UZWIL, Switzerland — May 3, 2018 — The traditional textile company Getzner Textil AG in Bludenz, Austria is known worldwide for its high-quality fabrics for a wide variety of applications. In the sustainable production of textiles, Getzner has for many years relied on the innovative process and system solutions of the Benninger Group with its headquarter in Uzwil, Switzerland.

As part of the current project of the two longstanding partner companies, the Benninger-Pad-Dry Hotflue was equipped with the 1,000 automation solution from Benninger Automation GmbH, Zell, Germany.

This milestone was taken by Beat Meienberger, CEO of Benninger AG, as an opportunity to thank Getzner for the long-standing, good business relationship and to hand over a voucher for spare parts worth EUR 10’000 to the management of Getzner Textil AG.

Benninger is looking forward to many more years of good partnership and interesting, new projects with Getzner Textil AG.

Posted May 8, 2018

Source: Benninger AG

ROSH HA’AYIN, Israel — May 8, 2018 — Kornit Digital has announced the introduction of the new Storm HD6 direct-to-garment printing system. The system will be unveiled at the Kornit stand A20 in 1.1 at FESPA Berlin with commercial availability expected for Q4 2018.

Following the highly successful launch of the Avalanche HD6, Kornit will implement the HD technology in the Storm platform as well, announcing the Storm HD6. Kornit’s HD print engine, combined with the NeoPigmentTM Rapid ink, leads to significant reductions in ink consumption and cost per print. The Storm HD6 will reduce both by approximately 30% compared to the Storm Hexa.

The new cost per print levels make the new HD systems an attractive choice for screen printers and digital printers for print runs between one and 500 copies. The new systems, now comprising the Avalanche HD6, Avalanche HDK and Storm HD6, are running with 4l bulk ink containers of Kornit’s NeoPigmentTM Rapid ink. This ink, which has been specifically developed for Kornit’s HD technology, offers an improved gamut for spot and brand color matching, increased opacity and saturation of the white ink, as well as improved hand feel — an important requirement by screen printers. The print quality and customer experience is further enhanced by ColorGATE’s Professional RIP solution, adding advanced color management and screening capabilities, improved white base creation and pre-defined color libraries for ultimate color matching.

Both the HD print engine and the NeoPigment Rapid ink are used in Kornit’s Vulcan system and have been  field proven in a number of installations over the past few years.

Omer Kulka, Kornit Digital’s Vice President of Marketing and Product Strategy, comments: “The retail meltdown in textile and fashion continues. Based on the early success of the Avalanche HD series, we are now expanding the cost-saving HD technology to the mid-range Storm platform, providing access to state-of-the art direct-to-garment technology also to businesses with smaller throughput requirements.”

Eyal Manzoor, Managing Director of Kornit Digital Europe, adds: “The Storm platform is the solution of choice for businesses that need a powerful yet flexible and scalable solution. The Storm’s business potential generated some impressive success stories and the print size makes a great fit for most screen printers. We look forward to presenting this technology highlight as a key element in our total FESPA offering.”

Kornit’s Storm platform represents the mid-productivity segment of Kornit’s industrial direct-to-garment printing product portfolio, which provides a rich choice of different systems for different application requirements. The Storm HD6 includes six color channels (CMYK, Red, Green) plus white, for a wider gamut and improved spot color matching. Users can easily reproduce the true colors of licensed sports teams and accurately match corporate logos.

The Storm HD6 is planned to be commercially available during the fourth quarter of 2018. It can be seen in live demonstrations at the Kornit Digital stand A20 in 1.1 at FESPA Berlin, taking place May 15-18.

Kornit’s state of the art NeoPigment™ meets the highest environmental regulations, including Oeko-Tex Standard 100 and GOTS V5 pre-approval. Suitable for printing on multiple fabric types, its versatility is unmatched. NeoPigment™ prints have an excellent hand feel, a wide gamut of bright and intense colors, as well as long-term durability and wash-fastness.

Posted May 8, 2018

Source: Kornit Digital

DENKENDORF — May 7, 2018 — Excellent edge definition, good color fastness and soft feel — this is what the optimum result looks like for inkjet printing on textiles. But it’s not a trivial matter to meet these demands and bring them together. The German Institute of Textile and Fiber Research (DITF) in Denkendorf have taken on this task and developed a chemical product preparation for inkjet printing.

The market does already offer a large range of binding agents and pretreatment chemicals, which are suitable for modifying the surface of the textile printing substrate and improving them for inkjet printing. It has been difficult however, for targeted improvements to the digital printing results to be achieved due to the wide range of available chemical additives, each with their own mode of action.

Screening of the potentially applicable chemicals allowed particularly suitable substances to be identified. In the new phase, these chemicals were set in the optimum manner in terms of their use as preparatory chemicals for inkjet printing. When doing so, both the concentrations and mixing ratios of the individual components were adjusted. Here, an especially important step was the adjustment of the flow properties, so that the chemical ingredients were not too runny nor too viscous for application to the textiles.

The next step was focused on the setting of the process parameters for the application of the pretreatment chemicals. The quantity of the applied chemicals, the type of application and the adaptation of intermediate drying phases — all of these process steps ultimately influence the printing result. The optimization was done separately for different application processes, such as Foulard, screen printing or inkjet printing.

The pigment inks used within the research project are an in-house development from DITF: Fine-particle pigment dispersions are manufactured from organic color pigments. The addition of binding agents allows good adhesion of the pigments on the textile

substrate. And the addition of additives to the mixture allows additional properties of the pigment inks such as their hygroscopic or rheological properties to be influenced.

In conjunction with the selected pretreatment chemicals, the pigment inks enable excellent printing results. Test prints on cotton substrates showed excellent contour qualities, color fastness and high color depths.

Posted May 7, 2018

Source: The German Institute of Textile and Fiber Research (DITF)

WILMINGTON, Del. — May 7, 2018 — DuPont Advanced Printing (DuPont) today announced it will launch DuPont™ Cyrel® EASY BRITE Screens and the Cyrel® EASY BRITE™ Index during FTA Forum/INFOFLEX 2018 May 6-9 in Indianapolis, Ind.

The screens are designed to optimize ink lay-down in high-volume printing, typically seen when printing a white undercoat, or solid areas with spot colors. They contain a suite of screens that have shown to improve solid printing at volumes of 4.0 bcm and greater. There are five screens in total: two screens designed for customers without the HD Pixel+ imaging capability and three screens designed to take full advantage of HD Pixel+ imaging.

“We are excited to launch our new Cyrel Easy Brite Screens. A brighter white is not just about opacity – we believe high opacity alone doesn’t make a good print. You need a combination of opacity, low mottle and low graininess to have a good white. Cyrel Easy Brite Screens will deliver not only high opacity, but also improved mottle and improved graininess on inks that use a high volume anilox. The Easy Brite Index is a multidimensional measurement that combines opacity, mottle and graininess into a single number,” said Shyamal Desai, marketing manager, Americas, DuPont Advanced Printing.

The combination of Cyrel Easy Plates and the Easy Brite Screens deliver:

• Better overall consistency and more consistent print of large solid areas
• Higher print quality
  • Uniform ink layer
  • Elimination of trail edge void
  • Improved appearance of final print
  • Improved opacity, reduced graininess and reduced mottle
• Flexibility, as they allow printers to go to higher quality levels using their existing setup

Shyamal will share more about DuPont Cyrel Easy Brite Screens and the Easy Brite Index during InfoFlex Solutions Theatre, Monday, May 7, from 3:25 to 3:45 p.m. ET. Questions will be taken at the DuPont Advanced Printing Booth #335.

Posted May 7, 2018

Source: DuPont Advanced Printing

CHARLOTTE — May 7, 2018 — Clariant, a world supplier of specialty chemicals, turns the spotlight on its increasing on-the-ground support and innovation focus for North America’s four key plastics application segments at NPE 2018 Booth S18155.

Clariant is pushing forward with plans for growth in the region by advancing R&D competencies, and increasing its manufacturing footprint and technical capabilities across its 50+ sites, 3 R&D and 6 technical innovation centers. Clariant’s innovations for the plastics industry include advanced additives, masterbatches and pigments which support the packaging sector in engaging consumers via differentiated, convenient solutions. At NPE, it will also highlight solutions for enhancing and protecting healthcare products, as well as its contribution to stronger and colorful textiles and fibers for everything from e-mobility to industrial applications.

Deepak Parikh, president of region North America, Clariant comments: “Clariant’s product innovation for the US and wider North American plastics industry embraces the region’s fastest growing end-use areas of automotive and construction. It also addresses the impact of trends driven by changing consumer lifestyle preferences and market regulations on other important segments such as packaging and healthcare.”

Transportation

Clariant brings color and protection to support the increasing use of engineering plastics and high temperture resins in automotive interiors, exteriors and under-the-hood. Halogen-free Exolit® OP 1400 provides outstanding flame retardancy to polyamide parts, enhances safety with UL 94 V0 performance down to 0.4 mm and enables the molding of complex parts with no mold deposits and blooming. Exolit OP 1400 has been awarded the Clariant EcoTain®label for outstanding sustainability and performance. At the same time, Clariant offers low-halogen controlled high-performance PV Fast® pigmentswith excellent migration and weather fastness properties to meet the high requirements of today’s transportation and automotive industry. Easy processing Renol® compounds and masterbatches for engineering and high temperature resins provide heat and light stability, and flame retardancy, while maintaining critical flow properties in parts like SMT connectors. Importantly, they are available as small lots which enables customers to purchase only what they require and contribute to a reduction in their carbon footprint.

Packaging

As US packaging manufacturers explore more consumer-friendly, lighter weight and appealing solutions, Clariant is on hand to support their functionality, sustainability-related and color desires. Clariant Pigments has an innovative cooperation with Konica Minolta and matchmycolor to enable fast, precise and efficient color matching of HDPE products, using select organic PV Fast and Graphtol® pigments that comply with FDA regulations. The ColorWorks®center in Chicago is dedicated to US brand managers and designers with teams of color design experts to create color formulations faster than ever before for bottles, caps, closures and films.

According to market reports, plastic pouches are gaining share from traditional pack types in packaged food and are mainstream in home care. To support smoother and more environmentally-compatible processing especially for film applications, Clariant offers an FDA-compliant, vegetable-based powder amide wax, Licolub® FA 1, which acts as a slip and anti-block agent. It is suitable for polyolefins and PVC.

Textiles & Fibers

At NPE 2018, Clariant puts the focus on strong and colorful textiles, carpets and industrial fibers. New AddWorks® TFB 117 offers a number of benefits to help stabilize and smoothen fiber production processes, protect color, and improve heat stability and mechanical properties of fibers. AddWorks TFB 117 ensures smooth spinnability with less filaments breakage, even at low processing temperatures and at high speed spinning up to 5,500 m/min. Clariant also offers a broad range of colorants for polypropylene, polyester, polyamide and acrylic fibers, featuring migration fastness, chemical stability, light- and weather-fastness.

Healthcare

Clariant supports risk control and regulatory compliance for medical polymer and pharmaceutical packaging solutions. Its Mevopur® color and performance masterbatches and compounds include a USP Class 6 line of compliant products and multiple global ISO, 87, 88, and 661.1 certifications ahead of the market deadline. Clariant also offers selected FDA-compliant organic pigments and polymer soluble dyes that meet purity migration fastness as well as toxicological properties for medical devices and pharmaceutical packaging.

Clariant is exhibiting at NPE 2018 from May 7-11, 2018 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Meet Clariant’s experts at Booth S18155.

Posted May 7, 2018

Source: Clariant

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — May 7, 2018 — X-Rite Inc. and Pantone LLC announced today that their cloud-based digital color standard ecosystem, PantoneLIVE™, will include the official spectral data from the popular Pantone Fashion, Home + Interiors System for cotton and nylon and the Pantone Matching System (PMS) for plastics and coatings. For the first time, color specifiers and manufacturers will have instant access to up-to-date spectral values for Pantone Colors for plastics, coatings and textiles, including the Pantone Color of the Year 2018: PANTONE 18-3838, Ultra Violet. The new offering, PantoneLIVE Production – Plastic, Coatings and Textile, integrates with X-Rite color management tools to ensure seamless color communication from design to production, improving consistency between design intent and finished products.

“While physical color references continue to play a critical role in specifying and managing color for textile and product applications, we are seeing many companies transition to digital processes across their design and manufacturing teams,” said Adrián Fernández, general manager, Pantone. “The PantoneLIVE Production – Plastic, Coatings and Textile license gives users instant access to the official Pantone spectral color values as their single point of truth. Suppliers can easily integrate these values into digital workflows and begin production faster and with confidence. By using both physical and digital standards, customers can more easily and effectively communicate and verify color intent while improving manufacturing efficiency, reducing errors and rejects due to color issues in production. The ability to start formulation with digital references can save significant time that otherwise would be consumed waiting for physical samples to arrive.”

Fashion, homeware and product designers routinely use physical Pantone Color Standards for inspiration, specification, communication and verification of color intent. The PantoneLIVE Production – Plastic, Coatings and Textile license can be used to improve color communication with production suppliers giving them access to the precise spectral data for the colored material they need to produce. This allows coatings, plastics and textiles suppliers to seamlessly match any Pantone Color Standard and begin formulation immediately. Spectral matching also helps suppliers determine the most cost-effective amount of pigment to achieve accurate color at any opacity level. This saves valuable time in the formulation and production process while reducing costs.

Integrated Color Management Ecosystem for Manufacturing

Manufacturers and suppliers can access Pantone spectral data in PantoneLIVE Production – Plastic, Coatings and Textile standards through X-Rite Color iMatch and Color iQC software while measuring with an X-Rite benchtop spectrophotometer or a Ci64 handheld spectrophotometer. This provides an integrated color management workflow designed to ensure accurate color formulation for Pantone Colors.

The spectral data references available through a PantoneLIVE Production – Plastic, Coatings and Textile license are the official Pantone standards measured using X-Rite benchtop and handheld spectrophotometers under the appropriate measurement conditions.

Posted May 7, 2018

Source: X-Rite