If you print on textile – or are thinking of doing just that – perhaps you’ll be whizzing over to Frankfurt in the New Year. Here’s why.
Around 69,000 trade visitors went to Heimtexil in 2016. Will you boost the numbers in 2017? If you are one of the growing band of large-format printers getting into fabric printing you probably should be.
Just look at the latest data from Smithers Pira. Its new report ‘The Future of Digital Textile Printing to 2021’ values the current global market at 1.17bn Euro and forecasts an annual average growth of 12.3% for 2016 - 2021. This will see the market more than double in value over five years, reaching 2.42bn Euro in 2021. The consultancy has tracked how this will drive the volume of fabric printed with inkjet equipment - from 870million/m² in 2016 to 1.95billion/m² in 2021.
“Global near-exponential growth rates cannot be sustained in the long-run as a market matures; but several very high growth regions remain,” says Dr Justin Hayward, author of the report. He adds: “The revolution digital printing has created in graphics, and more recently in ceramics, shows a market penetration of over 70% can occur within a few years if there is extensive cost parity or better, and if barriers to change are removed.”
According to Smithers Pira, the market share for digital processes within textiles stands at 2.8% of overall volume in 2016. But, it says, digital’s share is set to boom in a segment where the mean growth is just 3%.
As you might expect, the greatest acceleration is expected to be in the area of clothing - fashion, haute couture and sportswear. Household textiles are predicted to grow at the next fastest rate. Displays and signage are growing somewhat more slowly - but from a larger base - and should maintain double digit annual growth. The expectation is that technical textiles will lose ground slightly, indicative of a lack of visibility of, or focus on, these smaller niche markets.
The demand for quick turnaround obviously suits inkjet production, and PIra Smithers sees the growing availability of Web-to-print platforms generating direct online sales of digitally printed clothing, and increasingly household décor too.
None of this is a surprise of course. Back in 2015 we carried a ‘Trending’ feature in Image Reports using stats from InfoTrends (http://www.imagereportsmag.co.uk/features/business/6228-fabric-print-futures) that forecast digital textile printing on the path to strong double-digit growth - in excess of 30%. And at the start of this year Smithers PIra published ‘The Future of Dye-Sublimation Printing to 2021’ - essentially a prequel to its new report - that said around 384m/m2 of fabric were printed digitally via dye sublimation in the year to Q1 2016, set to rise to 892m/m2 by 2021 (http://www.imagereportsmag.co.uk/news/4-wide-format-news/6791-the-future-of-dye-sublimation-printing-to-2021-published).
If all of the data and analysis - plus what seems like a continual stream of new technological capability - is making you think textile print just might be an option, Heimtextil could be just the place to get up to speed on trends and developments.
2,867 exhibitors presented their innovations during the trade fair in 2016 and you can expect a similar number at the 2017 event, which will cover 366,637m2, as well as an outdoor exhibition area measuring over 96,000m2.
The exhibition will be divided into home textiles (floor, deco systems, upholstery, wall, window) and household textiles (bath, bed, table, modern style) as well as a services segment (textile design, media, and digital print technology).
A ‘digital print technology’ product group in Hall 6 will include digital printers, digital software and digital accessories.
Core to the event is its Theme Park, the motto of which for 2017 is ‘Explorations’. The organiser’s intention is that this is where visitors will find trailblazing realisations of trends that have been identified by experts on the international Trendtable - a panel of experts that meet in the spring to exchange ideas and come up with predictions for the coming season.
The Theme Park is situated in Hall 6, so handy for those of you spending most of your time in the digital print technology exhibition space.
There will also be a Green Village that will host certification bodies and quality-mark organisations and where you’ll find Speakers’ Corner and the starting point for a Green Tours programme.
No show these days goes ahead without a conference programme, and Heimtextil will run a free list of talks that do not require additional booking in advance. The full timetable can be found at: http://heimtextil.messefrankfurt.com/frankfurt/en/besucher/events
Exhibitors Include:
As already stated, there’ll be a broad selection of exhibitors - from those making yarns, to those offering interior design services - basically, anything to do with textiles in all its shapes and forms. Those exhibiting within the ‘digital print’ sphere are as follows:- Ava CAD CAM
- Grupo Fabrics
- Castilla Textil
- CERM Tekstil
- Cibitex
- d.gen
- Durst
- EFI (Reggiani Macchine)
- Epson
- European Master Batch
- HP
- Kiian Digital
- Kornit Digital Europe
- Mezroze
- Mimaki Europe
- MultiStiq
- Mutoh
- NedGraphics
- MS Printing Solutions
- Schoeller Technocell
- SGP Prints
- Standfast and Barracks
- Sun Chemical
- TCS TopoColor Systems
- Veika
- Xeikon
- Zimmer