print quality.
• Print Reservation Function for higher productivity
Flexibility
• Easy printing on a wide variety of textiles such as trousers, shoes, caps and much more.
• Printing on various materials is possible, from cotton to silk or polyester – all featuring the same ink.
• Compact industrial design and size suitable for all kind of production environment.
• Easy to move and add to any production – for a flexible process modulation of your production.
• All additional products from the GTX can be used with the GTXpro.