Imaging giant HP is entering the nascent digital print for textiles market, with the launch of the Stitch series of inkjet fabric printers.
HP says its latest innovation is designed to accelerate commercial digital print adoption in what analysts say will be a booming market, thanks to the mega trends of personalisation and fast fashion. The Stitch series is designed for textile printing for sportswear/fashion, interior décor and soft signage applications.
“Décor and fashion application trends, on demand production and personalisation are boosting digital print growth,” said Jeremy Brew, large format application specialist at HP. “The digitally printed textiles market is experiencing double-digit annual growth, forecast to reach US$5.5bn by 2023, according to Smithers Pira. We look forward to more digital print transformations being realised with the arrival of the new HP Stitch S series.”
The Stitch portfolio of printers couple HP Thermal Inkjet technology with industry-standard dyes for what the company says is superior colour durability. They come with what HP claims is the first-ever built-in spectrophotometer, which it says enables Stitch’s fast and exact colour-matching.
The introduction Stitch series includes three new printers from 64-inch to 126-inch wide: the HP Stitch S300 64” Printer, the HP Stitch S500 64” Printer, and the HP Stitch S1000 126” Printer.
The HP Stitch S300 Printer holds the first user-replaceable printhead, resulting in reduced down-times and service costs. The HP Stitch S300 Printer was designed specifically for new-to-dye-sublimation professionals, prototyping departments, and growing print providers.
“Our experience with HP Stitch S300 has been that it is much easier and faster than other dye sub printers we have previously used,” says Teunis Roos, from textile print outfit Color Concepts. “Most printers require manual action in terms of head maintenance and alignment, but the HP Stitch S300 is more proactive and automated when it comes to performance.”
HP says the Stitch S500 Printer enables predictable dye sublimation colour and less media waste for production environments. With symmetrical two times CMYK printhead configuration and Optical Media Advance Sensor, this 64-inch printer allows for saturated and reliable one pass mode for top speed. The HP Stitch S500 Printer was designed specifically for high production sites.
HP has also launched a set of new dye sublimation papers for the new HP Stitch S Printer series. These papers are designed and tested as a system with HP dye sublimation inks and the HP Stitch S Printer series to achieve image quality and colour consistency.
The HP Stitch S300 and S500 Printer series, as well as dye sublimation paper, are available now and were showcased at ISA in Las Vegas from April 24-26. The 126-inch HP Stitch S1000 Printer will make its debut at Fespa 2019 in May.