Starleaton managing director, Peter Eaton, says, “Digital textiles are the next big thing in wide and superwide format printing. They open up many new market opportunities and also offer advantages over vinyl and film in certain applications, such as pop-up displays where Neschen’s new Solvotex SoftImage can remain on the pop-up frame in one piece, rather than having to attach strips of laminated images each time the display is erected.”
All Neschen and SEAL fabrics/textiles are flame-retardant, conforming to both US and European fire regulations. Polyester, Trevira, Nylon and Cotton are used as the base material depending upon the application. Coatings are universal for solvent, low-solvent, UV or aqueous inks. Under 2mprinters from all major manufacturers are supported in the SEAL range.
“The key to performance is in the coatings,” says Eaton, “for example, the SoftImage coating must not crack or wrinkle as the pop-up displays are often packed and unpacked. It’s the first solvent-printable fabric to offer this. The Solvotex Flag Plus 2 coating is designed to deliver highly saturated colours yet withstand rough handling. Spinnaker material is made from rip-stop nylon and is airtight and Theatre 310 is specially made for stage backdrops and so on.”
Textiles/fabrics offer several advantages over vinyl for the right applications. Weight is an important one – digital textiles weigh a fraction of vinyl. They are also more flexible and can be handled with ease, they reflect less and there is more variety – such as Solvotex Voile material which is translucent so in-store displays do not block out light and take on a mystic, alluring look. In Europe and the USA, some backlight boxes are now imaged with textile rather than film as new DigiCoat technology enables fully-saturated colours.
With one-to-five metre widths available, there are certainly applications in fashion and garments for some of the Neschen Solvotex and SEAL range, but most are restricted to 30ËšC maximum wash temperature. The main market is for everything from art reproductions, display systems, banners, flags, POS, tradeshows and theatrical applications, even to sails and promotional hot-air balloons.
“Textiles are a new way of looking at digital large format printing – there are benefits all-round,” says Eaton, “we know the Neschen/SEAL quality and reputation in both Europe and the USA and now we’re offering the XXL (superwide) format rolls here to augment our SEAL XL (sub-2 metre) offerings, we expect to see more uptake of digital textiles in the coming years.”
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