Digital Printing in textiles

They found that these new digital presses lowered water, energy and materials consumption significantly.  The following reductions were achieved:

·       Production space required by 60%

·       Noise by 60%

·       Thermal energy usage by 80%

·       Wastewater by 60%

·       Electricity consumption by 30%

·       By-production of waste dyes = eliminated entirely

Digital printing has other advantages, which include:

·       Minimal set up costs – short runs and samples are economical – so traditional mill minimums can be avoided.  Costs per print are the same for 1 or 1000000.

·       There is no down time for set up – the printer is always printing – so there is also increased productivity.

·       Faster turnaround time – and very fast design changes.  Turnaround time for samples can be reduced from 6 to 8 weeks to a few days.

·       Print on demand, dramatically reducing time to market.

·       Just-in-time customization or personalization

·       Theoretically no limit on number of colors.

·       Decreases industrial waste and print loss.

The traditional textile industry needs to understand that, in the same way the Internet is not going to replace the television as a form of entertainment or information, this new digital technology isn’t about replacing existing processes , but rather about leveraging the expanded parameters to offer new niche products and services.  And we must remember too that digital printing is not the panacea it’s touted to be for the environment, though it seems to have less of a pollution footprint than traditional screen or rotary printing.