Trade Show June 2015 Printers for Textiles (plus T-shirt Printers) All the Inks for Textile Printing Lots of Fabrics to Print on FESPA 2015 Cologne Maria Renée Ayau and Nicholas Hellmuth
Trade Show Printers for Textiles, inks and Fabrics Although FESPA is a signage and screen-printing expo, they always try to have a textile segment. In several past years the textile segment varied from sad to inadequate. Last year the FESPA Fabric section was far more improved over other years: lots of wide-format textile printers and far more T-shirt printers (ironically more T-shirt printers than this year). But this year, at FESPA 2015, the wide-format textile portion was impressive, far more than expected, better than every signage expo in all North America all put together. This year there were textile-related booths in Hall 8 (screen printing hall) and in Hall 7, plus miscellaneous textile brands in the other two halls. So this year, just like last year, there will be two volumes of FLAAR TRENDs level textile reports: wide-format for one, and T-shirt printers for the other. Plus another report on textile inks and textile fabrics and transfer paper and finishing equipment for textiles. Part 1 Part 2 The biggest textile printer expos in the world are: ITMA Asia (in China) ShanghaiTex (in China) ITMA Europe (this year in Milano) There are also textile expos in India, Turkey, and Brazil, but none are as large as the three listed above. FLAAR Reports attends ITMA Europe every time (every four years). We have attended ITMA Asia and ShanghaiTex, but since this year there is an ITMA in Milano, there is not much need to attend ShanghaiTex. One difference is that ITMA and ShanghaiTex are more for how to manufacture textiles: in other words, factory equipment for weaving and knitting. The textile printer booths have come in recent years since digital inkjet printing is rather obviously the future for fabric decoration for interiors and clothing. 2
at FESPA Cologne 2015 This is another difference between ITMA and ShanghaiTex, and FESPA: FESPA is more signage; the others are clothing, interior decoration, and also signage. FESPA is more for short-run production. ITMA and ShanghaiTex are more for mass production, albeit digital. Irrespective of their focus, FES- PA had D.G.I., MTEX, d-gen and lots of Italian textile printer manufacturers. Durst was present, as were the new brands we mention on following pages: Pigment Inc., Optimal Digital Planet, and RTZ Flora. All the other brands, and every single model, are listed and fully illustrated in our TRENDs level. ShanghaiTEX 2013, Shanghai China. There was one booth which said NO PHOTOS, so we skip them. Any Chinese manufacturer can take tons of photos with their cell phone and no one in the booth will notice. Besides, the way machines are copied is not from photos in trade show reports. But, if the booth personnel wish to have NO PHO- TOS, we will gladly support this brand by neither showing nor mentioning them whatsoever. The three brands we feature in the following pages, the booth personnel came out into the aisle to say hello. They invited us into the their booth. And we will be visiting their factories and demo rooms. This is why we have photographs of these three brands to show here, to distributors around the world and to print shop owners and managers. ITMA 2011, Barcelona Spain. 3
Trade Show Printers for Textiles, inks and Fabrics New Brands (of textile printers) What was notable about this year s FESPA were the number of new brands plus new printers of already established brands. One new brand that stood out was that of Pigment Inc. We visited this booth many times. Graphics One (of California, Dan Barefoot and his team) will be the master distributor for the Americas. We had several visits in this booth with Steve Richardson, best known for DTG Digital and Impression Technology of Australia. We also spoke with Malan Calitz of Impression Technology. We look forward to visiting their factory and demo room and writing about his awareness that inks are the key to having a successful textile printer. This focus on inks is one key aspect of Pigment Inc, which will insure their success. 4 The owner of the company, Steve Richardson, knows printers inside out and hence is aware that it is the ink, which makes the difference. Ironically in our own FLAAR lectures and articles for trade magazines in South Africa and the Middle East, our discussion of trends has said precisely the same: new inks are the key to better results. Printheads are the other primary component of success (in improving the technology of wide-format inkjet printing).
at FESPA Cologne 2015 Pigment Inc. booth. 5
Trade Show Printers for Textiles, inks and Fabrics PR releases glowed in the dark about any and every brand, since that is the job of a PR agency. But do they really know what they are writing about? We prefer to have factual knowledge from an executive or top manager of where the printer or ink or media is really manufactured. A good example: Optimum Digital Planet is open and forthright about where their printers are made, including the brand whose factory makes them. Thus we enjoy learning about the diverse range of printers of Optimum Digital Planet. We know their key people for years, having been in their booth for many years in international expos around the world. Taner Güven invited us into his booth to provide information about each of his printers. There were two handsome textile printers in the booth of Optimum Digital Planet. So we look forward to visiting their facilities in the near future to experience even more of their company and their new products. Their printer, Picasso-Tex, was also exhibited at last years FESPA. 6 Optimum Digital Planet direct-to-fabric printer.
at FESPA Cologne 2015 Optimum Digital Planet booth. 7
Trade Show Printers for Textiles, inks and Fabrics About five or six years ago I visited the factory of RTZ to learn about this company. RTZ makes Flora printers plus is the factory for other brands sold in other countries. Although solvent and UV-cured printers are the original focus of RTZ, they also make textile printers (and printers for glass). We hope to return to the factory in the near future to learn more about the newer models. RTZ has really entered the textile market strongly with both direct-to-fabric and transfer paper printers, as well as t-shirt printers. So RTZ has achieved a very complete textile solution for the actual market. RTZ Flora textile printers. 8
at FESPA Cologne 2015 RTZ Flora booth. All the many other brands of textile printers at FESPA 2015 we itemize, describe, and show in our special TRENDs level report. But here in the general introduction we want to show a sample of three of these brands: Pigment Inc, Optimum Digital Planet, and RTZ Flora. It is ironic that although the first FLAAR Reports on printers and workflow were written in Japan, we have never been to the Mimaki factory nor even demo center in Japan. Mimaki has flown us to their demo center in Europe many years ago, and to their demo center outside Atlanta many years ago, but we have no recent factory or demo center visits. Such visits would make it more realistic to comment on the Mimaki sublimation printers. Aspects of the eventual FLAAR Reports started while Dr Nicholas was a visiting research professor at MINPAKU, the Japanese National Museum of Ethnology in Senri Expo Park, a suburb of Osaka. Dr Hellmuth lived in Japan for six months, teaching scanning of 35mm slides, circa 1997, the early years of digital photography (when people got digital by scanning traditional 35mm slides and negatives, since digital cameras were still a tad primitive in those years). 9
Trade Show Printers for Textiles, inks and Fabrics Textile Printing Work Flow The first time I visited a place using reactive dye ink for printing on fabrics, it was impressive to see the literally football field size of the building needed to hold all the coating, washing, drying and other additional processing machines needed. At the average signage expo, all you find are simple basic dye sub systems, without the other equipment needed for the workflow. Indeed the first few years that Epson showed its purported textile printers they never had a calendaring machine in their booth. In fact in the first year the Epson sales reps and booth personnel did not even know what a calendaring machine was. Over the years they have learned, and in the Epson booth at FESPA 2015 they had heat presses and calendaring machines. For calendering machines, there were plenty of brands at FESPA, more than at any signage expo. Some of the calendering machines even had double-sized booths, plus their machines on display in textile printer booths. 10
at FESPA Cologne 2015 11
Trade Show Printers for Textiles, inks and Fabrics Cutters for Textiles Yes, many flatbed digital cutters can change tools and also cut fabrics, but for some fabrics you need special cutter systems. Gerber and Zünd both come from the world of cutting textiles. However Gerber has not done well in the transition to wide-format inkjet printing. There were also some companies exhibiting cutters manufactured and designed for cutting textiles, although they can only cut square and rectangular shapes and work on roll-to-roll. Impulsa textile cutter. Textile sample cut with Aristo CNC. 12 Fotoba roll-to-roll textile cutter.
at FESPA Cologne 2015 Roll-to-roll textile cutter. Zund CNC can also cut textiles. 13
Trade Show Printers for Textiles, inks and Fabrics Inks for textile printers We have several clients who ask FLAAR for tips and suggestions on which textile ink brands to consider buying. Both manufacturers (of textile printers) and distributors (of textile printers, inks, and workflow products). So in the TRENDs level FLAAR Reports on textile inks, we will list every single brand of textile inks, and what ink chemistry they are. 14
at FESPA Cologne 2015 15
Trade Show Printers for Textiles, inks and Fabrics Printable Fabrics Since many of the companies which make and sell printable fabrics are headquartered in Europe, you can expect lots of booth of the major international brands of printable textiles at FESPA. Plus a few of the Korean and Chinese brands. If you want an even more diverse selection of Chinese brands, these you will find at APPPEXPO in Shanghai, in March 2016. The recent APPPEXPO 2015 had 170 brands of printable media of which many were printable fabrics. All these lists are available by writing FrontDesk at FLAAR.org. 16
at FESPA Cologne 2015 FESPA Printeriors sample section. 17
FESP Trade Show Printers for Textiles, inks and Fabrics T-Shirt Printers T-Shirt Printers come in every size, shape and ink chemistry. Here at FESPA there were printers using pigmented ink, sublimation ink, and toner (OKI and comparable desktop toner printers). The printers of Kornit had bright and colorful results. 18
at FESPA Cologne 2015 A T-shirt competition. 19
Trade Show Printers for Textiles, inks and Fabrics Screen-printing FESPA = Federation European Screen Printing Association, the same way that SGIA (in the USA) stands for Screen Graphics International Association. But since screen-printing is not considered high-tech, SGIA has tried to rebrand itself as Specialty Graphics International Association (though of course the word Specialty has no meaning whatsoever). FESPA is still a major force in the world of screen-printing. Since FLAAR Reports were born while being a visiting professor in digital imaging at a Japanese museum in Osaka, we do research primarily on wide-format inkjet (and digital cameras, digital photography, etc). There are plenty of professors who do screen printing, flexo, and offset printing, so we let them continue their work in these fields. Wide-format inkjet inks, media, printers, RIP software, and color management keep us plenty busy. But it was notable that FESPA this year had more screen-printing booths than any other expo outside China. This year we noticed a printer using very interesting technology; it was using both screen and digital printing. Apparently this technology has been around for four years now, but this is the first time we have noticed it, and it was quite impressive. 20
at FESPA Cologne 2015 21
Trade Show Printers for Textiles, inks and Fabrics Studies of Trade Show Booth Design Since our background is in architecture and as most of the FLAAR staff are graphic designers, we study trade show booth design. Our goal is to assist distributors and manufacturers to have ideas on how to improve their booth design. These reports we provide to the distributors and manufacturers who have a TRENDs level Subscription. If you wish to sign up for this level of Subscription, write FrontDesk at FLAAR.org to ask to be invoiced. In the meantime, here are a few of the topics which we cover. Overhead Banners Considering the cost of a booth, it is important to have a good overhead banner. Several at FESPA 2015 were excellent. But others were of most politely described as in need of improved graphic design. Since most of the FLAAR staff, including the editors and researchers, studied graphic design at their university, we have a lot of ideas on how to improve overhead booth design. Front Desks for your booth Since the front desk is a crucial interface for sending a visual message to a potential client who is walking the aisles, we keep track of dull and boring front desks, and innovative front desks. 22 Wall design, should your wall be plain or should it have a design?
at FESPA Cologne 2015 Wall Design (or lack of design) Many booth outside walls are totally blank. Other booth walls are too spattered with decoration. These walls are huge amounts of space to waste. Besides, if there is a high wall around much of your booth, then no one can see inside your booth (so can t see your products, and of course can t enter the booth either). So in our upcoming full-length FLAAR Reports on booth wall design, we discuss, and show, all of these aspects: good, bad, awful; innovative and attractive; and other walls which are simply wasted space. Hollanders booth. Booths of textile companies The booth designs were of top international quality in many halls in FESPA 2015. The overhead banners of Hollanders were especially well clustered. MTEX had a giant and busy booth. Plus they had a full kitchen service (larger and with more staff than the meal service in booths of other brands six years ago). 23
Trade Show Printers for Textiles, inks and Fabrics Organization by FESPA team FESPA did much better than either ISA of SGIA for the Press Room. The FESPA organized Press Room had a printer, had Cola and fruit juice, and was in a perfect location (immediately after the entrance gates). Not well handled was having to personally scan every person entering the convention center. This wasted everyone s time every morning and irritated many people. 24 Crowds of people at FESPA entrance.
at FESPA Cologne 2015 The Hall aisle numbers were better organized this year than last year. This year (2015) the aisle numbers were A to Z across all four halls (rather than A to Z repeated in every hall). I have never before been to a convention center where the aisles had sequential designations across all halls. This FESPA system was very clever. As with 99% of all trade show catalogs, the category list (in the show catalog) was puffed up by most brands (by claiming they offered ever category). Categories are crucial but are totally unrealistic. And often crucial categories are missing. But overall, the convention center map, and the main expo book were well done. 25
Trade Show Printers for Textiles, inks and Fabrics Venue: Koeln Messe Many of the people attending FESPA 2015 have been to Photokina in the same convention center. However Photokina occupies about 200% more halls, so the entire South Entrance is accessible (which is closer to the train, tram, and subway station, Messe Deutz). Normally I walk from the convention center across the bridge to the main train station (or to the hotels or restaurants on that side of the river). But try to go with someone who knows the walking route, as there are no signs to get you started (from the convention center onto the bridge). 26
at FESPA Cologne 2015 In general the North entrance is inconvenient in every respect, except if by accident or luck your hotel was on that side. There were zero welcome to FESPA signs at the airport (at least none that I noticed anywhere). But, if you took the train to the expo center, there were lots of signs on the sidewalk to guide you all the way through the north entrance. There were also several buses waiting at the main station to take you to the north entrance and make things easier for everyone attending the trade show. The Milano expo center is much easier access, as is Messe Duesseldorf. Both of these are at the end of the respective subway (Metro) systems in the respective cities. For Cologne, the North Entrance was rather far from any bus stop, tram stop, or train stop. Yes, there were shuttle buses, but most people would not rate the North Entrance as convenient compared with other trade show areas in other cities. Fortunately, our in-house travel manager booked a hotel within walking distance of the North Entrance! So we could blissfully walk several hundred meters, which is healthy exercise. 27
Trade Show Printers for Textiles, inks and Fabrics Venue: Cologne (Koeln or Koln) Welcome to Germany I lived in Germany for nine years (had a German girlfriend). And rather obviously (with a name like Hellmuth) my great-great grandparents came from (northern) Germany. I was in East Berlin the week the Berlin Wall came down (by coincidence I had been invited to lecture in East Germany). Having also lived in Switzerland (3 years) and Austria (8 years), I am also familiar with the cultures of each of these countries (each is very different, though of course they also share many traits). The night I had dinner with Dr Ben Zhou (GLM company), he had cleverly reserved a dinner table at the window overlooking the Dom. We had an enviable view for several hours. Most of the view was of near riots in the streets. About an hour into the cocktail segment of the traditional Beijing dinner, lots of German riot police as well as a squad of normal street police began to gather. Soon we realized why, there was some kind of Nazi demonstration (it was very confusing what their relationship to Nazis was, since all the rioters were perfectly normal looking students and adults: not all punks or motorcycle gangs or other gangs). 28
at FESPA Cologne 2015 The riot police were obviously experienced. Soon more riot police arrived. But evidently they negotiated a deal with the organizers of the protest, so both groups marched forward peacefully. Definitely an experience to see all this from directly overhead. 29
Trade Show Printers for Textiles, inks and Fabrics Airports You can either fly into Koeln-Bonn or fly into Duesseldorf.. Cab fare is about 35 euros to the Messe Koeln from Koeln-Bonn airport. There is also an S-Bahn (tram) from main train station to airport (can also connect with the tram stop Messe Deutz). Downside of Cologne airport (if you leave at certain hours) is a literally endless waiting line for security. I estimate there were more than one thousand passengers waiting to pass through security. But if you have tons of Frequent Flyer Miles (and hence have Priority Card) then the airline rep will personally take you past all thousand people in the hundred-meter line and put you at the front of the line. German airlines are occasionally very strict about overweight bags, and often even weigh your carry-on bags. But if you are an experienced traveler you have long ago learned how to schmooze your way around such irritable pains of Germanic rules. During the years that I lived in the Cologne-Dusseldorf area, I often used the Dusseldorf airport. If the flight was substantially cheaper, then you can just pay the cab $100, or take a train or U-Bahn or S-Bahn (or combination). Be aware that Lufthansa pilots delight in going on strike during trade show times, as do train engineers. There are more plane and train strikes in Germany in recent years than even in strike-friendly France or strike-prone Italy. This is the third trade show in Germany which has been stuck by strikes during the expo. Imagine what will happen if there are train, subway, and airplane pilot strikes during Drupa 2016! We will be attending FESPA Africa co-located with AFRICA Print. Hope to see you there, in Johannesburg. 30 Köln Cathedral.
at FESPA Cologne 2015 Köln city views. 31
Trade Show Printers for Textiles, inks and Fabrics 32
at FESPA Cologne 2015 The Mimaki Night event was in the Lindt Chocolate Museum. Since we raise Theobroma cacao trees in our garden (they are flowering this week), we are interested in the origins of chocolate among the Olmec, Maya, and Aztec. So a chocolate museum was a good choice. But more important than that, there were so many key wide-format industry people here that night, that I met more people during Mimaki Night than the entire day during FESPA hours. 33