Innovative Product Development in Digital Fabric Printing

Hitoshi Ujiie
Director of The Center for Excellence of Digital Inkjet Printing of Textiles Philadelphia University

State of Art (1)

Worldwide Print Production
20+ Million linear meters per year

Source: Stork Textile Printing Group, Developments in the Textile Printing Industry , 2002.

State of Art (2)

ITMA 2003 - Introductions of Production Inkjet Printers Dupont, Konica / Minolta, Kornit, Osiris, Mimaki, Mutoh, Reggiani, Robustelli, Shima-seiki, etc.

State of Art (3)

Globalization
1. 2. Global Outsourcing - smaller community Global Information Access - high speed internet / search engine
Design Development, Workow, Supply Chaining, as well as Science and Engineering.

3.

Global Skills - development of PC and graphic software

Windows 95, PowerMac, Photoshop 3.5, ICC, Apple ColorSync after 1995. Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator - pen and pencil in design.

Competitive Key Factors of Innovative Product Development

1. Cost reductions 2. Rapid market responsiveness 3. Capacity for design creativity

1. Cost Reduction
Short to medium run with Digital Textile Printing Sustainability
Lack of excess inventory (screens and colorations) Less efuents

Engineering after ITMA 2003

Renement of digital printing technology Assurance of printing Upgrading printing speed

Demand - Supply principal

More demand of technology - reduced the cost of technology

2. Rapid Market Responsiveness

Market Trends SKUs changes more rapidly over shorter seasons. Much shorter product lifetime.

Traditional manufacturing
Digital strike-off workow Digital production workow

Alternative manufacturing
Mass Customization Personalization

Digital Strike-off / Production Workow

Most popular use of digital printing technology today. Market testing - Engraving - Conventional production printing. Market testing - Digital production printing. Reduce S/O (sampling) time and engraving cost. Quick response to the market. Simulation of conventional printing looks ---- digital S/O (color separations, penetration, hands, etc.) Precise color matching. Digital S/O is a part of design development processes. (designers responsibility)

Most designs are still done by hands-on. Requires color separation to retain good image quality.

mantero

Color separation

Bit map based raster color separation. Similar to conventional engraving separation.

Color Separation

Adjust to Grayscale separation from Raster separation. (more true to the image)

Alternative Manufacturing Mass Customization with digital printing

To provide maximum desired choices of the products To create seamless digital automation (order-to-delivery) To establish seamless digital supply chains

Alternative Manufacturing Personalization with digital printing

3. Capacity for design creativity

Important niche factor for the success after ITMA2003

New Styles of Design

for New Digital Printing Technology

Reasons
1. Aesthetic Movement (US) 2. Design Products in Global Market

Critical issue:
Global information access / skills - presentable designs.

Elevation of Aesthetic Consciousness

Apple: Reinvention of computer: gray-box - - iMac -- iPod

Home improvement shows - UK, US. (Trading space, Changing rooms, Crib crashers, etc.) Designers Products for middle end (to lower) to the market. Martha Stewart - Kmart, Michael Graves, Issac Mizrahi - Target, WalMart in Vogue.

Global Culture / Market / Design ??

A majority of design products are regional to their cultures.
Success of the printed design products = Aesthetic design variables + External factors + Functionality factors Success of the printed design products: sales - publicity Aesthetic design variables: theme, scale of motifs, color, coverage, tactile, rendering, etc External factors: culture, price, branding, economy, demographics, marketing, etc. Functionality factors: printing speed, functional colorants, nishing, materials, etc.

Conceptual design process is the last element to be out sourced.

Innovative Designs require cultural maturity.

New Design Styles

as a competitive edge No screen - No repeat Process (hi) color printing
Photographic Diminutive Unlimited use of color Simulation Digital effect Engineered

Photographic

Diminutive

Unlimited Use of Color

Simulation

Digital Effect

Engineered

Into the future

Neo Cottage Industry Textile Printing - Surface Printing Research - Design and Engineering

Neo Cottage Industry

Paradigm shift of product development
Analog designer - Service Provider - Manufacture - Creative Manufacture e.g. ne art print maker, photographer, etc.

Increasing numbers of small short to medium run print manufactures.

Textile Printing - Surface Printing

Printing - Colorants and Substrates
(old term: textile printing - localized dyeing)

Universal ink UV curable ink Non-Woven is most growing textile sector (US)

Design and Engineering

A key factor for Innovative Product Development Integration of Design and Engineering (including Workow) Future Development -more innovative products Universal Coloration Universal Design (algorithm) Specialty Textile Printing (discharge, devore, plisse, etc.) 3D Textile Printing Functionality of Printing - pre treatment ( with functional colorants, anti-UV, anti-microbial, electroconductive-) Integration of Non Woven industry

The Center for Excellence of Digital Ink Jet Printing for Textiles Philadelphia University (2000)

To provide information in neutral position.

The technology was still early development stage and many commercial advertisement as information sources.

To conduct design / engineering research. Research projects (design and technology) Proof-of-concept projects Testing Production printing To conduct educational events.

Printers Thermal Head:

DisplayMaker FabriJet (McDermid ColorSpan) TX-1500 (Encad) DesignJet 500 (HP) TX-1, TX-2, GP-604 for Flat bed garment (Mimaki) Amber (Stork) x2 Falcon, Falcon Plus (Mutoh) Hi Jet (Roland) Epson 3000 Contex 42 large format scanner ErgoSoft, Wasatch, etc. Ciba Specialty Chemical, Dupont Inkjet, DyStar, Rohm and Haas, Sensient, Trident, etc. Digifab, Improved technologies, Jacquard inkjet, Test Fabrics, etc.

Piezo Head:

Scanner Software Colorants

Others

Research
Design research New design styles New product application and production workows Smart Algorithm for Printed Textile Design Engineering research 3D Digital Printing on Fabrics to Produce Surface Texture Encapsulated Specialty Ink for Digital Ink Jet Technology Integration of fabric formation and coloration processes Universal Set of Dyes for Digital Inkjet Textile Printing Work Flow Solutions for Digital Printing of Textile Fabrics Nonoparticulate Textile Colorants for inkjet textile printing Inkjet printing textile archives - Barnes Museum, etc. Proof-of-concept projects Inkjet printing for Army Camouage printing Inkjet printing narrow band Printed nonwoven product development Chemical Impregnations, etc, Testing (Print performance, Line acuity, optical density, fastness, etc.) Various inks and substrates Production (samples to short runs) Scarves, ties, umbrellas, bags, T- shirts, yardages.

Education
Conferences and workshops Digital Inkjet Printing 101 (2002) Digital Inkjet Printing Workshop (2003) Designer Meets Technology (2004) Digital Textile Design and Printing Workshop (2005)
UPCOMING

Designer Meets Technology: Europe (Sep 26 -28)

at by KrIDT, Copenhagen, Denmark. KrIDT (Kreativt Institut for Design og Teknologi) Philadelphia University www.Kridt.dk/conference

List of Contributors

Cannon (Japan) DP Innovation (US) Dupont Ink Jet (US) ErgoSoft (Switzerland) GA Technology Institute (US) Konica / Minolta (Japan) University of Leeds (UK) Lee Nicole Design (UK) Mimaki Industries (Japan)

NC State University (US) Philadelphia University (US) Reggiani Macchine (Italy) Rohm and Haas (US) Taiwan Textile Institute (China) TC2 (US) U. Mass-Dartmouth (US) UMIST (UK) VCE Solutions (US)

It is my prediction that digital textile printing will become a daily commodity after 5 years just like the development of the internet and textile CAD software. All of us involved in this technology will target the next engineering challenges. However, until then, we still have much home work to do.