DuPont Advanced Printing is considered an industry leader in flexographic printing solutions for consumer packaging and digital printing inks for textile, commercial, home, and office applications that deliver consistent, high-quality print performance and productivity. DuPont™ Artistri® textile ink jet ink portfolio includes all chemistries (acid, reactive, pigment, dye sublimation and direct disperse) and ranges from low to high viscosity for compatibility with a variety of printheads.
In an exclusive chat with The Textile Magazine, on the sidelines of the recently held ITMA Asia 2018 event in Shanghai, Mr. Eric P. Beyler, Global Marketing Leader – Artistri® Inks, DuPont Advanced Printing, gave detailed insights on the company’s products and solutions.
When asked to elaborate on specifically the inkjet inks product portfolio of DuPont, Mr. Eric Beyler replied stating: “We serve both the roll to roll and Direct To Garment (DTG) segments. In addition to acid, reactive, pigment, direct disperse & Dye Sublimation Artistri® ink jet inks, we also provide pretreatments and processing guidance so our customers have the total solution at their disposal.
Pointing out to the importance of the textile printing segment for DuPont globally, Mr. Eric Beyler mentioned that company has a near 100-year long history dedicated to helping customers move to the digital textile era and at the same time significantly lower its environmental footprint.
For the textile printing segment, Artistri® ink jet inks is DuPont’s brand. The company offers inks both for roll to roll (Xite inks) and DTG (Brite inks) customers.
Going into details on the key global markets for DuPont’s textile printing business, Mr. Eric Beyler said: “Digital textile segments are in the same regions as the traditional textile segments and they all have their uniqueness. The USA for DTG and Italy for fashion have been historically key for the transformation of textile printing into digital. Today, digital is growing fast all over the world, from Brazil & Turkey to China & India. The number of print equipment manufacturers continues to grow and these manufacturers hail from many countries throughout the world, from Brazil and Portugal to Australia and Korea.”
When queried how important is the Indian market for DuPont’s textile printing inks vertical, Mr. Eric Beyler said: “Digital textile is a fast-growing segment in India with a very large traditional printing base. It is a major producer of roll to roll digitally printed fabrics, with reactive, dye sublimation and direct disperse inks being the high-volume inks today. Use of pigment inks in DTG is in its early stage but growing fast and many customers are asking us to help them with printing Artistri® pigment inks in roll to roll applications. DuPont’s portfolio and expertise in pigment inks (including pretreatment, polymers, dispersions & ink formulation) enables us to provide complete solutions to our customers in India poised to catch the growing wave of digital printing with pigment inks.”
The textile printing inks market today is highly competitive with products across every price point. Given this scenario why should a customer consider using DuPont inks? In his response to this question, Mr. Eric Beyler listed down certain key advantages offered by the inks saying: “DuPont has been innovating, manufacturing and selling ink jet inks for more than 25 years. Artistri® textile ink jet inks deliver advantages in 3 critical areas for our customers – color, productivity & innovation. With the polymers and dispersions, we develop, and with more than 15 years of textile ink formulations, we enable dye & pigment ink sets to deliver bright colors, deep blacks and offer an excellent white ink for DTG applications. By adding quality, consistency and printing reliability, we help our customers lower their production costs and optimize their productivity. We keep the new ink products coming, constantly innovating & renewing our portfolio to help our customers be successful with increasingly demanding standards.”
DuPont textile inks are manufactured in the USA, with its primary technology center being located in Wilmington DE. “We are expanding our technical footprint with centers in Germany, Japan and China to better understand and respond to our customers’ needs,” Mr. Eric Beyler added.
When asked to share his thoughts on whether digital textile printing is the answer for sustainable printing solutions, given the reputation of the textile industry for being among the top polluting industries, Mr. Eric Beyler observed: “We believe the technologies with the lowest environmental footprint, namely pigment, dye sublimation and direct disperse, will be key in taking the digital share of textile printing to the next level. We are dedicated to continuing to innovate to help our customers achieve high quality printing with the lowest environmental impact.”
Sounding optimistic about the future prospects of the textile printing market, Mr. Eric Beyler said: “We see continued growth for digital textile inks and are investing in people and assets to support & develop the DuPont™ Artistri® inkjet portfolio and be a major contributor to digital textile customers. We find that we must be agile to be able to respond to our customer’s changing needs, and be differentiated as the number of players is ever increasing. Our customers want more than an ink, they want a complete technical and business solution. We are ready to deliver on this challenge and help our customers succeed and grow.”