LOS ALTOS, Calif. — February 7, 2019 — Bink, a Latin American startup who recently won TrepCamp’s Global Demo Day, is developing ecological dyes by genetically modifying bacteria, creating a sustainable alternative to the colors produced today by chemical processes. Their solution can be tailored to the needs of the market at a competitive price and could transform the textile, cosmetic and paper industries.

Bink’s main purpose is to reduce the carbon footprint caused by the dyes which contain heavy metals difficult to filter or dissolute in water systems.

The team developed a technology to grow dyes inside of genetically modified bacteria that can rapidly reproduce at a low cost creating a scalable process to produce eco-friendly dyes. In particular has a competitive advantage in growing the color blue, which is the most expensive to produce today.

On November 10, 2018, Bink won the Global Demo Day competition at INCmty, the largest entrepreneurship festival in Latin America. They presented to a panel of international investors who recognized Bink’s solution for their technology and potential impact to transform the industrial coloring industry.

The entrepreneurs have run many successful laboratory tests, and have already contacted companies and laboratories in Colombia and Mexico, and are looking forward to establishing a partnership that would allow them to have a greater impact.

As the winners of TrepCamp Global Demo Day now they have an accelerated journey so they can launch their dyes to the market this year.

Posted February 8, 2019

Source: Bink

ROSH-HA`AYIN, Israel — February 7, 2019 — Kornit Digital Ltd. — a company that develops, designs and markets innovative digital printing solutions for the global printed textile industry — today announced that it has closed a definitive asset purchase agreement with Hirsch Solutions Inc. to purchase remaining Kornit business assets related to the distribution agreement between the companies.

With the completion of this acquisition the companies have successfully finalized, ahead of schedule, the business and operational transition between the parties. Kornit has begun operating in a full direct-to-customer model in North America effective February 7, 2019. As part of the agreement, Kornit Digital will take ownership of relevant Kornit-related customer business assets as well as remaining inventory of systems and ink.

Ronen Samuel, Kornit’s CEO, commented, “All teams have worked diligently to ensure a smooth operational transition for all of our customers. We are pleased to have completed this asset acquisition, and the operational transition ahead of schedule. We look forward to executing on our growth strategy in North America.”

Posted February 7, 2019

Source: Kornit Digital Ltd.

MÖNCHENGLADBACH, Germany — February 7, 2019 — Through investment in new Monforts technology, Istanbul Boyahanesi is planning to increase its capacity for the commission dyeing and finishing of woven goods to a monthly 2.5 million square meters during 2019.

The company is surely also the only dyehouse in Turkey to date with its own proprietary software for virtual control of all operations via smartphone or TV from the boardroom.

The special app-based program has been developed by co-founder and director Kemal Taşkin, who has a background in software engineering, and it provides real-time information on all machine parameters and operator activity.

“I am now developing it further and in the near-future it will also be able to provide financial forecasting for us right down to individual batch level,” he says.

This development has much in common with the advances Monforts is making itself in the field of Industry 4.0 and automation, such as the latest Qualitex 800 control system and the Web-UI app for remote visualisation of Monforts technologies via smart phones and tablet devices.

Thermex Econtrol

Based in the key Turkish textile centre of Çerkezköy, Istanbul Boyahanesi was only founded in 2017, on the site of an older existing dyehouse. It is a joint venture between two of Turkey’s leading textile wholesalers, Yilmaz Kumaşçilik, which specialises in fabrics for casual and outerwear, and shirtings and suitings textiles operation Erika Kumaşçilik.

Immediately on its formation, the first move of the new company was to order a new Monforts Thermex Econtrol continuous dyeing line.

“The existing equipment we inherited, which includes a 23-year-old Monforts Montex stenter, is only suitable for producing heavy weight fabrics with weights of 300gsm and above,” Mr Taşkin explains. “The new Thermex allows us to get down to fabric weights of 80gsm. The old pad dyeing system we have is also very time-consuming and the Thermex has allowed us to considerably shorten processing times for the heavier fabrics, while at the same time considerably expanding our product offering. It’s an extremely versatile range, allowing us to instantly see the results and to easily move between reactive and disperse dyeing, for example.”

Savings

“Of course, there is no comparison in terms of chemicals and energy usage and with the Thermex the savings are considerable,” adds plant manager Hakan Kaplan. “It is also allowing us to make much longer batches of fabrics.”

The Thermex Econtrol range has a working width of 1.8 metres and allows the single-bath continuous dyeing of cotton and polyester fabrics with selected reactive and dispersion dyestuffs, as well as cotton-polyester blends to be processed without reductive intermediate cleaning, eliminating the need for a steamer.

Other processes, such as the use of indanthren vat dyes for enhanced wash and boil fastness, or the over-dyeing on reactive-dyed cotton fabrics to achieve an extremely broad range of colour effects, are also carried out on the range.

The range was installed and commissioned in a very tight space within the existing factory by Istanbul-based Monforts partner Neotek Tekstil, which is also a new company, formed in February 2016 to assume responsibility for Monforts dyeing and finishing technology throughout Turkey.

In the short period since its inception, Neotek has already installed and commissioned over 50 full Monforts ranges throughout the country.

Continuous quality

“The Monforts Montex stenter is of course, our key product and its advantages are well established,” says Neotek founder Ahmet Kiliç. “It allows our customers to achieve high quality continuously, with the trusted electronic drive technology of Monforts. With the energy savings that are achieved they also save money and being robust, Monforts stenters also require fewer spare parts and less maintenance, with remote assistance in any case always available.

“All of the components in Monforts machines are the best available and the majority of the companies in Turkey either already have experience with them and trust the brand, or see the benchmarks being set by their competitors, making Monforts technology the natural choice,” he adds.

“We have been very happy with the service we have received to date from Monforts and Neotek, and will continue to trust their technology going forward as we expand our business,” Mr Taşkin concludes.

Posted February 7, 2019

Source: A. Monforts Textilmaschinen GmbH & Co. KG

LEONBERG, Germany — February 7, 2019 — A state of the art BRÜCKNER multi-purpose coating line for technical textiles has been successfully commissioned and is operating since the beginning of 2018 at Sri Venkatalakshmi Spinners (P) Ltd. (SVS) in Udumalpet, a textile town about 70 km from Coimbatore City, in the South of India. SVS was established in 1980 and now focuses primarily on the spinning of different yarn qualities, the manufacturing of various types of fabrics by weaving, circular knitting and warp knitting and the manufacturing of various coated materials and Technical Textiles with a very modern coating line.

SVS strives to maintain its environmental sustainability efforts by generating their own electric power through grid-connected wind mill and they are currently working on a large-scale LT photovoltaic power generator project. After a careful consideration of today’s business, the change in the technological environment and their capability, SVS has established a very modern world-class coating infrastructure to become an integrated value-added manufacturer of Technical Textile products. They want to capitalize their spinning and fabric infrastructure as well as their knowledge base to develop value added Technical Textile products for various applications.

The company has started its Technical Textile production in December 2017 under the name of SVS Advanced Fabrics – (SAF). The project is one of the most modern and advanced production units in India. The company specializes currently mainly in high-tech preparation for digital printing, automotive fabrics, functional textiles for sports and leisure as well as fabrics for architectural purposes. Gopinath Bala, who takes care of their technical, product development and marketing activities, leads the company together with a strong and experienced management team. He holds several university degrees in Textile Technology, Polymer sciences as well as Business Administration and worked several years in the US for the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) and the Department of Defense (DOD-DARPA). He is also a Board Member, Council of Administration – South Indian Textile Research Association (SITRA), a primer textile research institute at Coimbatore. Raja, operations director, who takes care of the production has started his career with CHT – BEZEMA a German multinational specialty dyes and chemical manufacturing company as technical manager in 1999. He worked for 18 years in various application fields like pre-treatment, dyeing, finishing, printing & coating.

SAF has partnered with Brückner Textile Technologies (Germany) to ensure that the machine will be customized exactly to their needs. Brückner’s local partner, Voltas Ltd. (Textile Machinery Division) supports the customer with an extraordinary local service for troubleshooting and spare parts supply. The modern Brückner coating line is equipped with the best in class heat consistency available on the market throughout, is environmentally friendly heated with LPG fuel. An integrated Zimmer, Austria coating head with a high precision magnet roller coating head and a screen coating and printing facility ensures in combination with a Mahlo (Germany) QMS weight measurement system, that the coated products (mainly preparation for printing) always meet the specifications consistently at high levels.

Bala explains why SAF decided to move forward in this project together with Brückner:

SVS choose Brückner because they were the clear leader and a strong knowledge partner with a very long history of experience in the Technical Textile Industry. Brückner had adopted to technical textiles and started providing machinery to the industry way back when Europe started its ventures in Technical Textiles. SAF is a new company venturing into Technical Textiles, having a strong knowledge partner in various spectrum of products and processes to support us was the main reason for us to choose to partner with Brückner. Additionally Brückner’s equipment’s are of very high quality, precisely engineered, low maintenance and consume the lowest energy levels.

The SVS – SAF Management team has strong experience and background in Technical Textiles applications and Polymers as well as conventional dyeing and printing. Together with business partners they provide complete solutions, support and guidance. 40 years of experience in manufacturing yarns and in manufacturing various types of fabrics give them the ability to foresee global and domestic trends and stay ahead of the curve. Brückner wishes SVS Advanced Fabrics (SAF) a continuous growth as well as success and will support the customer with technological advice on site within the near future.

Posted February 7, 2019

Source: Brückner Textile Technologies GmbH & Co. KG

CAMBRIDGE, England — February 6, 2019 — Xaar has celebrated the ground-breaking technologies of its high performance Xaar 5601 printhead in a special event for over 300 of its UK-based staff. The Xaar 5601, based on the Xaar’s silicon MEMS thin film platform, is the culmination of over eight years of Research & Development. The technology platform represents a major step forward in digital inkjet printing and has created a foundation for Xaar’s thin film printheads of the future.

“Understanding customer and market requirements was key to the development of the Xaar 5601,” commented Ramon Borrell, CTO, Xaar. “We wanted to create a new platform with capabilities that we didn’t have at the time. Specifically, we wanted to develop an aqueous printhead, with higher resolution, higher printing speed and higher print quality.

“This meant we needed to start our development with a blank piece of paper; designing every part from the ground up and not being limited by the previous technologies.”

With over 5600 active nozzles, the Xaar 5601 printhead is the first printhead from this new platform, providing an exceptionally high-quality print resolution which is capable of jetting up to nine liters of fluid per hour at a frequency in excess of 100 kHz. In addition, the Xaar 5601 printhead incorporates Xaar’s TF Technology to maximize production uptime, print quality and printhead lifetime, while its unique Z profile makes fitting multiple printheads closely together possible, ensuring an exceptionally compact print zone and reduced cost of ownership.

“Critical to success was the time and effort we put into visiting customers throughout the development program to ensure we captured and delivered solutions to the key OEM and end user pain points, “ said Jason Remnant, product line manager at Xaar.

Feedback since the release of the Xaar 5601 has been overwhelmingly positive. Customers have been impressed by the performance of the Xaar 5601 in terms of the outstanding print quality, its unparalleled usability and the print speeds that it can achieve — up to two meters per second.

“The Xaar 5601 is the culmination of all the R&D teams’ hard work on the new technology platform,” continued Remnant. “We’ve invested in a platform that will produce not just one printhead, but a family of printheads and we wanted to recognize the hard work that has gone into the program.”

Commenting on the day, Doug Edwards, CEO of Xaar, said: “We are immensely proud of what has been achieved in terms of delivering a completely new technology platform, which we expect to deliver a step-change in inkjet printing. Today was about recognizing this and reinforcing how each person had a role to play. It is a fantastic achievement by everyone at Xaar and demonstrates our leadership in inkjet technology.”

Posted February 6, 2019

Source: Xaar, plc