Xennia's Dr Alan Hudd discusses the market requirements for digital textiles, outlining the application drivers and challenges that need to be overcome, recognising the technology requirements for a complete production inkjet solution and finally, looks at digital finishing as a transformational technology. The talk was presented at IMI's 4th Annual Digital Printing Presses Conference in Florida, USA, June 2011.

1. CHANGING THE GAME:
INKJET TEXTILE DECORATING & FINISHING
Dr Alan Hudd
Xennia Technology Ltd
Presented at the 4th Annual Digital Printing Presses Conference
Florida, USA, June 2011

2. Background to Xennia
Xennia is the world‟s leading industrial inkjet solutions provider
15 year history, over 300 customer development programmes
World class reputation underpinned by a strong IP portfolio
Unique expertise in inkjet chemistry with strong engineering capability
Headquartered in UK, sales offices in US and China
Awarded Queen‟s Award for Enterprise in 2010
Offering reliable inkjet process solutions:
Inkjet modules and inks for OEM partners with market access
Printing systems and inks for end users through our distributors

3. Xennia helps customers lower
operating costs, increase productivity
and simplify mass customised production
by revolutionising manufacturing processes

4. Technology push to market pull
Inkjet technology & market evolution curve: The next wave has started
Technology Market Technology Market Technology Market
Innovation Development Innovation Development Innovation Development
Market
size Ceramics
Packaging Electronics
Food Biomedical
Photo Textiles
Labels
Screen print
Cut vinyl
SOHO
Graphics
CAD E-stat
Date Coding Pen plotters
Direct Mail
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020

5. The changing landscape
Price competition Non-price competition
Existing arena Traditional
customers
New arena Inkjet proposition
Courtesy Mr Loek de Vries, Chairman and President, Royal TenCate

6. Benefits of inkjet
Reduced production costs
Efficient use of consumables
No requirement to produce new screens
Minimal set-up costs – short runs are economical
Cost per print same for 1, 10, 100, 1000, 10,000
No requirement for inventory
Increased productivity
No time for set-up – printer is always printing
Faster response
Print on demand
Just-in-time customisation/personalisation
Much quicker introduction of new designs
Applicable to all types of fabric

7. Textile applications
Digital decoration of textiles:
Garment personalisation
Reel-to-reel textile production
Flags, banners, awnings
Soft furnishings
Applying functional coatings
Dirt repellent
Water repellent
Fire retardant
UV blocking
Conductive

8. General market drivers
Key market driver
Need for economic short print runs
Faster and more frequent design changes
Increased number of niche products
Increased demand for personalisation to add value

9. Textile market
Over 21Bn metres printed globally
Market value $165Bn
Overall growth 2% CAGR
Technology (2007)
40% rotary screen printing
40% flatbed screen
19% other traditional
1% digital
Regional mix
50% Asia,15% Europe, 11% North America
Digital printing growing rapidly (20% CAGR)
Source: Gherzi Research 2008

10. Printing technologies

11. Digital textiles
RTR digital textile market 2010
Hardware $137m (6% growth)
Ink $454m (15% growth)
Printed output value $1.3Bn (13% growth)
DTG digital textile market 2010
Hardware $184m (23% growth „opportunity for ~10,000 high end units‟)
Ink $145m (32% growth)
Printed output $2.45Bn (35% growth)
Systems from
Mimaki (and Mimaki based), Roland, Mutoh (low end)
Robustelli, Reggiani, Konica Minolta, Osiris (high end)
Inks from Huntsman, Dupont, Dystar, BASF, Kiian, Sensient etc
Source: IT Strategies Spring 2009

12. Textile market drivers
Drivers towards digital printing
Reduced time to introduce new designs (few hours versus several days)
Lower energy, water and materials consumption
Reduced cost to introduce new designs (no requirement to make screens)
Competitive for shorter runs
Example: lower cost below1,200m for 8 colour screen versus typical digital
Current typical digital cost €3-5/m2
Average run length decreasing
Now below 2,000m, was 3,500m in 1994
(average run length still analogue territory)
Promise of even lower digital costs, lower at all run lengths
Huge potential for digital textile printing
Source: Gherzi Research 2008

13. Reduced run length
Inkjet competitive for
short runs
Long run cost due to ink
price
Competitive at all run
lengths when inks
priced for mass
production

14. Inkjet vs. screen printing
Opportunity
Currently

15. Simplified production

16. Textile market need
Market requirement for RTR textiles
Printing system
High productivity (>300 m2/hr)
High reliability (>98% up time)
Cost effective (Cost (€)/productivity(m2/hr) <2000)
High quality (600+dpi, greyscale, 6+ colours)
Inks
Excellent colour performance (competitive with analogue)
Excellent fastness performance (competitive with analogue)
Ink costs that give printed cost < analogue for required run length

17. Solution design requirements
Reliability
Ink/printhead/nozzle
Printhead assembly/wires/electronics
Ink system/pipework
Maintenance station
Print verification station
Software
Motion system
UV, motion system etc
Cost
Build Cost Vs Redundancy of design for reliability
Running cost Vs Productivity

18. Integration
– the key challenge
Wetting, drying, curing Fluid control
Ink chemistry
Substrate Print heads
Material handling
Encoder accuracy Drive electronics, software

19. System design trade-off
Single pass fixed array wide area swath continuous web printing
High productivity
High complexity and cost
High risk (missing nozzle shows up)
Maintenance difficult without stopping
Single pass
No error tolerance
Scanning XY systems
Low productivity
Low complexity and cost Multiple passes
Low risk (nozzle redundancy)
Maintenance easy
Error tolerant

20. New concept
Reciprocating diagonal continuous printing
1.6-3.0m
Two print bars printing complementary patterns
WO 2009/056641

21. Diagonal printing
High productivity
All nozzles are used efficiently
Continuous substrate motion
Quality
Greyscale high resolution printing
Disguise missing nozzles & head variability through software algorithms
Redundancy in software, not spare nozzles
No banding
Maintenance without stopping line
Same proven technology as XY systems
High reliability printheads
Flexibility to vary time spent on maintenance

22. New concept in reality
Reciprocating diagonal continuous single pass printing

23. System in action

24. Flexible solution
Industrial inkjet is reliable & cost effective
Production dispensing for finishing
Production printing
Options for
Continuous printing up to 600 m2/hr
High resolution (600+ dpi greyscale)
Functional material dispensing
Multi-colour decoration
Print widths from 1.6 m to 3 m (to 5 m)
Range of web based fabrics and inks

25. Textile inks
Reactive dye inks
Suitable for cotton and cotton/polyester blends
High colour vibrancy even in single pass applications
High stability and fastness
Acid dye
For high quality silk printing
Disperse dye
For durable printing onto polyester
Pigment inks
UV cure inks
Including white for printing onto dark coloured textiles
Broad textile application - no post treatment required
Advanced chemistry means competitive costs

26. Pigmented textile inks
Innovative pigmented inks for textile applications
Patent protected – WO2009034394
Uses binder to physically bind pigment to fibres
Use of traditional textile pigments and binders
Enable single pass printing onto wide range of fabrics
Universal textile applicability
No substrate affinity required
Exceptional wash and dry/wet crock fastness
Excellent light fastness
Simple process
No pre-treatment of fabric required
No steam fixation – energy saving

27. Digital finishing
Major benefits of inkjet digital finishing
Multi functionality
Single sided application possible
Two sides can have different functions
Patterning – place function where you want it
Functionality applied efficiently to textile surface only
Highly consistent coat weight
Environmental and energy savings
Not influenced by underlying substrate variations
Not influenced by bath concentration or dosing variations

28. Inkjet textile finishing
Inkjet digital textile finishing process
System can be
Standalone; or
Integrated in existing finishing lines
Dust cleaning unit
Textile Finisher
UV IR Conventional Dryer Conventional Dryer
Printing blanket

29. Functional materials
Hydrophobic
Comfort of cotton material on skin side
Water and dirt repellent function on outside
Dirt repellant/self-cleaning
More efficient coating when applied with inkjet
Single-sided application important
Antimicrobial/anti-fungal/anti-insect
Selective deposition, efficient usage
Slow release technology
Materials used cannot be in skin contact
Single-sided application vital

30. Functional materials II
Flame retardant
Highly coherent coating very important
Single side coating allows lighter weight
UV blocking (anti-sunburn)
Coating needs to be away from skin
IR blocking
Insulating fabrics – tents, clothing
Electrically conductive
Antennae incorporated into clothing, tents
Communication with electronic devices
Solar energy harvesting
Tents, awnings, etc
Low cost manufacturing essential

31. Functional textiles in action

32. Digital functionality

33. Slow release technology
Approach
Novel scaffold structure holds molecules for release
Release rate can be controlled by an external stimulus
e.g. temperature
Rechargeable by reapplying molecules to be released
Application example
Insect repellent
Toxic materials, undesirable for skin contact
Single sided coating, material held away from skin contact

34. Digital dyeing
Approach
Methods developed to use “difficult” aggressive dyes (VAT dyes)
Not usually used in “printing” but give higher end user performance
Benefits
Environmentally friendly, efficient use of natural resources
Very high fixation, with low discharge of unfixed dye
Low water and energy usage compared to traditional dye baths
Consistency of product quality
Consistent quantity of dye is laid down
Does not rely on pick-up of dye from dye bath
Different colour possible on each side of the textile

35. Functional textiles video

36. Textile value chain
Current textile production technology is labour intensive
Process automation will reduce labour content in costs
Variable costs currently high for inkjet
Inkjet machines will consume tons of ink
Economy of scale dictates lower ink prices
No fundamental reason for prices being higher
Low cost location becomes less important
Logistics will be the key component to control

37. Textile future
from
Inkjet will
revolutionise an
outdated industry to
deliver production
reliability &
productivity at
lower costs
to

38. Conclusions
Inkjet technology will transform the textile industry
Higher productivity/lower cost
Higher flexibility
Economical shorter runs
(Mass) customisation
Faster product design introductions
Higher quality
New functionality
Environmental benefits
Digital decoration and finishing enables process automation
Extensive R&D effort is needed for adoption
Will strengthen the competitive power of the Western textile industry