Grafica to market Aeoon Kyo series digital textile printers in India

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Grafica to market Aeoon Kyo series digital textile printers in India

Grafica Flextronica has recently signed an agreement with Austria based Aeoon Technologies GmbH to market Aeoon Kyo series digital textile printers in India. These sturdy printers with a printing speed of 800 t-shirts per hour are designed for industrial use, vis-à-vis bulk production.

The agreement was signed by Bhargav Mistry, Managing Director of Grafica, and Angelo Schiestl, Managing Director of Aeoon Technologies GmbH, Austria, during the latter’s special visit to Grafica Factory and DMI Institute in Vasai, Mumbai.

Says Bhargav Mistry, Managing Director of Grafica, “While screen printing remains important in textile/garment printing space, demand for digital printers is encouraging. We want to seize this growing opportunity in India. Digital is an addition to our already existing strong portfolio of textile/garment printing machinery and allied products.”

Bhargav believes, “Both digital and screen printing technologies can co-exist now and in future. While digital press can be used for printing spot and CMYK colours even with big quantity, screen printing process would be required to print high density and special effects.”

Explaining the rationale behind joining hands with Grafica, Angelo Schiestl said, “Both Aeoon and Grafica have a synergy in terms of technology and technical know-how in their respective fields. While I come from textile/garment screen printing background, Grafica’s MD Bhargav is a staunch propagator of advanced screen printing with a passion for teaching good practices and advanced knowledge besides manufacturing high quality screen printing machines. I could see his specialty for myself during my visit to their factory and DMI Institute. We at Aeoon are also focused on sharing knowledge rather than just selling machines. We want our customers to be fully satisfied and using our machines to its fullest potential, profitably and productively.”

He adds, “It is true that digital DTG presses were hitherto used for low volume or novelty production, but thanks to our new technology, it can now become the industrial production method for garment decoration. Our industrial range Aeoon Kyo digital presses can also be used for printing just one single piece of garment to any bulk production. I can confidently say that till date, the Kyo series is the fastest digital DTG printer in its market segment.”

Angelo explains, “The machines are robust, and have a durable full-metal machine body that is designed to handle the mechanical stresses of industrial use. Aeoon machines are built with top quality components. Most importantly, many of the maintenance issues that are common in many DTG digital presses are eliminated. For example, wiping the heads which requires a very simple process of moving the heads to a certain position and giving them a quick wipe.”

“With Aeoon digital press, one can print on dark and light textiles using Aeoon RIP software which prepares all files for printing, generates (if applicable) a white under-base and automatically synchronizes the printable files with the machine. To print on light garments, one has to simply load the textile on the pallet, on the touch screen select the design to be printed, and hit the print button. Dark garments have to be pretreated before printing. During the printing process, the white under base is applied and the colours are printed on top of it. Following this, the textiles need to be cured in a dryer.”

To ensure the best printing quality possible and to print on dark garments, it is necessary to pretreat the textiles. The pretreatment process is carried out before the actual printing. To maximise the output of machines, the pretreatment is not integrated in the Aeoon textile printers. There is no loss of speed or output due to the time consuming pretreatment processes. It requires less cleaning effort since no pretreatment vapours will settle inside the machine and the heads. Although the pretreatment is not part of the actual machine, Aeoon offers individual pretreatment solutions that exactly match production needs.

Angelo says that the Aeoon direct to garment printer is adaptable. “Which means printers can upgrade and add features such as print heads, a laser system or custom pallets on the long run. For example: Start out with 8 print heads, which gives the same exceptional print quality as a Kyo printer equipped with 12 print heads. The only difference is that it’s not as fast as the version equipped with the maximum amount of print heads. This saves on acquisition cost. However, if fast printing is needed, print heads can be added to the machine.”

Aeoon supplies its own water based ink which is specially manufactured to meet the specification and mechanism of Kyo DTG digital printers. “Aeoon ink colours ensure that there is no contradiction between speed of the press and vibrant colours. The colour is optimised for an industrial scale textile printing and fulfills the highest quality demands on fastness, colour brightness and washability. Aeoon colours are available in CMYK and white-pigmented ink. It also offers a pretreatment solution which ensures the best printing quality on dark textiles,” says Angelo.

Explaining the advantages of digital textile printing process, Angelo further states, “One has to simply load the garment on the pallet and press the print button on touch screen. This reduces the set-up costs and the time consuming pre-printing processes to a minimum. Instead, one can print garments in no time, in short print runs and in a very high printing quality. Even a completely different image can be printed on each garment.”