Developments digest

摘要

The widespread adoption and rapid growth of digital ink-jet printing of both apparel and household textiles is not only transforming the way that the conventional printing industry works, it is also creating a whole new world of opportunity, opening up totally different possibilities in terms of design options, production methods and, ultimately, profitability at every stage of the process chain. This was stressed at the recent European Textile Ink-Jet Printing Conference, organized by Ciba Speciality Chemicals in Basle, Switzerland. The impact of ink-jet printing in textiles was given by Ciba specialist Mickael Mheidle, who contrasted the static conventional printing market - largely using rotary and flatbed screen equipment - with the 150% p.a. growth achieved in digital printing. There are now more than 400 firms engaged in ink-jet printing, accounting for output of about 200-300 million m~2 of printed fabrics per year.