Textiles continues to be an emerging market for Xaar
Xaar is a leading independent manufacturer of piezo-based drop-on-demand inkjet technologies, trusted globally for precision, reliability, and innovation. Its printheads and systems serve diverse industrial sectors—from packaging and product decoration to advanced manufacturing—empowering OEMs with high-performance, digitally driven solutions and extensive ink compatibility. In a conversation with Fibre2Fashion, Director of Sales Justin Noble discusses the company’s strategic vision, pioneering technologies like Ultra High Viscosity and ImagineX, and how its solutions are redefining manufacturing and sustainability in the digital age.
Xaar has undergone a strategic transformation in recent years. How would you describe the company’s current vision and the key pillars driving its long-term growth?
Xaar is redefining what is possible with industrial inkjet, enabling sustainable and high-performance manufacturing across a wide range of sectors. Our vision is to be the global leader in inkjet innovation, delivering advanced printhead technologies that address evolving market needs. From fashion and textiles to packaging, Advanced Manufacturing and 3D Printing applications, our technology is helping to revolutionise many production processes.
With sustainability also being a key focus of our product development, all our innovation is supported by our Sustainability Pillars. Together, these pillars underpin our commitment to delivering high-value, sustainable solutions for the textiles industry and many others:
- Environment: Our investment in sustainable manufacturig and improving operational efficiencies has always been a key area of business for Xaar. Our aspiration is to lead our industry when it comes to the environment and sustainability, in order to minimise the impact, we and our products have on the world around us.
- People: Our business is one that puts its people first. We are passionate about developing and nurturing talent within Xaar. Our overarching commitment to be an employer of people that puts its people, their potential and well-being at the heart of all we do, is one that connects with our colleagues right across the group.
- Innovation: Continuous innovation is vital if we are to achieve many of our goals across the four pillars that support our ESG roadmap. This is why we believe it is important that we encourage more sustainable approaches to design, manufacture, technology and collaboration across the whole product lifecycle.
- Community: We are proud that our ESG roadmap celebrates our engagement within the communities in which we operate. Now, more than ever, we want to align our community outreach to our business values. To achieve this, we have an active programme of sponsorship for projects, charities and initiatives that provide practical, lasting support to benefit society.
- Governance: As well as aligning with the requirements of the UK Corporate Governance Code, Xaar’s commitment to good governance means embedding it within the entire organisation, to establish a positive and proactive culture aligned to our vision and values.
With Xaar’s Ultra High Viscosity technology and ImagineX platform, how are you pushing the boundaries of what is possible in inkjet printing?
Xaar has been innovating inkjet technology for over 30 years, leading several major industry transformations. Following the launch of our ImagineX platform to power the next generation of products, we provided a leap forward in aqueous printing with the launch of the Xaar Aquinox printhead in 2022.
Our revolutionary Xaar Aquinox and its aQ Power Technology provides an innovative approach to how water-based fluids are jetted, delivering a truly transformational industrial printhead for textiles. The combination of an updated internal architecture, new advanced material, and a novel technique for ejecting the ink droplets ensures the Xaar Aquinox is a printhead that users can rely on for reliably jetting aqueous fluids—even with high viscosity and high pigment fluids.
Ultra-high viscosity inks are advanced fluids with higher solids content and thicker consistency than standard inks—this means they can offer more pigment or functional materials, delivering better coverage, more vibrant colours and improved performance.
Xaar’s innovative Ultra High Viscosity technology makes jetting these new fluids possible, offering the ability to reliably print fluids around approx. 1000 centipoises (cP) at ambient temperature (100 cP at jetting temperature), which is well beyond average jetting capabilities of 10-12cP.
This opens up a wealth of benefits across a range of different applications. In textiles, for example, it allows for richer colour, stronger adhesion on challenging fabrics, and more durable results.
By enabling the jetting of high-viscosity inks and supporting fluids with high particle loading, our technology is redefining the possibilities of inkjet printing. It is paving the way for innovation across multiple industries, delivering unparalleled advancements in quality, efficiency and sustainability.
How is Xaar integrating sustainability into its product development, especially given the environmental impact of traditional printing processes?
Traditional textile printing consumes large volumes of water, energy and chemicals, but the use of digital inkjet offers a more sustainable alternative.
Sustainability and efficiency are at the heart of Xaar’s inkjet technology. These are not just added benefits—they are core drivers of our R&D strategy as part of our Innovation pillar. From the outset, our product development is driven by the need to reduce waste, optimise resource use, and deliver long-term value for our customers. For us, innovation means achieving reliability while enhancing both efficiency and sustainability, ensuring our printheads deliver real-world value.
By enabling the jetting of high viscosity and high pigment fluids, we can also reduce the amount of fluid needed and energy required for drying. Our precision printheads also support print-on-demand models, lowering overproduction and waste.
Industrial inkjet is evolving rapidly—what new industries or applications do you see emerging for Xaar’s technology over the next five years?
Xaar’s technologies are being used in a wide range of industries, including packaging, ceramics, labelling, DTS, advanced manufacturing, and additive processes.
Textiles continues to be an emerging market for Xaar with our printheads supporting high-performance DTG solutions, offering flexibility, quality and sustainability benefits for apparel and garment decoration.
Can you share a recent case study where Xaar’s printhead technology significantly transformed a partner’s or client’s manufacturing capability?
Our recent partnership with M&R to launch the Polaris S4 pretreat unit is a perfect example.
Enabled through a triangle of collaboration between Xaar, M&R and Nazdar, M&R was able to develop the Polaris S4 Pretreat Unit to digitally deliver pretreat exactly where it is needed behind each print. Not only is the pretreat digitally targeted as ‘Shape for Shape’ area application, but the density and amount of pretreat can be controlled garment-to-garment via integrated workflow software. This breakthrough allows for a wider range of fabric types, construction and colours to be explored without fear of ‘boxing’ or UV staining associated with other pretreat solutions.
Driven by Xaar’s Aquinox printheads and inkjet technology, this project was completed in record time and is a game-changer for DTG printing—with sustainability and quality at its core.
With a shared motivation to innovate and disrupt from all three businesses involved, the POLARIS S4 showcases the power of industry collaboration—leveraging Nazdar’s expertise in fluid manufacturing, Xaar’s cutting-edge technology, and M&R’s leadership in textile printing equipment to achieve significant progress.
How does Xaar approach global expansion and collaboration, especially in key markets like Asia-Pacific and North America?
Xaar is focused on building long-term partnerships with OEMs and integrators globally. In markets like North America, our work with M&R exemplifies this approach—collaborating closely with global customers from concept to commercial launch.
Xaar has collaborated with various OEMs and integrators. What makes a partnership truly successful in this ecosystem?
True collaboration goes beyond supply. It is about co-developing solutions that meet specific market needs. We work closely with OEMs to understand their application challenges and pain points, from fluid dynamics to hardware integration. Our product development process and extensive experience mean we can rapidly create and develop printheads that unlock new capabilities for our partners.
How do you foster a culture of innovation and agility within Xaar, particularly when operating in a highly technical and competitive space?
Innovation is built into our DNA. We foster cross-functional collaboration across R&D, commercial and manufacturing teams, and encourage our engineers to push the boundaries of what has previously been possible. The success of the Polaris S4 project with M&R, developed in just over six months, shows exactly what can be achieved when teams are empowered to move fast and think differently.
How is industrial inkjet technology redefining traditional manufacturing processes across sectors like packaging and textiles?
In textiles, digital inkjet printing is streamlining supply chains by enabling customisation, on-demand production, fast turnarounds and reducing costs. It also facilitates localised production, cutting shipping emissions and lead times. Inkjet brings agility to an industry that has traditionally relied on long runs and bulk processes, enabling new business models and creative freedom.
In addition, Xaar’s High viscosity inks can achieve the same colour gamut with half the amount of ink due to reduced substrate penetration. When using this technology to get fluids with a high pigment loading, this enables high-contrast, vibrant results, offering significant advantages across various applications.
For the textiles industry, since less ink soaks into the media, graphics printed in a single pass appear significantly more striking compared to those using standard-viscosity inks.
It is important to note that the benefits of Xaar’s technology are not limited to one substrate type or industry; they can also provide corrugate packaging manufacturers with a significantly broader colour gamut without the need for coating or primer. This redefines manufacturing processes by immediately reducing costs and resource usage while improving efficiency and sustainability.
How is the adoption of digital inkjet printing impacting supply chains, especially in terms of on-demand production and mass customisation?
As mentioned, digital inkjet printing can shorten supply chains by meeting the growing demand for mass personalisation and customisation at scale. Brands can now produce one-off or short-run items with unique designs, allowing greater flexibility and closer alignment with consumer trends. This shift supports faster turnarounds, lower inventory costs and more agile responses to market demands, all while reducing waste and overproduction.
As sustainability becomes a central concern, how is the inkjet industry innovating to reduce waste, energy use, and environmental impact?
Xaar is playing an essential part in reducing waste, environmental impact and material usage. For example, our Ultra High Viscosity technology advances sustainability by allowing the use of highly pigmented inks with higher colour density and reducing the amount of fluid needed per print. This not only decreases ink consumption but also speeds up drying times, lowering overall energy use, which reduces downtime and overall waste. In addition, these inks often require fewer passes to achieve the same print density, further reducing operational costs and environmental impact. Combined with Xaar’s ability to jet water-based or UV-curable inks, the environmental footprint is significantly smaller than traditional processes.
With independent proof of its value from an independent study by Swansea University, Xaar’s printheads and technologies are redefining what inkjet can achieve. From reducing environmental impact to opening new markets and applications, this innovation represents a step-change in industrial printing.
What trends or breakthroughs do you believe will shape the next decade of industrial inkjet printing?
Sustainability will continue to be a major focus over the next decade, driving changes in materials, processes and energy efficiency across all industries. For industrial inkjet printing generally, a key trend will likely be the widespread adoption of high viscosity inks, as companies look to meet sustainability goals while reaping the benefits that the ability to jet these fluids can now offer.
