Cover Story
Innovations in textile printing The transformation has already begun! Expect digital to be the driving force as we emerge from the pandemic – and well into the future. Today, digital textile printing technology is becoming more and more sophisticated – and frankly, quite stunning! Where we stand now and the pandemic’s effects Dover Digital Printing (DDP – Downers Grove, Illinois) recently released an 11-page whitepaper that explores the effects COVID-19 has had on the textile/ apparel industry, while revealing how digitizing the manufacturing process offers enhanced sustainability as well as a bold new way forward. But it also revealed a broken business model: “The problem was already apparent before the pandemic hit sales. The drive towards fast fashion, steep discounting and high retail rents had already created an industry that was teetering on the brink. The pandemic resulted in a high number of fashion retailer bankruptcies, but the majority of these businesses were already floundering before COVID-19 hit. As larger and larger proportions of a company's collections were sold at a discount, gross margins across the industry started to fall. This put pressure on textile suppliers and manufacturers to create items at the lowest sustainable levels. In other words, there was no slack to give when the pandemic wreaked further chaos.” The good news was that consumer-buying habits have changed, and there’s a growing preference for greater sustainability. The DDP whitepaper further identified compelling reasons why digital printing of textiles will play a much larger role in fashion moving forward: “The additional value of digital printing is its ability to increase the number of versions in a collection, and to offer just-in-time manufacturing to respond to changes in demand. This dramatically reduces the need for discounting, which in turn reduces waste. Any reduction in unsold inventory is a win in terms of sustainability, as is digital printing’s substantially lower water demand, and its contribution towards keeping production operations within domestic national borders.”
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The textile transformation For decades, digital printing for the fashion, décor, industrial and graphics industry was relegated to basic sampling and short-run printing of items such as T-shirts. But with the advantages of today’s inkjet technology, the industry is now addressing the demand for environmentally responsible output, innovative designs, and the need to improve supply-chain operations. So let’s first examine the latest textile industry trends and their effects. Like many industries, the textile printing market has been changing to adopt new technologies aimed at addressing a new generation of consumers and brands, as well as the supply chain. This massive industry – with over a trillion and a half dollars in annual value in the apparel and accessories sector – is undergoing a key transformation. Brands must adjust to appeal to a new generation of consumers who shop in both brick-and-mortar stores as well as through online retailers. With the digital age, brands as well as textile mills must adapt. Many of these changes have evolved in the past decade as early, highspeed production digital textile solutions emerged. For example, in 2011 Italybased MS Printing Solutions introduced its Lario, the first single-pass digital textile printer. The changes were impactful in several important areas.
Productivity. One of the largest areas in textile printing that’s improved dramatically is the ability to produce ‘just-in-time’ any length of fabrics or garments. With no cylinder or screen make-readies, and utilizing sophisticated workflow automation tools, textile mills can now produce any design rapidly, while also fulfilling the needs of designers and brands in the fashion industry. Additionally, innovations in colour matching and design are revving up the creative process while shrinking creation time – from months, to weeks, to even days. Creativity. Improvements in productivity and simplified designs have also translated to greater creativity. With the ability to produce single-item runs, there’s no mass production risk associated with taking on new designers. Many brands are allowing promising young artists to compete for ‘mind share’ and recognition. Today you can order a quarter yard of fabric from traditional textile mills, or a new generation of mass customization, ondemand products. The environment. Environmental sustainability is now a must. Research has shown that younger generations – particularly Generation Z – prioritize sustainability when it comes to product selection. This group is willing to pay more for products that were created with sustainability in mind. For the textile industry, this signals a major change. Textile manufacturers have traditionally been a large polluter, with 20% of global wastewater produced by textile mills.
Optimizing the supply chain
The Lario was the first single-pass digital textile printer and ushered in a new era in the industry.
The textile market is absolutely changing as digital fabric printing print volumes continue to grow at a 19% CAGR (compound annual growth rate), and are predicted to reach about 4 billion square meters in 2022, according to Keypoint Intelligence. With productivity and
GRAPHIC ARTS MAGAZINE | September | 19
