The growing acceptance and popularity of digital printing is bogged down by many bottlenecks such as print speed, ink performance and cost, colour registration, substrate handling, colour control, wash and wear fastness, and fixing and curing. Yet, the technique is still predicted to boom over the next few years. Team Apparel Online talks to digital printing service providers in Delhi-NCR to decode the reasons behind this technique’s growing demand and prevalence…
Emerging vibrantly in S/S 2013 runways, many international designers like Prada, Pucci, Jil Sander, Etro, Christopher Kane, Erdem, Issa, Mary Katrantzou, Moschino, Cheap & Chic, Mulberry, Roksanda Ilincic, Akris to name a few created abstract, submerged, mirror, psychedelic and photographic prints using digital imaging techniques leading to a boom for the techniques in the fashion industry. Also picked up by Indian designers and exporters, digital printing has become an essential for the market. “We are working with designers like Tarun Tahiliani, Rohit Bal, Ritu Kumar, Ranna Gill, JJ Vallaya, Rajesh Pratap Singh, and high-end home-furnishing brands, all of whom are incorporating digital printing in their collections,” avers, Siddharrthha a. Jain, CEO, Printtech. Operating with 3 high speed Mimaki JV5 machines, the company prints almost 2000 metres per day, catering to exporters like Orient Craft, Kumar Brothers, Modelama and Richa Exports and is looking forward to double capacity by next year.
Among all five digital printing processes which are based on the ink-fabric compatibility characteristics, reactive continuous printing is the most popular and ideal on account of its good light and washing fastness due to better chemical bond between the dye and the fabric. “Digital printing being a plug and play technology facilitates the entry of new entrepreneurs, from non-textile backgrounds, into the digital printing sector as compared to screen or rotary,” says, Siddharrthha. In fact, owing to the growing demand for digital printing in the market many companies like, Bombay Rayon Fashions, Aloka Exports, Orient Craft and Eastman Exports have installed in-house digital printers.
Barring cost disadvantage, digital printing has many advantages compared to the traditional wet printing process. It cuts down on industrial wastage, does print design in any number of colours using 4 primary colours, has faster changeover time from one design to another, fabric quantity is not a constraint anymore, and being an automated printing process, it requires less manpower. “Orders are not limited to only 100 metres anymore; international buyers are demanding for complete production orders of 10,000 to 14,000 metres,” says Shashank Saraogi, Director, Rajdhani Creations. The company uses 4 digital printers to print almost 700-800 metres per day and exports reactive printed silk and viscose fabrics primarily to America, Sweden, Brazil and Africa.
Corroborating the same, Mukesh Seth, Director, Vrishti Impex says, “In digital printing; you have the flexibility to execute orders from 1 piece to 10,000 pieces. At an average, exporters are demanding decent quantities of 500-10,000 pieces per style.” The company is using Kornit’s Avalanche DC which produces 2,500 pieces of 100 sq. inch per day catering to buyers like Zannier Group, Lafayette, and upper-end products of Zara and Mango.
Not only in exports, but the demand of digitally printed fabrics is also growing in the domestic market as well. Digitally printed leggings, sarees, suits, shawls, scarves and stoles are in great demand and the fabrics can be easily seen at many retail stores, but the major domestic requirement is being fulfilled by digital printers from other areas in comparison to Delhi-NCR region. Sikander Peshoria, Co-owner, Garb & Guise explains the reason, “In the export sector, the quality controls involved are very stringent but in domestic it is easier to manage and run the show without any hassles or any technical knowhow, as the quality controls are not rigid and rejections are acceptable, therefore the prices are also cheap, owing to which most of the domestic digital printing orders for are moving towards Surat.” The company with printing capacity of 7000 metres per day does digital printing on cotton, cashmere, wool, modal, silk and a variety of other fabrics for stoles, sarees, shawls and scarves along with running length fabrics for domestic brands, fashion/textile/graphic designers and overseas buyers. Their export demand of wool, silk and cotton printed fabrics comes majorly from Italy, Spain, Germany, Japan and USA.
Declining Print Quality, a concern…
Despite increasing demands, the export community does not seem to be greatly happy with the resultant output quality. The print quality difference, lower capacity machines, and decreasing quality of inks are some of the reasons conveyed by the users. “With decreasing ink cost, the quality is also going down, which directly affects the running ability of the machines. Earlier, if I used to get 25-27 metres per hour, now it has come down to 18-19 metres per hour,” informs, Siddharrthha.
Shashank does not agree in totality to Siddharrthha’s statement in attributing the shortcoming in print quality to the slow digital printing speed. “Exporters distribute one order among 2-3 vendors, which leads to difference in quality,” he says. Mukesh pinpoints that not maintaining adequate atmospheric conditions is also one of the reasons for differences in print quality. “Even the temperature and humidity in the factory impacts the quality of the print, keeping the temperature at 20 to 25 degree Celsius and meeting all parameters subsequently will provide good quality outputs,” he shares.
Another problem occurs because of inadequate infrastructure and lack of padding, steaming and washing knowledge. “The quality of output depends on many factors and the basic is the machine quality for accuracy in colour drop, rise and registration and the fabric pre-preparation padding, which is essential for all non polyester fabrics. The fabric is uniformly coated with urea/alginate to ensure consistent printing. The fabric is properly stretched on the printer to avoid bowing defect and thereon the printed fabric is steamed at 102 degree Celsius temperatures to fix the dyes on the fabric. Finally, after steaming, the fabric is washed to rinse out extra dye and chemical,” details Siddharrthha. With upgradation in the technology and cost of printing coming down, the technique is set to gain greater popularity in the future.
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