Textile solutions from Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (EFI) are changing the way textile and apparel products are designed and produced, bringing environmental sustainability to the industry in a big way.
The EFI Reggiani ShanghaiTex tradeshow exhibit features sustainable printing solutions for direct-to-textile production and denim dyeing under the theme of Innovation in Green. The company is showcasing the future in innovation with the range of superior-quality EFI Reggiani scanning digital printers; the company’s short and environmentally friendly direct sublimation process offering; a new FUOCO acid ink range; and DENIM technology, a highly sustainable, breakthrough continuous indigo rope and warp dyeing and denim fabric finishing solution.
“We look forward to sharing the benefits of our green solutions, such as the TERRA printer line-up with pigment inks and direct sublimation processes, with ShanghaiTex attendees,” said EFI Reggiani Senior Vice President and General Manager Adele Genoni. “More and more, the market is rewarding textile producers that not only deliver high efficiency, but also sustainability and a lower environmental impact.”
Leading-edge digital textile printing
The centrepiece of EFI’s ShanghaiTex exhibit is the EFI Reggiani VOGUE, an industrial textile printer designed for superior-quality direct-to-textile printing in fashion and sportswear applications. The VOGUE model prints at resolutions up to 2,400 dots per inch (dpi) with 16 printing heads, 8 colours and 4- to 72-picolitre drop sizes. In addition, the VOGUE printer boasts an innovative recirculation system that saves ink and reduces maintenance during machine operation and between stoppages. The recirculation system also reduces the need for specific air conditioning and humidity controls, saving energy and reducing overall usage costs.
The VOGUE printer is capable of using virtually any type of textile ink; at the show, it will be running with EFI Reggiani IRIS sublimation inks to showcase direct-to-textile printing. The EFI Reggiani direct sublimation process ensures superior colour brightness and penetration, as well as fast turnaround time, while increasing sustainability by avoiding transfer paper waste.
EFI Reggiani develops and produces a whole range of water-based inks from reactive to direct disperse and disperse sublimation, pigment and acid. New at ShanghaiTex is the EFI Reggiani FUOCO range of water-based acid inks, which are specifically designed to deliver superior-quality prints for highly demanding textile applications with unmatched colour depth and vibrancy.
Available in 11 colours, including three light colours, EFI Reggiani FUOCO can give textile producers some of the highest-quality printing available on both silk and polyamide fabrics. EFI Reggiani Extra Deeping chemistry, an additional enhancement solution that can be used with FUOCO, increases the penetration of the ink into fibres for a fabulous double-face effect.
Facilitating efficient textile and apparel design
The EFI portfolio of advanced technologies also features prep, design and colour management solutions from the EFI textile ecosystem. These include:
- EFI Optitex, a portfolio of solutions, including both 2D and 3D design elements, that enable brands and designers to make design decisions virtually and then transform those decisions into manufacturing instructions. It also includes Revu, a collaborative tool for showcasing virtual samples in a 3D digital environment to facilitate design review and approval processes.
- EFI Fiery digital front end (DFE) technologies designed to ensure the ultimate in ease of use, colour management and efficient throughput. The EFI Fiery proServer DFE features advanced colour management and screening technology, giving users high-quality prints with saturated blacks, vivid colours, clean pastels and smooth gradients, without compromising fine detail designs. The DFE also provides important production tools including shrinkage correction and step-and-repeat management, plus a set of design tools to create repeats and colourways, manage seasonal palettes and create colour ranges.
- EFI Fiery DesignPro, a suite of powerful and easy to learn Adobe® plug-ins for fashion and textile designers that delivers a comprehensive design workflow. Fiery DesignPro improves design speed and accuracy, lets designers experiment more effectively and communicates colour consistently from design to production.
“We are looking forward to talking with ShanghaiTex attendees, learning more about their requirements, and demonstrating the EFI Reggiani commitment to improving sustainability through the continuous development of productive systems with lower environmental impact for the full textile workflow,” Genoni concluded. “Not only will they see the industry’s leading solutions for digital textile and apparel production, but they will also experience Innovation in Green, a key focus for EFI as we continue to bring innovation to the industry.”
The EFI Reggiani exhibit is in hall W1, stand B05, at the show, which takes place 25 to 28 November at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre.
