Apparel, Objects, and Interiors, Oh My

Inside the applications

Speaking of interiors, digital textiles for interior spaces is another area on the brink of major opportunity right now.

“Home furnishing is an explosive growth market,” says Michael Compton, print media product marketing manager for Top Value Fabrics (Booth 8838). “Being able to digitally print a design for an interior is huge. And it’s almost any interior application — furniture, drapery, decorative items, there is just a lot of opportunity there.”

And while those capabilities have been around for a few years now, one reason Compton believes the next 12 months will be big for the space is the rise of pigment inks for textiles. “We already have the fabrics that pass all the wash and light fastness standards,” he notes, “but one of the real growth trends in next 10-12 months will be digital printing with pigment inks on polyester and natural fibers like cotton. That is something the industry has been wanting for many years.”

Pigment inks posed a variety of challenges for textile printing in the past, but advancements in the technology are about to change that. Compton notes that fabrics are being developed that have the binders necessary to keep pigment inks in place built into them, eliminating a step and a consumable that could change the feel and performance of the end product. Systems are also being developed to add softeners to the end product inline with the printing, so the final pigment-printed textile is as permanent and soft as one produced with dye-sublimation, but with the bright and vibrant colors only pigment inks can provide.

Combined with the faster speeds of the cutting-edge textile printers — many of which are on display on the PRINTING United show floor — means designers have far more options than ever before when they are creating the perfect space. Options they will rely on their print partners to suggest in the early stages of the process, and then help them refine for the best possible results.

“I really think in the next three to five years digital printing on textiles will become the norm,” says Compton. “We are already growing in that direction. Customers are demanding the exact designs they want, printed the way they want, and that brings a lot of business back into the United States. And it will only continue to grow.”