ZIMMER Austria has announced the sale of the first COLARIS digital textile printer for pigment inks in the US, which will be installed at Ultimate Textile’s New York headquarters in Rutherfordton.
Ultimate Textile is a dyehouse which produces upholstery and decorative home fabrics - a market which has a strong tradition in the US.
The company is investing in a digital pigment solution off the back of positive use cases across the industry, many of which have been brought to the attention of visitors at this week’s PRINTING United exhibition in Dallas, Texas where the sale of the printer was finalised.
Pigment inks are synonymous with digital direct-to-garment (DTG) printing, which is proving to be a particularly lucrative market in the US. ZIMMER – a leading manufacturer of digital printing and finishing solutions – is therefore looking to capitalise on the US market’s desire to utilise pigment technology.
Pigment inks continue to dominate conventional printing, helped by the fact they can be applied to any fabric type. But a limited colour gamut and high-viscosity have meant that the ink category has been criticised within digital textile printing circles.
However, intense R&D has been carried out on improving pigments, which are considered more sustainable than dye-based alternatives. Subsequently, pigment ink formulas for digital solutions are now less likely to cause damage to the print head, the colour gamut has improved and the binder has been enhanced so that poor rub-fastness is less of an issue.
This bad reputation is a reason why, according to ZIMMER, pigments are used to print just 1% of the 1 billion square metres of fabric that is digitally printed each year. However, this percentage is expected to grow considerably throughout the next decade in line with continuing improvements.
ZIMMER’s production sites in its native Austria are based in Kufstein and Klagenfurt, but the OEM also has a sales and service office operating in Spartanburg, South Carolina, US. From these locations ZIMMER is able to manufacture and sell its range of printing solutions which are targeted at home textiles, wall coverings, carpets and mats, fashion, upholstery, towels, blankets, technical textiles, nonwovens, paper and even glass fibre.
Ultimate Textile is the first US-based company to purchase ZIMMER’s COLARIS printer for pigment inks and is looking to utilise the machine as it rides a reshoring wave which is boosting the profits of domestic US textile manufacturers.
Digital printing solutions have made reshoring closer to the end consumer a more appealing prospect. Trends like customisation, coupled with consumer eagerness to receive an order the next day, is placing a lot of pressure on manufacturers and only inkjet printing technology is versatile enough to deal with these requirements, according to many analysts.
Roland ZIMMER, VP sales North America (sales & service), says: “Reshoring definitely helps with the growth of the pigment market. The US used to be very strong in the home textile market. It all left to countries like Bangladesh, India and China. But now, with this technology, we can bring some of it back – that’s the plan anyway.”
