The Xaar Aquinox permits customers to print ‘bolder and brighter’
Xaar is the world’s main impartial producer of piezo-based drop-on-demand inkjet applied sciences. The corporate’s printheads are trusted in industrial markets across the globe as the simplest method to lay down exact volumes of inks and fluids with absolute pin-point accuracy time after time. In an interview with Fibre2Fashion, Xaar’s Head of Product Administration Justin Noble discusses the just lately launched ground-breaking aqueous printhead.
What’s the dimension of the worldwide marketplace for inkjet printers? At what price is it rising?
Digital textile printing continues to reveal robust progress alternatives for firms all through the textile and printing provide chain. In keeping with Smithers, general international progress in digital textile printing volumes will improve by 13.9 per cent from 2021 to 2026, and is predicted to hit a market share of ten per cent from six per cent over the identical interval.
Whereas nonetheless comparatively small, inkjet is the important thing to driving this progress in market share, and is the know-how predominantly used to print artificial fibres, pure fibres, and blends. OEMs are subsequently growing the provision of printers to the textile sector, and the launch of our revolutionary printhead – the Xaar Aquinox – delivers distinctive reliability, creativity, and sustainability for printing aqueous fluids, serving to to develop the market.
What are the benefits of utilizing water-based printing? How viable is it commercially in comparison with standard inks?
The Xaar Aquinox permits customers to print ‘bolder and brighter’, providing improved precision and flexibility throughout textile print purposes via skill to jet extremely pigmented and viscous water-based inks. Excessive Laydown Know-how will increase the drop dimension that the printhead can jet, which is particularly helpful for printing textiles, extremely absorbent substrates, or thick movie coatings, plus a broad vary of aqueous fluids and viscosities to simplify processes and scale back a machine’s carbon footprint.
Mixed with Xaar’s Extremely Excessive Viscosity Know-how, the Aquinox printhead also can add extra creativity to those wider substrate purposes, permitting for extra artistic finishes, by extending the vary of fluids and color gamut out there utilizing bigger particles and heavier pigment loading.
Whereas the inkjet printing of white inks has historically induced blockages and nozzle outs, the Xaar Aquinox with TF Know-how has delivered confirmed enchancment in coping with whites and closely pigmented inks, lowering upkeep, enhancing up-time and reliability, to provide the vibrancy and outcomes wanted in textile printing, notably on darkish substrates.
Sustainability can also be improved via water-based printing and thru the Aquinox enabling greater pigment loading and extra viscous fluids the quantity of water wanted in inks could be decreased, saving sources each initially and thru lowering the quantity of vitality wanted in drying supplies publish printing.
What purposes do you foresee?
Water primarily based printing, and the Xaar Aquinox, provide worth to many sectors and the textile trade is not any exception. Alternatives to maximise uptime and productiveness in purposes similar to direct to garment printing will change into obvious, notably the place darkish substrates require a base layer of excessive opacity white ink to be laid down earlier than any ornament. The heavy pigment-based fluids are troublesome to deal with and print with incumbent know-how. Nonetheless that is an space the place Aquinox excels and can dramatically enhance reliability. The superb productiveness and laydown functionality of Aquinox additionally compliments this, with extra ink, at greater opacity, with the ability to be delivered in a lot much less time than present printheads permit.
Industrial roll to roll scanning machines producing residence furnishing materials and materials for attire may even profit from the Aquinox. Presently, managing the open time of nozzles is a problem for current printers, with humidity and environmental situations needing to be intently managed to make sure print high quality and reliability are maintained. Aquinox affords a step change in open time as Xaar’s distinctive TF Know-how retains ink in fixed recirculation, even within the nozzle. This considerably will increase the working window for customers and reduces the burden on intently controlling a printing setting.
How would you describe the marketplace for printheads in Europe?
While Asia is the dominant producer of digitally printed textiles on a quantity foundation, Western Europe continues to carry second place, pushed notably by Italy because the world’s vogue epicentre, and main digital printing tools producers. Particularly, since COVID, there was a rise within the variety of European firms buying digital textile printers, and we’re seeing a requirement for printheads that may deal with a greater variety of aqueous fluids – specifically pigmented inks – at which the Xaar Aquinox excels.
That are your main markets globally?
As a worldwide enterprise we provide printheads to producers around the globe. Whereas Europe is our largest geographic area, China and Asia are additionally key markets for Xaar, notably within the textile sector. Our native illustration and help in every area ensures that we meet the wants of our OEMs in growing the most recent printers for inkjet purposes.
How do Xaar merchandise contribute to sustainable manufacturing?
Key amongst the brand new Xaar Aquinox printhead’s benefits is the contribution it might make to companies within the supply of extra environmentally pleasant print and manufacturing. With decreased vitality consumption and water utilization (each in manufacturing and drying instances), and particularly in textile printing, this could equate to as a lot as a 60 per cent saving in vitality and water over related analogue printing processes.
Historically during times of non-printing, many printheads have required excessive humidity and have to be constantly jetting to make sure print high quality. Xaar’s TF Know-how ink recirculation provides improved open time and latency, lowering upkeep and unnecessarily wasted ink, saving vitality and sources, thus maximising the overall value of possession.
Equally, the improved robustness of the Xaar Aquinox extends its print life and avoids expensive substitute of printheads, as soon as extra minimising waste and environmental influence.
How is your organization supporting the idea of round economic system?
This yr now we have set out our Sustainability Roadmap to 2030 which relies on 4 key pillars – Surroundings, Folks, Innovation and Neighborhood. Inside this now we have set the goal of constructing the Group a carbon impartial inkjet producer in 2022 via offsetting, and an purpose to attain full carbon neutrality by 2030.
As well as, as a part of our innovation pillar, now we have efficiently trialled the usage of recycled Polylactic Acid (PLA) filaments generated from returned and waste PLA as a part of the round economic system. These are equipped in 100 per cent plastic-free sustainable packaging, with straightforward to recycle cardboard spools and are the primary stage in the usage of biodegradable structural elements within the manufacture of Xaar merchandise.
Sustainability is now not simply part of our agenda, it ‘is’ the agenda, and can moreover enhance each our operational and industrial efficiency.
How would you describe the demand for printheads, and inkjet printers publish pandemic?
Whereas the pandemic has undoubtedly challenged the worldwide provide chain, we’re nonetheless seeing rising demand for inkjet printheads throughout all kinds of market sectors. It’s an enabling know-how that has a number of purposes, and with the Aquinox printhead we are able to now ship the reliability in aqueous printing that many producers have been on the lookout for. As such we anticipate that demand will proceed to develop, and for Xaar to be key to delivering the printheads and applied sciences in the usage of inkjet.
What are the highest three market traits you see in digital imaging?
We’d say flexibility, reliability and sustainability are the important thing traits which are driving progress in the usage of inkjet applied sciences within the textiles sector. When growing our aqueous know-how, the market want was clear – supply of a really dependable, sturdy printhead that may print a a lot wider vary of aqueous fluids together with excessive viscosity and excessive pigment loading. And that’s what now we have accomplished with the launch of the Aquinox.
What new improvements and applied sciences are you working in the direction of particularly for the textile trade?
Clearly, it’s all the time troublesome to speak about confidential improvement initiatives and the work now we have underway with our textile OEMs. Nonetheless, as now we have already highlighted, a key space of focus is the chance to print ‘bolder and brighter’ by providing the potential to jet extremely pigmented and viscous fluids.
The Xaar Aquinox will assist break new floor, as a result of its excessive compatibility with a variety of fluids, even acidic inks. Right here, Xaar’s know-how is creating the chance for ink producers to reformulate their inks and fluids to ship richer, extra vibrant colors in addition to ship larger performance. Additionally, the Aquinox’s excessive native decision at 720dpi will allow very advantageous element for vogue materials to be printed with deep penetration of colors.
Being able to jet fluids with a lot greater viscosity – as much as 100cP – will guarantee digital and inkjet printing delivers the reliability, efficiency, artistic and sustainable print that textile companies and customers now demand and ship the water-based inkjet textile print revolution.
Please inform us about your water-based printing know-how.
Our revolutionary printhead, the Xaar Aquinox, delivers distinctive reliability, creativity, and sustainability for printing aqueous fluids. The Aquinox is the most recent improvement from Xaar’s ImagineX platform, and our aQ Energy Know-how gives a radically new strategy to the dependable jetting of water-based fluids, delivering a really transformational industrial printhead for textiles and every other sector that advantages from the usage of aqueous fluids.
The altering panorama of the textile market makes the Xaar Aquinox printhead good for a lot of purposes. Simplified processes, distinctive print speeds and a wide selection of customisation choices, locations the Xaar Aquinox on the very forefront of effectivity and flexibility. Speeds of over 100m/min could be achieved, and a excessive native decision of 720dpi and firing frequency of as much as 48kHz, permits excessive fluid laydown for optimum productiveness.
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed on this column are solely of the interviewee, and they don’t mirror in any manner the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.