Durst has entered a joint venture with English company Technijet - a manufacturer of industrial high-pressure cleaning systems - to develop peripheral solutions for digital textile printing.
The common conceptual design of the patented Swiftjet pre-treatment system is the basis of the joint venture. The system was presented at Itma 2015 in Milan by Durst as a feasibility study.
Swiftjet is a spraying and drying unit which is connected upstream of the actual printing machine and, depending on the desired printing result, takes over the chemical pre-treatment of the textile thread.
Since the introduction of the Alpha Series printers at Itma 2015, Durst has worked to optimise the efficiency and environmental footprint of inkjet print production (eg. by introducing the soft pigment ink system Alpha P, which can be printed on standard material like cotton and polyester without additional binders and wet processes and that reduces water and energy consumption in production).
With the market introduction of Swiftjet flexibility should be further increased, since pre-treatment can be added upstream. Previously independent processes can therefore be consolidated and automated.
The Swiftjet pre-treatment system is adapted for the Durst Alpha Series inkjet printer and can process print widths of up to 330cm. Durst will also offer the pre-treatment system as a standalone solution for existing third party technologies.
"In all market segments, our highest aim is to replace 'old' technologies with new, disruptive systems", said Christoph Gamper, CEO of Durst Phototechnik. "This isn't just about switching from 'analogue' to 'digital' - it's a redefinition of the production processes. In this redefinition, economic efficiency and environmental criteria are not mutually exclusive, but complementary. With our printing systems and the new pre-treatment technology we can significantly reduce our ecological footprint, particularly in textile printing.”
“In many textile markets the additional ecological benefit provided by our technologies is not just a side effect anymore but it is a central requirement for complying with new regulatory and environmental requirements and to live up to new social awareness," added Martin Winkler, segment manager Textile Printing, Durst Phototechnik.