Wide-Format Textile Printers - FLAAR-REPORTSflaar-reports.org/wp-content/uploads/woocommerce_uploads/2019/06/... · Wide-format Textile Printers Signage and wide-format inkjet printer

Wide-Format

Textile Printers

exhibited at APPPEXPO 2019

May 2019

Maria Renée Ayau

IntroductionAPPPEXPO has been held in Shanghai for over two decades, it is one of the major and largest digital printing expos in Asia, specifically China. At this expo you can see all the major Asian brands of textile inkjet inks on display: Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Japanese, and from many other countries.

We at FLAAR-REPORTS have been attending APPPEXPO for many years, and have noticed that each year the number of textile ink brands increases. And it is true that many ink companies only exhibit once and later dis-appear from the market, but it is also true that for each company that disappears other two replace them.

The fact that ITMA (an expo focused 100% on textiles) is three months after APPPEXPO did not affect the number of textile printers at the show. It is worth mentioning that the companies that did exhibit at APPPEXPO are very well established and have been in the market for years, there were plenty of ink, media and substrates companies, and the ones; which were not present lost many potential sales.

The number of textile printers brands exhibited this year was almost the same as last year. Maybe more mod-els were on display last year, but the number of brands is consistent, which is notable taking into consideration that ITMA (international textile expo) will be held three months after in Barcelona, Spain.

Wide-Format Textile Printersexhibited at APPPEXPO 2019

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Wide-format Textile PrintersSignage and wide-format inkjet printer expos tend to have two kinds of textile printers: for apparel and for soft signage. Although pigmented ink can pro-duce soft signage, almost all soft signage is done with either dye sublimation ink on transfer paper, or disperse dye in direct-to-fabric.

For dye sublimation onto transfer paper, you have the following options:

• Oil-based ink• Solvent-based ink• Water-based ink

Depending on which ink, you have to select an appro-priate kind of transfer paper.

For direct-to-fabric systems, where you find the op-tions are in the fixation technology (or chemistry):

• Oil-filled cylinders• Heated cylinders• Hot air.


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Many types of fabrics in the market but not all fabrics can be used for digital tex-tile printing. In order for you to be able to use a fabric for digital textile printing (di-rect-to-garment or via transfer paper) this fabric has to have a special coating on top so the ink will stick to the fabric. Any type of ink whether it penetrates the fabric like acid, reactive or disperse dyes, or pigment and transfer that stay as a top coat on the fabric; needs a coat between the fabric and the ink so they will adhere to each other.

Hangzhou Honghua Digital Technology, a company specialized in wide-format printers for textile and signage with facilities in Hangzhou, Shanghai and Suzhou, manufactures ATEXCO printers. Seven years ago Honghua manufactured UV printers for Infiniti, though not very adequately so they moved into the textile printer market.


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Century Star is one of the largest manufacturers of heating units and calenders in China with SAER, the market is divided in the most part between Century Star and SAER.

Colorjet has factories in India and China. There are also at least two more people from India with printer facto-ries, most focused in China and one in Canada.

One of the few Korean companies to exhibit textile printers at APPPEXPO this year. DGI has always been very amicable to us, an even if the signs on their printers indicate “no photos” they allowed us to take pictures, since they have known us for several years.


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For about two years now, Epson has been exhibiting their SureColor line of transfer paper printers all over the world. Thought they have come along way from the beginning, when they had only a few models of trans-fer paper printers. Now they have a direct-to-fabric printer, well a t-shirt printer at least.


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Human Digital is a Chinese wide-for-mat printer manufacturer with many years of experience in the market. I have the pleasure of knowing Mr. Mack Xin (President of Human digital) for about a decade, he is very hard working and involved in his company, and he is always trying to innovate and develop new things. Mr. Xin always takes the time to talk to us and show the new and most recent technology his company has developed.


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Homer is a Chinese company dedicated to manufacturing UV-cured printers, they have sever-al textile printers. Most of their textile printers are industrial and come with an independent heating unit to fix the colors. Homer printers are also equipped with a sticky belt so they can print onto stretchable or elastic fabrics.


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JHF (Beijing JHF Technology Co.,Ltd.) I had the opportunity to visit their factory near Beijing, and let me say it is huge and what impressed me most is the cleanliness and orga-nization of the production line. Everything is spic and span and neatly organized all the time.


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MiColor is one of the companies that exhibits continuously at trade shows, a direct-to-fabric printer wit a basic media handling and take-up unit. It is a basic printer for small businesses, very affordable, and user-friendly. The output is acceptable but nothing out of the ordinary.


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SAER is one of the strongest heat fixation unit manufacturers in China; the only other company that has such a big market share is Century Star. Before, SAER used other printer´s chassis but now they have gotten rid of the actual enclosure and left the printer carriage on display. It might be because now they also assemble the printers.


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Revotech is one of the con-stant exhibitors at APPPEXPO their booth has grown each year bit by bit, this year they had the largest booth they have ever had. Revotech specializes in flag and banner printing, their printers are compatible with disperse dye inks for printing onto polyes-ter fabrics and blends (at least 50% polyester).


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Sanyi Technology is the manu-facturer and Sino Color is the printer brand. They manufacture UV-cured, solvent, and textile printers, but hey also sell lam-inators, heating units, inks and media. They probably manufac-ture the printers, and re-brand the rest of the equipment and supplies, but I could be wrong.

Zimmer is a respected compa-ny with experienced people at every level. Their monumental printer dwarfs many of the Italian brands. Zimmer is the only wide-format inkjet printer factory in Austria.


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We were able to categorize the exhibiting textile printer companies into very district groups:

• Companies specializing in textile printing• Companies that did not start as a textile company but are now specialists• Companies with textile printers but not necessarily specialists• Companies manufacturing entry-level printers• Companies that manufacture heating units and sell re-branded printers• Emerging textile companies

If your printer is associated with an ink company, this suggests you know ink better than an average printer manufacturer. So this raises your rating a notch. But if it has only Epson heads, that keeps a printer in Entry Level unless there is an Italian-style solid-metal leading and unloading system.


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WIDE-FORMAT TEXTILE PRINTERS GENERAL INFORMATION

8076

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NUMBER OF BRANDS

NUMBER OF PRINTER MODELS

NUMBER OF EXHIBITED PRINTERS

45

80

45

INDIVIDUAL

BRANDSPRINTER

MODELSEXHIBITED

PRINTERS

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80


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FLAAR-REPORTS staff


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We look forward to seeing you at APPPEXPO March 2020National Exhibition and Convention Center

No.333 Songze Avenue, Qingpu District,Shanghai, Chinawww.apppexpo.com


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This report has been licensed to Shanghai Modern International Exhibition Co. to distribute on their website, since they are the organizers of APPPEXPO (Advertising, Print, Pack & Paper Expo), Shanghai.

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Wide-Format Textile Printers - FLAAR-REPORTSflaar-reports.org/wp-content/uploads/woocommerce_uploads/2019/06/... · Wide-format Textile Printers Signage and wide-format inkjet printer