Justin Noble | Head of Product Management
The Xaar Aquinox permits customers to print ‘bolder and brighter’
Xaar is the world’s main unbiased producer of piezo-based drop-on-demand inkjet applied sciences. The corporate’s printheads are trusted in industrial markets across the globe as the best technique to lay down exact volumes of inks and fluids with absolute pin-point accuracy time after time. In an interview with Fibre2Fashion, Xaar’s Head of Product Administration Justin Noble discusses the lately launched ground-breaking aqueous printhead.
What’s the measurement of the worldwide marketplace for inkjet printers? At what charge is it rising?
Digital textile printing continues to display sturdy development alternatives for corporations all through the textile and printing provide chain. In accordance with Smithers, general world development in digital textile printing volumes will enhance by 13.9 per cent from 2021 to 2026, and is predicted to hit a market share of ten per cent from six per cent over the identical interval.
Whereas nonetheless comparatively small, inkjet is the important thing to driving this development in market share, and is the know-how predominantly used to print artificial fibres, pure fibres, and blends. OEMs are subsequently growing the provision of printers to the textile sector, and the launch of our revolutionary printhead – the Xaar Aquinox – delivers distinctive reliability, creativity, and sustainability for printing aqueous fluids, serving to to develop the market.
What are some great benefits of utilizing water-based printing? How viable is it commercially in comparison with typical inks?
The Xaar Aquinox permits customers to print ‘bolder and brighter’, providing improved precision and flexibility throughout textile print functions by means of capability to jet extremely pigmented and viscous water-based inks. Excessive Laydown Expertise will increase the drop measurement that the printhead can jet, which is very helpful for printing textiles, extremely absorbent substrates, or thick movie coatings, plus a broad vary of aqueous fluids and viscosities to simplify processes and cut back a machine’s carbon footprint.
Mixed with Xaar’s Extremely Excessive Viscosity Expertise, the Aquinox printhead may add extra creativity to those wider substrate functions, permitting for extra inventive finishes, by extending the vary of fluids and color gamut accessible utilizing bigger particles and heavier pigment loading.
Whereas the inkjet printing of white inks has historically triggered blockages and nozzle outs, the Xaar Aquinox with TF Expertise has delivered confirmed enchancment in coping with whites and closely pigmented inks, decreasing upkeep, bettering up-time and reliability, to provide the vibrancy and outcomes wanted in textile printing, significantly on darkish substrates.
Sustainability can be improved by means of water-based printing and thru the Aquinox enabling increased pigment loading and extra viscous fluids the quantity of water wanted in inks may be diminished, saving assets each initially and thru decreasing the quantity of vitality wanted in drying supplies publish printing.
What functions do you foresee?
Water primarily based printing, and the Xaar Aquinox, supply worth to many sectors and the textile business isn’t any exception. Alternatives to maximise uptime and productiveness in functions corresponding to direct to garment printing will turn into obvious, significantly the place darkish substrates require a base layer of excessive opacity white ink to be laid down earlier than any ornament. The heavy pigment-based fluids are tough to deal with and print with incumbent know-how. Nonetheless that is an space the place Aquinox excels and can dramatically enhance reliability. The wonderful productiveness and laydown functionality of Aquinox additionally compliments this, with extra ink, at increased opacity, having the ability to be delivered in a lot much less time than present printheads enable.
Industrial roll to roll scanning machines producing residence furnishing materials and materials for attire may even profit from the Aquinox. At the moment, managing the open time of nozzles is a problem for present printers, with humidity and environmental situations needing to be carefully managed to make sure print high quality and reliability are maintained. Aquinox affords a step change in open time as Xaar’s distinctive TF Expertise retains ink in fixed recirculation, even within the nozzle. This considerably will increase the working window for customers and reduces the burden on carefully controlling a printing atmosphere.
How would you describe the marketplace for printheads in Europe?
While Asia is the dominant producer of digitally printed textiles on a quantity foundation, Western Europe continues to carry second place, pushed significantly by Italy because the world’s vogue epicentre, and main digital printing tools producers. Particularly, since COVID, there was a rise within the variety of European corporations buying digital textile printers, and we’re seeing a requirement for printheads that may address a greater diversity of aqueous fluids – specifically pigmented inks – at which the Xaar Aquinox excels.
That are your main markets globally?
As a worldwide enterprise we provide printheads to producers world wide. Whereas Europe is our largest geographic area, China and Asia are additionally key markets for Xaar, significantly within the textile sector. Our native illustration and assist in every area ensures that we meet the wants of our OEMs in growing the newest printers for inkjet functions.
How do Xaar merchandise contribute to sustainable manufacturing?
Key amongst the brand new Xaar Aquinox printhead’s benefits is the contribution it may possibly make to companies within the supply of extra environmentally pleasant print and manufacturing. With diminished vitality consumption and water utilization (each in manufacturing and drying instances), and particularly in textile printing, this may equate to as a lot as a 60 per cent saving in vitality and water over comparable analogue printing processes.
Historically in periods of non-printing, many printheads have required excessive humidity and must be constantly jetting to make sure print high quality. Xaar’s TF Expertise ink recirculation provides improved open time and latency, decreasing upkeep and unnecessarily wasted ink, saving vitality and assets, thus maximising the entire price of possession.
Equally, the improved robustness of the Xaar Aquinox extends its print life and avoids pricey substitute of printheads, as soon as extra minimising waste and environmental impression.
How is your organization supporting the idea of round economic system?
This yr we’ve got set out our Sustainability Roadmap to 2030 which is predicated on 4 key pillars – Atmosphere, Folks, Innovation and Group. Inside this we’ve got set the goal of creating the Group a carbon impartial inkjet producer in 2022 by means of offsetting, and an intention to attain full carbon neutrality by 2030.
As well as, as a part of our innovation pillar, we’ve got efficiently trialled using recycled Polylactic Acid (PLA) filaments generated from returned and waste PLA as a part of the round economic system. These are equipped in 100 per cent plastic-free sustainable packaging, with straightforward to recycle cardboard spools and are the primary stage in using biodegradable structural elements within the manufacture of Xaar merchandise.
Sustainability is not simply part of our agenda, it ‘is’ the agenda, and can moreover enhance each our operational and industrial efficiency.
How would you describe the demand for printheads, and inkjet printers publish pandemic?
Whereas the pandemic has undoubtedly challenged the worldwide provide chain, we’re nonetheless seeing rising demand for inkjet printheads throughout all kinds of market sectors. It’s an enabling know-how that has a number of functions, and with the Aquinox printhead we are able to now ship the reliability in aqueous printing that many producers have been on the lookout for. As such we anticipate that demand will proceed to develop, and for Xaar to be key to delivering the printheads and applied sciences in using inkjet.
What are the highest three market traits you see in digital imaging?
We might say flexibility, reliability and sustainability are the important thing traits which can be driving development in using inkjet applied sciences within the textiles sector. When growing our aqueous know-how, the market want was clear – supply of a really dependable, sturdy printhead that may print a a lot wider vary of aqueous fluids together with excessive viscosity and excessive pigment loading. And that’s what we’ve got achieved with the launch of the Aquinox.
What new improvements and applied sciences are you working in the direction of particularly for the textile business?
Clearly, it’s at all times tough to speak about confidential improvement tasks and the work we’ve got underway with our textile OEMs. Nonetheless, as we’ve got already highlighted, a key space of focus is the chance to print ‘bolder and brighter’ by providing the aptitude to jet extremely pigmented and viscous fluids.
The Xaar Aquinox will assist break new floor, resulting from its excessive compatibility with a variety of fluids, even acidic inks. Right here, Xaar’s know-how is creating the chance for ink producers to reformulate their inks and fluids to ship richer, extra vibrant colors in addition to ship larger performance. Additionally, the Aquinox’s excessive native decision at 720dpi will allow very positive element for vogue materials to be printed with deep penetration of colors.
Being able to jet fluids with a lot increased viscosity – as much as 100cP – will guarantee digital and inkjet printing delivers the reliability, efficiency, inventive and sustainable print that textile companies and shoppers now demand and ship the water-based inkjet textile print revolution.
Please inform us about your water-based printing know-how.
Our revolutionary printhead, the Xaar Aquinox, delivers distinctive reliability, creativity, and sustainability for printing aqueous fluids. The Aquinox is the newest improvement from Xaar’s ImagineX platform, and our aQ Energy Expertise gives a radically new strategy to the dependable jetting of water-based fluids, delivering a really transformational industrial printhead for textiles and every other sector that advantages from using aqueous fluids.
The altering panorama of the textile market makes the Xaar Aquinox printhead excellent for a lot of functions. Simplified processes, distinctive print speeds and a wide selection of customisation choices, locations the Xaar Aquinox on the very forefront of effectivity and flexibility. Speeds of over 100m/min may be achieved, and a excessive native decision of 720dpi and firing frequency of as much as 48kHz, allows excessive fluid laydown for max productiveness.
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed on this column are solely of the interviewee, and they don’t mirror in any manner the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
