ITMA: KORNIT BRINGS DTG TO MAINSTREAM
Kornit has launched the Apollo platform at ITMA, which it says is the ultimate in high-throughput digital production at scale, and is among a raft of digital textile print solutions it has at the show.
The company, which is represented in ANZ by Kissel + Wolf, is also introducing the Kornit Atlas Max Plus system for decorated apparel – now incorporating smart curing, flexible pallet sizing, and autonomous calibration for quality, consistency, and productivity.
According to Johnny Shell, principal analyst at Keypoint Intelligence, Kornit’s expanded ecosystem comes at the right time for the market: “These technologies offer a way forward for businesses to potentially expand into new markets and realistically adopt short-run, made-to-order apparel. More recent advancements such as Kornit Apollo are engines of this transformation, empowering decorators to re-think how they’ll do business. These advancements will only continue to propel digital technology to the forefront of preferred apparel decoration methods.”
Kornit says it is enabling digital production to go mainstream, it says Apollo allows customers to become more agile, drive revenue opportunities, shift to localised production, and ease complex workflow processes. It offers large-capacity and high-quality players the opportunity to adopt digital versatility and a quick time to market – expanding beyond screen printing to achieve vertical or horizontal expansion and robust business opportunities based on current operational models.
The Apollo platform is built on field-proven and industry leading Kornit Max technology, and is a streamlined single-step solution for nearshore short-run and medium-run apparel decoration.
Kornit says it is designed to empower customers to sidestep the hazards of complex supply chains, it also offers speed and agility in digital decoration – designed from the ground up to decorate 400 garments per hour.
Automated loading and unloading, integrated smart curing, and inline garment type adjustment yield higher output and reduced labour for optimised profitability.
“The fashion and textile industry has remained at a crossroads – aware of its limitations but lacking a clear solution for moving from wasteful, inefficient production models,” said Ronen Samuel, CEO at Kornit Digital. “Offering a platform for agile, high-throughput digital production on demand, Apollo transforms what apparel producers and brands can do. It empowers them to meet the creative inspirations and ever-changing demands of a global community with capabilities to fulfill those expectations, with quality, consistency, sustainability, and the necessary profitability to scale no matter what unforeseen trends await.”
The new Atlas Max Plus system takes Kornit’s proven Atlas Max productivity up to 150 garments per hour. It has integrated Smart Curing, Rapid Size Shifter pallets, and autonomous calibration.
Also on display at ITMA 2023 is the recently introduced Max Poly, aiming to transform professional and recreational sportswear, teamwear, and licensed gear to inject new life into apparel with design freedom leveraging Kornit’s Max platform. The Atlas Max Poly is a specialty system for polyester decoration, covering also blends, tri-blends, and other synthetic fabric combinations. According to Kornit, the solution delivers colourful and vibrant prints using innovative neon inks while supplying retail-grade quality and durability.