GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — November 1, 2017 — At ideation 2017 in Los Angeles, X-Rite Inc. and its subsidiary Pantone LLC, today announced that Gerber Technology’s YuniquePLM® and AccuMark® will natively support the Appearance Exchange Format (AxF™) in 2018. Developed by X-Rite, AxF is a vendor-neutral format that enables the communication of all aspects of a physical material’s appearance — color, texture, gloss, refraction, transparency, special effects (sparkles) and reflection properties —  in a single, editable file to improve design virtualization. Using AxF, fashion, apparel, and retail companies will be able to incorporate physically correct, virtual materials in YuniquePLM and AccuMark to create photorealistic 3-D images of garment samples in order to accelerate the design, creation and merchandising process.

AxF is the foundational component of the X-Rite Total Appearance Capture (TAC™) ecosystem, a solution that brings a new level of accuracy and efficiency to the capture, communication and presentation of physical materials in the virtual world. Traditionally, the capture and rendering of complex materials such as meshes and synthetic fabrics have been a time-consuming and manual process. TAC addresses this challenge with a new level of precision and quality in material scanning coupled with an ability to share the resulting data, via AxF, across an expanding set of virtual design and product lifecycle management (PLM) tools like YuniquePLM.

“Today YuniquePLM already supports Pantone libraries and we are excited to extend that relationship to our award-winning TAC ecosystem and AxF format,” said Dr. Francis Lamy, executive vice president and Chief Technology Officer, X-Rite and Pantone. “AxF will allow Gerber Technology customers to create physically accurate digital material libraries for a collection and virtually see a material’s texture, gloss or sheen in a 3-D model to understand how a material drapes and looks under various lighting conditions. This superior virtual experience will help reduce the need for physical samples, streamline design approval cycles, and allow apparel companies to respond quickly to changing consumer trends.”

“We are excited to have this integration with X-Rite as it furthers our mission to help our customers decrease time to market by understanding textile properties prior to creating physical samples,” said Karsten Newbury, senior vice president and general manager, Software Solutions Group.

YuniquePLM is a product lifecycle management tool specially developed for the apparel and retail industries. It enables businesses to connect their creative teams with their supply chain, and get the right products to the market on time and at the right cost. AccuMark pattern design software allows apparel brands to design, develop and market their products as quickly and efficiently as possible. Together these systems help accelerate time to market, reduce lead time and improve margins by managing the details of line plans, tech packs and samples, and simplifying communication and collaboration with global partners.

TAC Captures Physical Material Appearance

The TAC ecosystem is comprised of the TAC7 scanner, PANTORA™ Material Hub desktop application, and Virtual Light Booth (VLB). Physical material samples are scanned using the TAC7 scanner, which captures appearance properties digitally to create AxF files that store appearance data. The files are stored, managed, viewed and edited in the PANTORA desktop application. The AxF files can be shared with Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Computer-Aided Design (CAD), and state-of-the art rendering applications including Allegorithmic Substance Designer; AMD Radeon™ ProRender; Autodesk VRED™ Professional 2017; Gerber Technology YuniquePLM and AccuMark; Lumiscaphe Patchwork 3D; Luxion KeyShot® Next Limit Maxwell; and NVIDIA Iray®.

The Virtual Light Booth is the industry’s first immersive 3-D visualization environment for evaluating material appearance. It allows users to accurately and efficiently visualize and compare 3-D digital material renderings side-by-side with physical samples. The VLB combines X-Rite’s SpectraLight QC professional light booth technology with a high-brightness, color-calibrated, LCD display; color management technology; and motion tracking sensors. This allows the VLB viewing environment to control parameters that influence the perception of appearance from illumination to contextual to observational factors. With the VLB, design teams can easily verify these conditions to see changes in material performance. This helps ensure consistency between digital prototypes and final physical products and empowers designers to make more informed material selection decisions reducing approval cycles and accelerating time to market.

X-Rite is demonstrating the TAC ecosystem this week at ideation. Attendees will see how AxF files can be used within the YuniquePLM and AccuMark software and applied to rendering and 3-D design.

Posted November 1, 2017

Source: X-Rite

CARMEL, Ind. — November 1, 2017 — Top Value Fabrics announced today it has completed the integration for the acquisition of Pacific Coast Fabrics. The acquisition expands the company’s product offerings and strengthens its West Coast distribution network for printable textiles.

“Our transition to become one company is complete,” explains Chris Fredericks, president, Top Value Fabrics. “Since our announcement in June, we’ve received tremendous support from both customers and industry partners. On behalf of our team, I want to thank everyone who has helped to make this a smooth transition.”

The newest members of the TVF team have moved a few miles down the road to TVF’s Carson, Calif., office.

Mike Sanders has transitioned to his new role with TVF as director of Printable Textiles and Finishing Technology. Sanders stated: “This incredible growth with our longtime friends at TVF allows us to offer remarkable new opportunities to the markets we serve. As part of this progress, we have recently unveiled a new showroom at our Carson office which provides a significant space to hold training sessions, view fabric samples and showcase fabric applications.”

Robert Hinsch, vice president, Top Value Fabrics, added: “It’s a milestone for the company and has already proved to be invaluable to have both offices merged into our newly remodeled Carson location. As part of TVF’s evolution through this integration, we’re committed to making it even easier to do business with us. We’ve nearly doubled the warehouse space in our West Coast Distribution Center. This move accommodates new printable fabrics in the Apparel, Print Media and Home Furnishings markets and provides added stock items and convenience for customers. We’ve also increased slitting capabilities across the company in response to customer demand.”

As the transition is complete, the now-larger TVF has welcomed its new team members and customers alike. “It’s an exciting time and we’re thrilled to deliver an expanded selection of quality, printable textiles with the same fast, friendly service for which we’re known,” said Fredericks. “I’m confident of a continued positive outlook for our team and customers in this growing industry we’re proud to serve.”

Posted November 1, 2017

Source: Top Value Fabrics

CAMBRIDGE, England — November 1, 2017 — Global Inkjet Systems (GIS) will showcase its latest innovative solutions for complex industrial applications in functional and decorative printing at InPrint 2017 in Munich. Senior members of the GIS team will be available on the GIS booth (Hall A6, Stand 548) to discuss our collaborative approach to solving demanding inkjet manufacturing and production issues. The GIS booth will have three dedicated areas:

Direct to Shape/Industrial Component Decoration — GIS will debut its latest software developments for printing onto more complex shapes and industrial components using robotics. Debbie Thorp, business development director, will deliver a presentation on Taking Inkjet Direct Product Decoration to the Next Dimension at 10.00 on Thursday 16th November as part of the InPrint conference.

Image Print Quality: The GIS Atlas® platform provides a comprehensive solution for continuous, optimized digital print: from the easy-to-use Atlas User Interface (UI), which is fully customizable, through to the Atlas Machine Control Services (MCS) powerful server technology, which manages the entire printing and sub-system process control, including third party components.

Ink/Fluid Delivery Systems: GIS will also showcase its successful production-proven range of components — comprising software, electronics, and all key system components for no-flow, low-flow and controlled-flow recirculating ink delivery systems. All parts are extensible, enabling GIS to offer tailored solutions for industrial inkjet systems of any size. There will be an example of a working ink system on display, with a demonstration of the latest software monitoring tools. Jozef Vlaskamp, senior systems engineer, will give a Tech Talk at the InPrint conference on Industrial Inkjet Ink Delivery Systems – Troubleshooting & Solutions on Tuesday 14th November at 14.30.

Posted November 1, 2017

Source: Global Inkjet Systems (GIS)