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[The Note] Sustainable Textile Printing: digitally reducing the ecological footprint

Sustainability is becoming increasingly more important in today’s society, even in the more polluting industries. Luckily, new innovations help to make production processes less damaging for the environment. A great example of this is digital textile printing, which innovates the industry of textile printing. But does digital textile printing really allow sustainable textile printing by being less harmful to the environment than conventional textile printing?

Chemical material is printed on textile, whether the process is digital or not. On top of that, the printed product in most cases still has to be steamed and washed. This is why the ecological footprint of textile printing will not be zero. But what can we do to reduce the ecological footprint of textile printing? 

[The Note] Hybrid printing machine: does combining digital and rotary make sense?

Nowadays, many printing companies use both digital and rotary screen printers within their production process. Wouldn’t combining the two printing methods in one single hybrid printing machine make more sense?

A logical question, especially when you consider that there are manufacturers that offer single-pass digital machines with one or more rotary stations implemented. It does not look like an impossible job and a printer that can print digitally as well as rotary sounds like a useful asset for many companies. However, a hybrid printing machine is rarely a sound investment. In this blog, I will explain why. 

Note: we assume in this blog that a customer’s desire for a hybrid printer is based on the wish to combine both technologies in the same print job. For a hybrid printing machine that prints either only rotary or only digital in a job, all the arguments in this blog would not be valid.

[The Note] Digital textile printing technology: maximizing the print performance of your printer

Although digital textile printing has helped to increase quality levels, accelerate time-to-market and create completely new business models, there is one important challenge almost all digital printing companies face: maintaining a high and above all stable printing quality. Are you interested in improving your quality levels significantly thanks to a new digital textile printing technology?

The solution to this ever-pressing challenge of digital textile printing companies worldwide is closer than you think, and I will explain how it works in this blog.

[The Note] Digital textile printing cost: 5 hidden costs and which questions to ask

Choosing a digital textile printing solution nowadays means having to choose from a large number of printer manufacturers and ink suppliers. By nature, one of the first characteristics buyers pay attention to is the price of the machine or the ink. Sadly, buyers often only take these price tags into account when they select a machine or ink, and they forget to look at all the other costs that come with running the machine in a way that accommodates their production volumes. This so-called “Total Cost of Ownership” (TCO) is the real thing that matters and should determine a decision on what to buy.

[The Note] Types of Digital Textile Printing: single-pass printing versus multi-pass printing

Throughout the years, digital textile printing has developed from a 'suitable for sampling only' technology to high-speed fabric printing for production. Innovative techniques have resulted in acceleration and improvement of the digital printing process creating more and better possibilities for textile printers. These innovations have contributed to the creation of the two main types of digital textile printing that are used nowadays: single-pass and multi-pass scanning printing.

What is the difference between these two types of digital textile printing and how do you decide which technique best fits your and your customer’s wants and needs?

[The Note] Digital printing materials: which fabric is best for digital printing?

Digital textile printing is the latest innovation within the textile printing industry. An increased number of printers are making the transition to digital printing and benefit from the competitive advantage that it offers them, the fast production rate and the possibility to print complex designs and fine patterns. Before deciding if digital textile printing could be of interest to your printing company, it is essential to know what are the possibilities of digital printing regarding the materials that can be digitally printed on.

[The Note] Reducing print head damage in digital textile printing

Most print heads used in the textile industry are derived from the print heads that are created for and used in the graphic printing market. These types of print heads are perfectly suitable for printing on flat and even materials but are not ideal for the typical three-dimensional structure of textile fabrics. Nonetheless, this type of print head is widely used in the textile industry.

Quite often, this causes problems such as print head damage, high repairing costs, a lower printing quality which required a suitable solution. So what is this suitable solution? How do you minimize print head damage in digital textile printing?

[The Note] Digital fabric printing cost: investment versus earnings

Are you considering the transition to digital textile printing? This modern printing method can bring a lot of benefits to your company, but the required investment of digital textile printing is one of the main reasons printers can be hesitant in making the transition.

But how much does digital fabric printing cost actually? And – more importantly – what benefits does it bring your company? In this article, we balance digital fabric printing costs and earnings.