ITMA 2019 was the scene for new opportunities in digital textile printing. HP, the well-known brand of graphics and signage printing solutions, took part in the fair with three dye sublimation models from HP Stitch S Printer Series which they developed for printing on polyester textiles. With a highly colourful and vibrant booth concept, HP has attracted great attention by displaying HP Stitch S1000, Stitch S500 and Stich S300 models and different application samples from home decoration to sportswear.
Launched in May at the FESPA 2019 in Germany to the market, the newest model of the HP Stitch S Printer Series, the S1000, is a super wide dye sublimation (dye-sub) printer, offering solutions for interior decoration and soft signage, including front and backlit applications. The other two printers, the Stitch S300 and S500, are used for sportswear and fashion. Enabling continuous high-quality printing on paper and fabric, the printers achieves high levels of productivity in an even simpler process, reducing waste in printing. The HP Stitch S Printer Series also offers fast production and high uptime, while working unattended without operator management. In 40% less time, a single operator can easily load and unload both transfer paper and textile rolls. Daily manual intervention is minimized with fully automatic printhead maintenance. This allows print manufacturers to deliver print jobs just in time and reduce labour costs.
HP has developed thermal inkjet printing technology and inks that can work on polyester substrates for Stitch S Printer Series machines. With a maximum productivity of 220m2/h when printed on paper, the HP Stitch S1000 delivers sharp prints and vibrant colours even on high density jobs printing direct to fabric using HP Drop&Dry print zone Dryer. HP Stitch thermal inkjet printheads also enable 1200 native dpi resolution. This means high-quality prints with deep blacks and vivid colours. The Stitch S1000 has high unattended printing capability with 10 litre-capacity supplies and up to 300 kg rolls.
Roman Barba; “We have made the right decision entering into textile printing”
HP Graphics Department Large Format Printing Business Development Official, Roman Barba, talked about the innovations in an interview with Textilegence at ITMA 2019. Barba said that HP took the right step in their decision to enter digital textile printing a short time ago and stated that the most attractive technology for this was determined as transfer sublimation (dye-sub). Barba; “So we decided to invent an ink that would work with our thermal printheads. This development process took several years because we did not want to sublimate the pigment in the print head. It took us a while to develop the ink for sublimation to take place in the calender. As a result, we achieved an excellent new technology after HP Latex and HP Designjet, HP Stitch Technology. In light of our past achievements, we have accomplished this improvement, which is important for ensuring print quality, speed and colour consistency.”
Barba mentioned that there are 3 machines in the Stitch S Printer Series, S500, S300 and the recently added S1000. Describing the S1000 as an advanced autonomous machine, Barba stressed that all the work after the operator loaded the roll was performed by the machine. Barba also revealed that the machine automatically detects and corrects any nozzle problem with its infrared sensors.
‘Simplified operation’ with Stitch
Noting that the expression ‘simplified operation’ used for the Stitch S Printer Series means that everything is automated, Roman Barba said; “You do not need to look at the printheads manually, cleaning is done automatically, controls are provided automatically. If you load media into the machine; it is very easy to obtain the profile directly from the machine or cloud. All routine work is done very quickly and automatically. Colour matching and colour management are equally fast.”
Pointing out that their focus is on the four main markets with Stitch series consisting of S300, S500 and S1000; Barba defined these as sportswear, fashion, soft signage and interior decoration. Barba reminded that there are very flexible fabrics and materials in sportswear, and continued as follows; “Our biggest advantage in sportswear is that there is no banding on any prints. This directly affects print quality and is a great purchasing criterion for the end user. On the other hand, the same colours need to be obtained even if the machines change; and it is often very difficult to achieve the same colour. Colour stability and repeatability is no longer a problem with the Stitch series. Because we are the only manufacturer in the world to equip their machines with a colour-measuring spectrophotometer.”
Turkey is a big and demanding market
Roman Barba said that HP is in the Turkish printing market with digital printing solutions and is working with some big customers, and he also notified that they are aware of the power of the Turkish textile market and this attracts their attention. Barba said, “Turkey is a very demanding market. It has great potential, especially for fashion-oriented printing. We will reach textile manufacturers looking for both efficient and low-cost production and different, personalized prints. We also see a serious demand for soft signage used in advertising. With our Stitch series we will show that we are ready for all polyester based textile jobs. In particular, the Stitch S1000 will be an indispensable assistant to industrial production print manufacturers.”