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In the backdrop of happenings in fabrics sector, how is your textile printing sector shaping up? What are the problems faced by players in your sector?
In the Australian printing sector we’re seeing a paradigm shift in the way that local businesses are thinking about and using textile printing. From a hardware perspective developments in direct-to-garment and direct-to-fabric printing technology is reopening avenues of opportunity that were previously reserved for short-run, low-cost, overseas manufacturing.
In order for the technology adoption to become more mainstream, we also must educate the market that these short runs can now be done onshore and economically using new technology such as direct to fabric printers and Sawgrass M-TT ink. Educating the market is something that GJS Machinery is actively doing through a variety of different means and hopes that through persistence the Australian market will realise that the technology exists to produce high-quality, locally produced textiles without sending the work to
The success of digital printing on textiles depends on many elements. Of these elements, ink stands out as the most important; after all it is the ink that physically forms the image and must survive and perform to satisfy customer expectations. The challenge for ink chemists is to strike a balance between the need for the ink to hold its colour, provide crock-fastness (resistance to rubbing) and adhere to the print surface while still being able to pass through the print heads of the printer without clogging.
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In the backdrop of happenings in fabrics sector, how is your textile printing sector shaping up? What are the problems faced by players in your sector?
Recent breakthroughs from companies such as Sawgrass are now seeing inks available that require no post processing, can be used on a multitude of fabrics, have high colour vibrancy and wash fastness and are even UV tolerant. This shift is enabling more and more local textile manufacturers, fashion houses and interior designers to enter the market.
Wider uptake direct to fabric printing solutions could have a significant positive impact on the textile industry. For small production houses and designers it could mean they don’t have to outsource their textile and garment printing – keeping jobs local.
Most importantly, due to inkjet garment printing being more economical, faster, and cleaner than traditional screen printing methods, and requiring significantly less business start-up costs the barriers to entry are lower, meaning more talented Australian designers and apparel creators can enter the market.
The Australian sign, interior design, and fashion industries are starting to recognise the advantages of digital textile printing (including types of designs possible, short run lengths, sustainability); the range of equipment suppliers is growing; and the issue of sustainability is just now being recognised as perhaps one of the most important advantages of digital textile printing. This growing awareness of digital textile printing’s capabilities and benefits coupled with new, faster, more productive digital printers that provide direct fabric printing will define and shape the direction of the Australian textile industry for the next decade.
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Published on: 15/07/2011
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
