SGIA Expo returned to Las Vegas in style this year. A confetti and laser filled party at the Venetian’s Tao nightclub celebrated a successful first show day. Attendees enjoyed free popcorn on the show floor, a plethora of education sessions took place to complement the main event, and the palpable promise of a show to unite the printing industry in America, in 2019, was very much in focus.
The forthcoming rebranding of SGIA Expo to become Printing United sees the show’s organisers expand the scope, and hopefully the reach, of the trade show. Of the new areas being added to the show, packaging takes centre stage and there will also be a focus on commercial printers expanding into wide-format. SGIA’s Daily Expo newspaper quoted Mark Subers, president of SGIA’s main media partner, NAPCO, saying: “Printers in different segments are reaching across and adopting new technology. It’s important to provide a one-room approach where all solutions are available for review.”
But what does this mean for the digital textile printing sector and its place at the show?
It would be unfair to say that textile printing has been on the periphery of the SGIA event as the show sees prominent exhibitors in all areas showcasing their latest and greatest innovations. And, textiles’ presence at the show has certainly increased in the last five years with exhibitors citing high-quality attendees looking to make investments.
However, in many ways, SGIA’s rebranding will likely reinforce its position as a promotional print technology show. While this may not appeal to print houses looking to service the traditional textile market in the US, it does feed into the high-growth markets of soft signage and direct-to-garment printing, where there will certainly be innovation at next year’s event.
For those looking to provide a total solution centred around customised, branded promotional items, Printing United looks like it is going to be the perfect show.
News from the show
Printing United’s direction was foreshadowed at this year’s SGIA Expo, which saw many textile OEMs focus on the soft signage sector.
Dover Digital Dybrid
JK Group showcased an MS Impres system, complete with JK’s new Dybrid inks. Commenting on the solution, JK’s global sales director Alessandra Borghi said: “The perfect synchronisation of all the process elements is decisive to obtain high-quality output and process efficiency. Dybrid inks have been developed by MS Printing, JK Group and Caldera teams working together to ensure complete synchronisation during the printing process.”
This is not the first instance of Dover Digital’s three textile brands working together on a solution, but it could be considered the most technologically integrated example. Though each of the brands under Dover Digital operate entirely separately, providing technologies that are compatible with many other digital textile printing OEMs, there are obvious end-user benefits from the group working closely together. That said, Caldera did confirm at the show that there will be no further integration of the three brands in the near future and they will continue to operate independently.
JK Group also confirmed at SGIA that it will introduce its first reactive ink product in 2019, targeting both those currently printing digitally with reactives and also those still printing reactives with analogue technology. It is estimated that around 25% of the analogue printing market uses reactive inks, whilst reactives also make up 36% of the digital textile printing market. JK will be the first Italy-based producer of digital reactive inks, tapping into a key high-growth market.
EFI Reggiani BOLT
Another crucial announcement at SGIA Expo came from EFI Reggiani, which confirmed the launch of its single-pass digital textile printer for this November. The BOLT printer will be debuted at the company’s Italian base in Bergamo to key customers and the media.
Despite suspicions that EFI Reggiani may develop its single pass solution on the Osiris technology, the BOLT has instead been built on EFI’s Nozomi technology, which the company acquired in 2017. This technology made its name in the corrugated packaging market and the new BOLT machine is said to print at a maximum speed of 90 linear m/hr, making it the fastest single-pass model to come to the market.
Additionally, the BOLT is the first single pass solution to debut solely for pigment printing on textiles. Suitable for all fabric types, the BOLT will print using EFI Reggiani’s new pigment inks. These inks have been branded as the TERRA Pigment Solution – part of a broader rebranding initiative by the company which sees other recent printer launches such as the Vogue becoming the TERRA printer series: Silver, Gold, Platinum and Titan. The TERRA pigment ink will be available in six colours – CMYK, plus red and blue – and includes a binder. The company says inline polymerisation ensures an efficient process.
Other debuts
DGI also presented a new solution at SGIA, the HSIII digital textile printer, having launched the machine only a week earlier at ITMA Asia in Shanghai. The industrial sublimation solution won an SGIA Product of the Year award at the show and is capable of printing at up to 250sqm/hr. The company says it has enhanced the print carriage movement system for this model for more accurate jetting.
Kornit also showcased its Storm HD6 for the first time in North America, complete with the NeoPigment Rapid Ink system, and Mimaki launched its Tiger-1800B MkII printer. This solution can be set up for direct-to-textile printing or for transfer printing and Mimaki says the printer can achieve speeds of up to 385sqm/hr, with a resolution of 1,200dpi.
Zimmer Austria also presented a new solution at SGIA for the camouflage print market. Printed using the Colaris technology, Zimmer’s camouflage solution sees both acid and pigment inks applied to a nylon and lyocell blend fabric with the aim to reduce infrared reflection. The company told WTiN that this ensures better camouflage at night. The solution is printed with five print heads, four using acid inks and one using a carbon black pigment ink, all done inline.
Zimmer has also added a new service element to its solution with the offer of print head maintenance. Print heads with blocked nozzles can be sent to Zimmer’s Kufstein-base in Austria for servicing and the company says there is a 99% success rate in unblocking the nozzles and returning the print head to the end-user. The cost of the servicing is around US$500, which is around a tenth of the cost of a new print head. Zimmer adds that this can extend the lifetime of the print head by up to two years.
