by Renato Castagnetti

The various facets of 3D printing in the promotional field concern not only the industry but also the world of gadgets, clothing and accessories. Just think to embossed printing, even fluorescent, from t-shirts to the most recent masks. Today it is increasingly more a reality. Both the printing material and the piece of clothing or object to treat have evolved. This is shown by the companies in the sector, from the biggest to the smallest ones that, in this period, make it their daily bread by printing with and on any material! And technology hasn’t stood and watched considering the many novelties arriving on the market and meeting any need.

Technology marries facilitations

Yesterday the transition 4.0 plan was Industry 4.0 that helped make investments on more performing machinery to be able to satisfy clients that become demanding, though with good reasons. It is the case, for example, of Offitek that, on Kornit Digital machines, has underlined how investing now is less costly thanks to fiscal incentives linked to the tax credit for Industry 4.0. With the Kornit digital direct printing systems on fabric, the production flows can be managed automatically, also from remote, while the production capacities on more daily shifts is increased. With a Kornit printer, an individual operator can print up to thousand pieces of clothing a shift. Moreover, the company informs us that these systems automatically pre-treat the item and print directly on the wet piece of clothing. Finally, they use new inks with more covering pigments and new printing heads with a higher quality and printing details (35 pl instead of 70 pl). Thanks to these innovations and the recirculation of ink within each head, the consumption of ink is reduced by about 30% when compared to the previous technology.

Same ink for different surfaces

However, with so many novelties, the manufacturers and retailers must also deal with education and training. Just think to on line retailers or promotional agencies entering the fashion, leather, serigraphy world or the industrial realities that, in their turn, make such solutions as the production of banners or prints on t-shirts. This is the case of Brother that, with the line of GTX printers characterised by the high speed direct printing on fabrics, no welding design and a lower need of maintenance simplified through self cleaning, managed to establish itself on our territory in 2017. Just think to GTXpro Bulk, small and compact in its design, placed on a mobile support, offering the possibility to print surfaces up to 53 cm of length on both light and dark pieces of clothing, as well as on shoes or other special fabrics. The GTXPro line allows to print on both fabrics, going from cotton to silk or polyester, and pieces of clothing, accessories, bags, shoes, leather, everything with the same ink. Finally, the new design of the head print of white allows to use more nozzles than the previous models, with an increase in productivity by over 10%.