Dr John Provost is an independent digital textile printing consultant and Technical Editor of Digital Textile magazine

(published by World Textile Information Network of the UK). He was the 2009 winner of the Henry E. Millson Award

for Invention, for the development of the first commercially available inkjet printer for textile fabrics, awarded by the

American Association of Textile Chemists & Colorists (AATCC).

He has been involved in digital ink jet printing for over 30 years, with ICI, Zeneca, Avecia, BASF AG and Provost Ink

Jet Consulting Ltd, developing industrial ink printer solutions with the major print-head manufacturers, system

integrators and machinery manufacturers and has been involved with many of the current digital textile printing

developments.

He has been a consultant for Printing Technology for Everlight Chemical Industry Corporation since 2007.

John has written more than 160 papers on colour physics, coloration, and both conventional and digital textile

printing, and holds six patents in inkjet printing.

He awarded a B.Sc. (1st Class Honours) in Colour Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Colour Physics and is a Fellow of the

UK Society of Dyers and Colourists and was awarded their Silver Medal for developments in the Textile Printing

Industry.

Dr John Provost

Sustainable Textile Printing in the Future with DTP-Digital Textile Printing

Dr John Provost

Digital Textile Printing Consultant and Technical Editor

Digital Textile Magazine

Outline of Presentation

� Brief overview of the Traditional Global Textile Printing Industry

� Digital Textile Printing - Market Segmentation

� Digital Textile Printing -Estimates of Market Size

� Digital Textile Printing -Current Market Demands - Business Models and Overall

Costing

� Environmental Advantages and Cost Benefits of Digital Textile Printing

� Digital Textile Printing –Future Trends

66% of Traditional Textiles are printed fabrics are produced in ASIA

China Produces 30% of World Production (~30 Billion Square Metres in

2014)

Traditional Analogue Textile Printing- Coloration (Dye-Pigment) Types 2014 – 30.0 Billion Square Metres

“Roll to Roll” Digital Textile Print Production Forecast 2013-2019 and Market Segmentation

Global Share of Digital Printing by Industry Segment

China –Conservative

Estimate in sq. metres

Market Share of Textile Printing Technologies

Textile Printing

Machine Type

% Share

Rotary Screen Printing 65%

Automatic Flat Screen

Printing

25%

Copper Roller Printing < 1%

Hand Screen Printing 3%

Dye Sublimation

Transfer Printing

3%

Digital Textile Printing ~3%

Digital Textile Printing

Market Segmentation and Estimates of Market Size

Market Drivers for Digital textile Printing

� Increased Textile Print Design and Colourway Flexibility

� Lower Labour Costs and Overall much more Economic for production of “shorter production run-medium run” prints-exact costs depend on specific market ( exact cross over depends on many factors – for high production machines cross over is in thousands of square metres)

� Shorter delivery brings in increased savings to Brand Owners/Retailers -with changes to the Textile value proximity sourcing and replenishment sourcing strategies

� No Screen manufacturer, storage or disposal costs (Major Cost Consideration)

� Future Integration of Textile Printing and “Making Up” in the Confectionary - Garment Manufacturing Industry into single factory location nearer the final retailer/brand owner end user

Lower Water , Effluent, Emissions and Energy Usage

+

Textile Printing - Segmentation by Digital Textile Applications

Digital Textile Market

Traditional Textile Printing Markets

Carpets/

Tiles/MatsApparel/Fashion

Home

TextilesFlag/Banner

Military

New Digital Textile Markets

54% of Analogue PrintingCarpets -Separate Industry-

Valve Technology

41% of Analogue

Printing

5 %

Flag/Banner/Military

Digital Textile Printing – New Segmentation by Industrial Application

New Digital Textile Printing Markets

Sportswear-

Football /Cycling shirts

Soft Signage Polyester

“Direct to Fabric”DTG Direct to Garment

T Shirt Printers

Industrial/Technical

Textiles

Display Graphics -Polyester

Dye Sub Transfer Paper

Route

High Production Single Pass Digital Textile Printing Machine- Increasing Trend to Compete with Rotary Screen Production

� The only commercial available single pass machine is the MS LA Rio ( Kyocera KJ4B Print

Heads) developed and built by MS Italy (Acquired by the Dover Group of USA).

� It is estimated 12-14 machines are running

High Production Single Pass Digital Textile Printing Machine- 3 Single Pass Machines to be Launched at ITMA 2015 -All Closed Ink Systems

Atexco (Honghua) China – VEGA 1 Hybrid

Machine

Single Pass +2 Rotary Heads – Fuji Dimatix

Samba Print Heads

SPG(Stork )– Pike –Fuji Dimitix Samba Print Heads

Konica Minolta –Nassenger SP1 Konica Minolta Print Heads

Cost Equation for Digital Textile Printing vs. Rotary Screen Printing

Production in Square meters

Rotary Screen Printing

Digital Textile

Total Cost

[m²]

of production

* Dr J Provost ,”Calculating the Advantages of Digital Textile Printing “, Digital Textile Magazine , Issue 4 2012

�Digital Textile Factory Costs�Amortization of High Production

Digital Textile Machines�Print Head Replacement Costs�Digital Print Production Speeds�Printer Resolution , Type and No. of

Passes �Type, Cost , Quality and

Consumption of Digital Textile Inks (in cost /square metre)

�Fabric /pre-treatments costs� Individual Country Macro Costs�Specific Print Factory Costs

�Environmental Costs– Life

Cycle Assessments

Environmental Costs– LCA - Life Cycle Assessments (ISO 14040:2006)

� High % Savings are Quoted by Many Digital Textile Printing Machine Manufacturers

� To obtain Detailed Results – Actual Assessments have to be Made of Individual Factories by Life Cycle

Assessments

Two European Studies Have Provided Detailed Results

Textile Print demanding More Green Chemistry Solutions due to increase

Legislation Market Drivers for Digital

Screen Printing

Digital Textile Printing

Lower Water , Effluent, Emissions and Energy Usage

19

Digital Textile Printing Has Answers to Many of the Environmental Concerns

� Reducing Waste Water

� Lower Energy Requirements

� Lower Emissions

� Lower Dye Usage

� Higher Dye Fixation

� Easier Wash-off

� No Print Paste Required

� No Screens Required

� Lower Energy Requirements

Amendments Strengthen China's Environmental Protection Law

Two Detailed Studies in

Europe Estimate the Size of

Savings by DTP (Digital

Textile Printing )

20

The examination of the environmental impacts in this study is based on life cycle assessment

(LCA). LCA analyses the environmental aspects and potential impacts across the product life

cycle from cradle to grave, including raw material acquisition, production, use, end-of-life

treatment, recycling, and final disposal, by examining the physical chains of material flows.

LCA assesses the environmental impacts of product systems in accordance with the stated

goal and scope. (ISO 14040:2006)

Environmental Costs– LCA - Life Cycle Assessments (ISO 14040:2006)

System Boundary Screen Printing System Boundary Digital Printing

21

LCA - Life Cycle Assessments (ISO 14040:2006) – Example of Carbon Footprint Reduction by 40% - Water Usage in this study was reduced by 69%

* “Environmental performance of future digital textile printing “see www.vtt.fi/inf/julkaisut/muut/2014/VTT-CR-04462-

14.pdf”

Cradle-to-gate carbon footprint of screen printed versus Digital [kg CO2eq/750m2 From A European Detailed Study*

Screen Printing

Digital Printing

- 40%

Digital Textile Printing - Environmental and Energy Consideration Eco Efficiency Fingerprints Shown on “Radar “ Diagrams ) Data from European Funded Research Project from Research In Italy(Como Region)*

* TIEPRINT - Technology Transfer of low environmental impact ink jet printing for the production of textile

products TIEPRINT LIFE99 ENV/IT/000122 European Funded Project –Italy-GianLuca Brenna

� Wastewater reduced to 60%,� Thermal Energy savings 80%� Electricity usage fell 30%

23

�The Majority of quoted benefits are qualitative (estimated) – the two detailed studies briefly illustrated in the presentation, however do show ( as expected ) significant environmental advantages and cost saving

�The cost saving should also be factored in to the cost equation and purchasing decisions to switch to digital textile printing should include these savings. The Environmental savings will vary significantly fro Country to Country- and also at the individual Factory Level

�To obtain , actual environmental cost savings using , for example LCA(Life Cycle Analysis) are complicated and would have to be carried for individual factories and Countries

Some Conclusions on Environmental Advantages of Digital Textile Printing-1

24

�Screen printing is more dye, energy and water consuming although digital textile printing needs fabric pre treatment, which in turn requires raw materials and energy and causes environmental impacts

�The water consumption at textile printing process (gate-to-gate approach) is much higher for screen printing where the main reason is after washing.

�When smaller printing batches are studied, digital printing causes less greenhouse gas emissions than screen printing. Digital printing is better for small batches also because of the flexibility of the system and fewer amounts of production waste

Cotton production (cultivation, fabric production and refinement) causes most of the environmental impacts of digital and screen printed textiles. On a global level, environmental impacts of cotton production need to bedecreased

Some Conclusions on Environmental Advantages of Digital Textile Printing-2

DTP- Digital Textile Printing –Future Trends

� In overall global textile printing production, digital printing is still relatively small (~3%)- Signage (Flag/banner) with disperse dye sub inks, Apparel/Fashion with reactive, acid inks and niche segment markets - such as DTG ( Direct to Garment )Digital Textile Printing )

� Retailers/Brand owners – are increasingly aware of the shorter production lead times / proximity sourcing and quick stock replenishment strategies

� Factors such as “Environmental/Green issues ” and Energy /water/effluent costs become more important –and should be factored in to the decision of switching to Digital Textile Printing(DTP)

� ITMA 2015 in Milan will be an important technology “cross roads” where new digital textile print machines (high production single pass and high production scanning types” will be introduced increased reliability , increased production speeds, and print performance and more importantly y reducing environmental pollution

Thank You