Kornit Digital, a global market leader in digital textile printing innovation, announces that T-Shirt & Sons (Westbury, UK), has placed an order for a second high-productivity, low cost-per-print Kornit Vulcan system in a few weeks’ time.
T-Shirt & Sons is a producer of quality printed clothing and accessories for high-profile clients across the globe within retail, art, music and charity markets. The company also offers dropship production services to garment retailers. T-Shirt & Sons has been one of the largest direct-to-garment printers in Europe over the last few years, with an impressive installation of 16 Kornit Avalanche 1000 systems, spread over two locations in the UK and the Netherlands.
On average, T-Shirt & Sons produces 9,000 garments per day, with peak time deliveries amounting to 18,000 garments per day. In May 2018, the company invested in its first Kornit Vulcan system to offer high-definition prints with an unparalleled color gamut and exceptionally soft hand feel to its customers. The smooth installation process, quick ramp-up and fast ROI of their new direct-to-garment workhorse, convinced T-Shirt & Sons to invest in a second unit quickly. The second Kornit Vulcan system will be installed in the third quarter of 2018.
The hybrid differentiator
Andy Lunt, co-founder of T-Shirt & Sons with his brother Jon in 1989, explains the decision based on digital print market trends: “Digital printing is a gamechanger to the garment decoration industry. The Kornit Vulcan keeps amazing us with its low cost-per-print, consistent ultra-high speed and its quality of print. We spotted the opportunity to bridge the gap between the ‘one-off’ fulfilled garment and the conventional ‘long-run’ screen printed garment. However, we needed a platform that makes financial sense to produce these medium runs digitally alongside flexibly printing one-offs at high speed during peak season. The Kornit Vulcan is the first one that delivers. We now print a run of T-shirts in less time than it would take for a screen job to be prepared, let alone for the screen print to be sampled, printed and delivered! This leading-edge solution saves us both time and money.”
Eyal Manzoor, Managing Director at Kornit Digital EMEA GmbH, comments on the importance of this installation: “With mass customization trending towards hyper-customization, digital print will quickly become an undeniable game changer for textile companies worldwide. The UK is a frontrunner when it comes to making textile history, and we consider T-Shirt & Sons a figurehead of how to transition from traditional to digital print in a business-savvy manner. Medium size runs on high-tech industrial equipment are the new margin makers as T-Shirt & Sons have demonstrated from their first Kornit Vulcan installation. A trend worth picking up on, validated by this company’s second Kornit Vulcan offer in a few weeks’ time.”
Kornit’s direct-to-garment flagship is the fastest of its kind in the market, capable of producing up to 250 high-quality garments per hour, with dark and light garments printed at the same speed. The Vulcan produces excellent photorealistic quality, featuring 60 new-generation print-heads with an advanced recirculating ink system in a six-color-plus-white configuration. The system caters for multiple print sizes and configurations with a maximum print size of 70x100 cm / 27.5x39.5 inch. Like all other Kornit systems, the Vulcan was developed around the company’s unique NeoPigmentTM patented printing process. Kornit’s water-based inks work on a variety of fibers (natural, man-made, synthetics, and blends) and allow for inline pretreatment. After printing, garments are cured with a standard hot-air dryer. The inks are Oeko-Tex 100 certified and GOTS pre-approved.
