Digital Printing -- A Milestone In The Fashion Industry

The term "digital printing" seems to be a broad concept. It covers two camps.

In fact, the two camps are independent: some of the digital printers belong to the advertising and promotion industry. They are mainly engaged in the printing of flags, exhibition patterns and clothing. The ink used is mainly sublimation of pigment and dyestuffs, while the other part is mainly used for printing fashion and decorative fabrics. Most of them use dyestuff type water-based ink.

They belong to the traditional textile industry and serve the main user market as well as dyed workers and roller screen printer.

Their specialty is to understand the interaction between fibers and dyes, and produce high quality products with water resistance, light weight and friction resistance according to strict retail standards.

The communication between the two groups is limited.

(advertising) graphic printers usually act more cautiously. They are faced with the choice of winning or refusing, at least in the West.

Fashion printer needs to buy expensive cleaning and drying equipment. This investment is undoubtedly a great risk for new people.

Therefore, the relationship between the two groups is like two parallel lines, each seeking its own development technology and creating opportunities.

Banner and banner printing are the biggest and fastest growing market of digital printing.

The popularity of fabrics, especially polyester, has been increasing due to aesthetic, environmental and practical advantages in sales and outdoor advertising applications.

Forecast data show that in just a few years, the consumption of polyester has doubled.

However, the development of digital printing in the fashion market is not satisfactory.

In the early 2000-2009 years, equipment manufacturers were hopeful to enter the field of garment printing, competing for the introduction of various new inkjet printers. However, the high cost began to puzzle them, and at the same time, the pfer of the textile industry to the Asian market frightened them.

Before and after 2000, some Western retailers broke through the "trade quota" restrictions, causing European and American suppliers to get into trouble.

It was not until 2005 that textile quotas were abolished and China became the world's leading textile producer.

But China's strength has weakened since then. On the one hand, it is due to inflation. On the other hand, retailers have new requirements, such as shorter production cycle, faster production speed and sustainable development. Local producers have these advantages.

During this period, the European and American markets also developed rapidly, and the technology progresses. Among them, the most representative one is the appearance of the new generation print heads. For example, EPSON's latest micro voltage printhead, with the use of EPSON textile printing machine, can double the speed.

With the continuous development of the ink market, not only the ink system with more comprehensive and better equipment adaptability has been developed, but also the market has become more open. The two level equipment builders have re labeled the famous equipment, and at the same time, they will abandon those devices which only allow users to use single ink.

Reliable data for the growth of digital printing are hard to come by, but according to the world's leading ink suppliers, the consumption of water-based digital printing ink has doubled since 2006, while the price has dropped by 1/4 - long time being considered as a factor hindering the development of the ink market.

With the emergence of new professional textile printing machines, the old printing presses, which were originally produced for the graphic printing industry, will be replaced. In the next few years, the amount of ink will increase at a faster rate.

During the global financial crisis, large dye producers announced their business in 2008: the fourth quarter was at an all-time low.

Against this background, we have reason to think that the digital printing industry may go against the flow in the future.