matbaa_teknik_ekim_2018

yaşam için baskı 2018
Debbie McKeegan of TexIntel whose presentation was
‘Reinventing Interiors: A Digital Transformation’.
Debbie expressed her interest in finding the best of
the available print technologies. Debbie began her
career long before Photoshop existed when analogue
screen print and steam fixing were prevalent.
She wholeheartedly embraced the changes that
digitisation brought and subsequently ran both a
studio to design her own product ranges and a digital
printing facility for 20 years.
Debbie continues to design and market her own
‘Debbie Mc’ range of fabrics and wall coverings. She
has started a new business, TexIntel where she offers
consultancy services for both analogue and digital
technologies across all print processes and shares
her knowledge. Debbie went on to show statistics that
illustrate how large the markets are for décor printing
and the small impact digital has made to date.
These markets offer tremendous opportunities to
disrupt the analogue processes with digital. The
availability of affordable print in short runs for
small micro business has created opportunities that
didn’t previously exist. This was due to the fact a
significantly higher minimum order was required to
gain entry to market.
The use of digital pigment print on cotton has now
matured and the ink colour gamut has sufficiently
expanded which makes it very appealing to
buyers. However, Debbie had to develop fabric pretreatment
that would support the production of this
wider range of colours.
The digital pigment print method jets ink onto
the fabric directly and then by using heat curing,
finished fabrics can be manufactured without
using high volumes of water. This is a great
advantage over conventional analogue production.
Debbie continued to explain that a new benefit
of digital design and printing is that it offers the
chance to combine texture styles such as denim
and calico on the same base fabric.
Polyester remains a staple fabric when printed dye
sublimation and presents durable washable quality
that has many end uses, as they range of weights
and surface finishes continue to increase. Latex
inks have become widely adopted in wallpaper
printing. Debbie emphasised the benefits of this
high-resolution low toxicity technology.
The upcoming trends include improved
sustainability, the use of technical fabrics and
remade furniture where new digitally printed
designs are upcycling the old to new. It is possible
to have new forms of customisation and lifestyle
branding when you can order just a few metres of
fabric or wallpaper. Debbie’s presentation left us
inspired that digital imaging will continue to grow
apace in this reinvigorated space.
Having decided to stick with the creative
presentations, I watched a presentation from Jan
Baden from Druckprozess on ‘The Right Choice of
Ink: A Journey Through Different Applications.’
Jan reviewed the various ink technologies that are
used in the décor market. He discussed the use of
UV curing inks and their application in flooring,
furniture and wide format display. However, Jan
discussed the risks when these are under-cured. It
is important that health risks are considered as the
chemical constituents in UV formulations can be
harmful when not fully cross-linked.
Water-based (dye) inks are ecologically viable
and free from VOC’s. They offer a wide gamut and
excellent adhesion to pre-treated surfaces.
Disperse/Sublimation inks are primarily used for
polyester, either via direct printing or via transfer
paper. As a dry process it offers reduced consumption
of water, however biodegradability still is an issue.
Reactive and acid dye inks are used to print on
natural fabrics. However, printing digitally direct
to fabric has to be steamed and washed before
they are useable. These printing methods require
considerable volumes of water in the curing
washing phases of production.
Pigment ink formulations dominate the home
décor market, glass utilises UV curing digital with
pre-treatment, ceramics use ceramic frit inks that
must to be fired to create a fully durable finish. The
main benefit of introducing digital into ceramics
is that it reduces the thickness of the tiles required
by screen printing techniques from 6mm to 4mm.
This saves a lot of primary materials which have
become a key driver in digital success for ceramics.
Fashion textiles use dye sublimation ink for
polyesters and pigment for cotton-based products.
Regarding processes, Jan suggested that it is
important to consider the speed of the process be
it single pass or multi-pass, the quality and the
durability through pre-treatment or post-treatment.
It is vital to consider the cost of production of wet
process vs dry digital techniques. This presentation
offered a useful appreciation of the benefits of each