Swedish major Coloreel has entered into a long-term partnership with the global electronics company Ricoh. Together they will set up a ground-breaking thread coloring unit for the textile industry. Ricoh will develop and build one of the major sub-systems in the unit, based on its inkjet printing technology and Coloreel’s technology for colorization.
Coloreel and Ricoh have co-operated for several years, and have now signed the final contracts. This partnership is a joint development effort to revolutionize the textile business, first with the thread coloring unit for the embroidery industry.
Ricoh has been driving innovation for more than 80 years and is a leading provider of document management solutions, IT services, commercial and industrial printing, digital cameras and industrial systems. Ricoh will build the sub-system for the colorization process using its long experience in the world of printing and combine it with Coloreel’s new technology for colorization. The development has taken place with Ricoh’s engineers in Japan and England and Coloreel’s engineers in Sweden.
“The partnership with Coloreel further demonstrates our commitment to collaboration and pushing boundaries. Combining our history of driving innovation for over 80 years, our commitment to customer needs and intent on becoming the analog to digital transformation experts in industrial process is enabling us to disrupt this exciting industry,” says Peter Williams, General Manager of Commercial and Industrial Printing Business Group at Ricoh.
The Coloreel technology enables high-quality instant coloring of textile thread while it is in the textile production. The first product to be launched based on this technology is a ground-breaking thread coloring unit that works with any existing industrial embroidery machine. By instantly coloring a white base thread during the embroidery production, Coloreel enables complete freedom to create unique embroideries without any limitations in the use of colors.
“It feels amazing that a company like Ricoh, with its dignity and size, chooses to enter this partnership with us. To have Ricoh as our partner gives our product even more credibility, and we are excited to see what this partnership will bring,” says Mattias Nordin, CEO at Coloreel.
Coloreel will start production in autumn 2018. World-leading companies in textile, fashion and sportswear are looking forward to using this revolutionary product.