IMPRESSIONS from a Cross-section

Traditional textile manufacturing has shifted from Europe to Asia. Conventional textile mills in Europe have a hard time. Traditional textile machines are also shifting towards Asian manufacturers.

The digital textile market is still emerging worldwide, however. The Textile finishing machines of the conventional mills have to be downsized and adapted for digital print applications. This faces a challenge since energy and infrastructure are often limited in digital printing shops. We foresee a steady growth of digital printing and as a logical consequence, as growth in demands for suitable machines. We try to adapt towards the digital manufactures' wishes by reducing energy consumptions and supply machines with all parts integrated. This eliminates the need for a traditional infrastructure with central steam or oil supply. Big mills are replaced by a larger number of small digital printing shops.

Digital printed textile is used for advertising mainly. Clothing, apparel, and furnishing applications are still very small. The recent development of faster printers will initiate a boost for real production numbers. This will first influence traditional flatbed screen printing but eventually also screen printing. This is still far ahead though. Since it all concerns printed fabric, it also depends on fashion. If individual prints become more fashionable, the market for digital can respond, in contrast to conventional screen printing.

In all cases, the technology of the digital process compared to the conventional screen printing, requires an even more stringent process control since the margins are smaller. This forms a challenge to machine manufactures like us. Continuous innovation and adaptation of new technology is necessary to keep up with latest developments.

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