Why is digital textile printing such a big deal? First of all, there is a big practical aspect to it. Regular fabric patterns are created through rotary or flatbed screen printing that require individual screens for every colour used and large yardage. Simply put, you need to print a lot of fabric and waste a lot of time and you would still be restricted in your choices. With fashion changing on the fly and consumers vying for more exclusivity and customization the scope of digital printing is on the rise.
The digital textile printing market is forecast to grow at an average annual growth rate of 20.1% in value terms between 2014 and 2019, according to a new market study by Smithers Pira. A total of around 650 million square metres of fabric were printed digitally in the year to mid-2014. It is estimated that total digital textile printing output will rise to 1.6 billion square metres annually by 2019. This includes displays and direct-to-garment – DTG.
Globally, the value of digital textile printing grew at more than 45% annually between 2004 and 2009 after standing at virtually zero in 2002. Since 2009, growth has slowed somewhat, but on average, the growth in digital textile printing output, excluding substrate value, grew at an annual rate of 25% between 2009 and 2012. Between 2012 and 2014 the average CAGR was 19.4%. The market predicted an overall average CAGR over the next five years to 2019 of 20.1%.
On account of recent technology developments, increased adoption of digital textile printing and industry sentiment this disruptive technology is poised for a second wave. A few factors which favour the second wave in digital textile printing:
Lower Energy Consumption & Waste Reduction
Digital textile printing eliminates the substantial amount of water and electrical energy one requires for rotary screen preparation, printing and cleanup. Even greater water and power savings can be achieved with disperse/sublimation and pigment digital textile inks, which only require a heat-fixation step for post treatment. Digital textile printing results in significantly less ink usage and waste relative to screen-printing. Taking into account the additional chemistry and chemical waste from screen production, printing digitally offers a greener advantage for printing.
Worldwide Market Factors
Increase in production in European countries driven by the fact that some European textile companies are looking to reshore a proportion of theirproduction operations from developing countries to European countries in
order to satisfy local tastes, facilitate quick response (QR) manufacturing, release a greater number of collections each year. The success of the fast fashion concept by the likes of Inditex Group, H & M & others. Opportunities for expansion in the luxury apparel segment as digital textile printing enables retailers of luxury apparel to produce small quantities of high quality, limited edition pieces cost efficiently.
Further scope for expansion lies in the area of mass customization, whereby a consumer is able to personalize a product by choosing a design on a dedicated web page in an retailer’s online store for subsequent production by a digital textile printer.
Technology Factors
Development & improvement of printing technology with stable scanning printers and high speed single pass printing capabilities matching the speeds of rotary screen-printing. A pioneering example being the MS Lario which has seen early success with installations at high profile fashion and home textile companies. Following on the footsteps of MS other leading OEMs and machines manufacturers including SPG prints are at various stages of development with their high-speed single pass systems. In December 2014 SPGPrints provided a sneak preview to its select customers of its new single-pass digital textile printer based on the highly awaited Fujifilm Dimatix Samba printheads – Pike®. The upcoming ITMA 2015 show in Milan will also see launches of high speed single pass printers from SPG Prints and other leading OEMs which will create healthy competition which will lead to enhanced product quality and support. The higher speeds of production will bring out the production costs considerably making digital printed textile more favourable in the market. Decline in pricing of digital textile inks due to efficient sourcing and improved manufacturing processes is also leading to the overall cost-effectiveness of the technology.
Interest from the Home Textile industry to adopt digital textile printing with ready availability of stable wider width printers to enable printing bed sheets and home furnishing products. This would get an additional push with the increasing availability of pigment inks for high speed roll to roll printing at an industry acceptable price point which is key for the home textile industry.
Business Factors
Additionally recent investments & acquisitions mentioned in the digital textile sector indicate the potential of this technology and could provide a fillip to the entire sector pushing for further innovative products & services. Some of the key developments are as follows:
EFI-Reggiani
Electronics For Imaging (EFI), based in Fremont, California, has established a leading presence in the inkjet textile printing market with the strategic acquisition of Reggiani Macchine, based in Bergamo, in a deal worth around €125 million. Addressing the full scope of advanced textile printing, Regianni’s versatile printers are suitable for water-based dispersed, acid, pigment and reactive dye printing inks. “This acquisition gives EFI an immediate leadership position in one of the world’s largest industries undergoing the transformation from analog printing to digital,” says EFI CEO Guy Gecht. “The textile printing market is just beginning that transition, which will enable manufacturers to shift from long-run to on-demand manufacturing, responding to the increasing demands for short runs and customisation.” EFI is a leader in print industry workflow solutions and has a much larger sales and marketing platform around the world and the combination to help accelerate the analog-to-digital transformation of the industry.
Xennia-Sensient
Sensient Technologies Corporation has acquired Xennia Technology Ltd., a UK manufacturer of specialty inks used in digital printing. Xennia’s product lines consist of reactive, acid and sublimation inks for printing on a range of textiles and other substrates. This development creates a competent ink company with Sensient’s market reach and Xennia’s technical capabilities.
Sawgrass-J-teck-Kiian
Sawgrass Industrial, the business division of Sawgrass Technologies operating in sublimation and pigment inks for industrial applications, is joining the JK Group, the company which includes the brands Kiian Digital and J-Teck, to extend the group’s technology capabilities. Kiian Digital, J-Teck and Sawgrass Industrial have in common a track record of innovation, quality, and reliability and are regarded as trusted commercial and technical partners of companies that supply top brands in over 100 countries worldwide. Together they create the largest industrial digital sublimation group with leading technologies, a global presence, and a world class manufacturing capability for textile applications.
India Scenario
India has not been far behind in the digital textile revolution and is poised to be on the biggest market for digital textile printing after China. 2014 – 2015 has seen a lot of transition from sampling machines to real industrial printing machines in India with the current industrial machine installations at 110 and growing at a rapid pace.
A game changing development is the recent entry of the MS-Lario to one of the premier digital printing setups in India. This is poised to be a serious case to take digital textile printing mainstream in India.
Now we have to wait and watch if ITMA 2015 replicates ITMA 2003 and acts as a catalyst giving momentum to the second wave in digital textile printing.
Tagged: digitaltextile, digitaltextileprinting, EFI Reggiani, india, ITMA 2015, MS, SENSIENT, SPGPrints, xennia 
