Mimaki Highlights Live Demonstrations of Pigment Transfer Printing and Textile Microfactory Workflow

At the Mimaki press conference Mimaki President Kazuaki Ikeda joined with Mimaki USA President Naoya Kawagoshi and Ken VanHorn, Sr. VP of Mimaki NCSA to discuss advances in all three segments on their company: sign graphics, industrial print, and textile and apparel.  While confirming Mimaki’s continuous pursuit of “something new and something different,” they also highlighted two technology demonstrations underway on the PRINTING United Expo show floor, and a distribution partnership with LexJet.

Victoria Nelson Harris, Senior Textile Segment Specialist at Mimaki USA, talked about Mimaki’s Textile Microfactory in Booth C8123 that shows attendees a step-by-step workflow for converting graphics printed on Mimaki’s TS330-1600 dye-sub printer.

To create the Microfactory, Mimaki has partnered with several other PRINTING United exhibitors. Tukatech (Booth C8123) is providing CAD design and cutting solutions. Greentex (Booth C10337) is supplying the fabrics. Beaver Paper (Booth C9930) is furnishing the dye sublimation paper. The transfer paper is loaded onto a Klieverik calendar (Booths C8318 and C8118) to transfer the inks to the fabric. Juki (Booth C8123) makes the sewing machines to stitch the printed and cut fabrics together.

“It’s the ideal workflow for a cutting and sewing operation,” said Harris. As attendees see the Microfactory in operation, “We want to drive home the point that there’s no waste. You can print on demand in any quantity and produce the right product at the right time.”

The press conference wrapped up with the announcement of a collaboration with Neenah Coldenhove (Booth C10341) to develop and test the Texcol pigment transfer paper that can be used to add full-color graphics to a wide variety of natural-fiber textiles without a water-consuming fixation process.

Owners of Mimaki’s TS330-1600 dye-sub printer can easily expand the range of fabrics they can print by configuring the printer to switch from dye-sublimation inks to textile pigment inks depending the type of transfer paper and fabric to be printed.

VanHorn expressed appreciation for their partnership with Texacol to bring something new and different to the market.  He also announced a new distribution partnership with LexJet, a leading distributor of wide-format and grand-format equipment, supplies, and materials. LexJet will carry the full line of Mimaki printers and consumables.