70 email: news@printmonthly.co.uk March / April 2024 - Issue 347 “great” success with the HP Stitch S1000 3.2m-wide dye-sublimation printer in recent time, with multiple installations of the machine throughout the past year both in the UK and Ireland. The HP Stitch S1000 offers both fabric and dye-sublimation printing. It runs at a top speed of 220sq m/hr and can handle material as wide as 3.2m and roll weights of 300kg. “The HP Stitch S1000 would be the ‘goto’ recommendation for anyone looking to get into superwide 3.2m dye-sublimation printer, or even those looking for very high production at 1.6m wide, as there is now the option to run dual roll technology,” Mighall says. However, if space is a premium or do not need a machine this wide, Mighall says the HP Stitch S500 could be an effective solution. This 1.6m-wide machine features much of the same technology as its bigger brother, such as automatic maintenance and end-user changeable printheads, but takes up less space in the print room. “Users can still expect impressive production print speeds and still benefit from the ability to be able to choose between printing directly onto substrates or via paper transfer,” Mighall says. Exploring Opportunities There are clearly opportunities for growth in the textile and garment print markets. But what about those companies that are already succeeding here? HP has plenty of examples of companies doing exactly this with its HP Latex technology. In South Wales, diversified PSP DecTek took on a new HP Latex 2700W in December 2022, purchasing the machine from approved HP distributor Papergraphics. Olympics, trade shows, football centrepiece openings, branding of events and music festivals as among the projects they have been working on. Horsten says many of these events in the past have been using vinyl and hard materials for the events but, unfortunately, these materials are heavy and not easy to dispose. “Textiles enabled these organisations to offer the right product to the right audience,” Horsten says, adding: “Textiles are a sustainable way to work and print; they’re easy to handle, lightweight, and fast in production. “The trend is up, and Agfa is ready for this trend with its own developed and produced high ink load sublimation inks, the fast high-quality printers like the Avinci and the software complement of Asanti. Offering the ECO Passport certification, low ink usage, and a good cost per square meter price is what makes the difference in the market. Horsten picks out both backlit and frontlit as common applications in these areas, but also highlights short-run full-colour flags, as well as event dressing as areas for PSPs to consider when looking at ways to grow their business. “The big advantage is that making a backlit with textiles is that there is no cracking of inks on the media leaving ugly patches,” Horsten comments, continuing: “This results in bad back-lits especially if the images are dark. As for event banners like cycling the use of non-woven materials is an absolute benefit for long and powerful messaging.” Large-format Shift to Textiles Also weighing in here is RA Smart, an approved distributor of HP machinery in the UK. Alex Mighall, who is responsible for sales and marketing at RA Smart, agrees with Horsten in terms of opportunities with textiles in the exhibition sector. He says this is particularly true with tension framing systems and having the ability to produce high-quality exhibition stands that are quick to erect and reusable. “The added benefit of working with textiles for this sort of work is that shipping is much easier as all the graphics can be folded up small,” Mighall says, adding: “Couple this with a compact and versatile framing system, such as REXframe, and you can save a considerable sum in transport and labour costs, increasing your return on work as a result. “It would appear that the large-format graphics market continues to pivot towards textiles; these are a more versatile and sustainable solution for signage and exhibition work, and we expect this to continue leading into 2024 and beyond.” So, what machinery does RA Smart have to support those PSPs looking to take advantage of demand for this work? Mighall says that the company has seen Textiles are a sustainable way to work and print; they're easy to handle, lightweight, and fast in production ▲ Agfa says its Avinci CX3200 is a popular choice for textile print work TEXTILE AND GARMENT PRINT The HP Stitch S1000 offers both fabric and dye-sublimation printing ▼
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