Textile print coming back to Aus

Fabric company Materialised is bringing its printing operations back to Australia from Asia, using three Roland DG wide format printers.

Owner Gary Price says the company has had digital printers for more than five years, but only used them to print samples to show customers, and then outsourced to rotogravure printers in Asia until a year ago.

The south-western Sydney-based company produces custom-printed fabric for customers in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia, especially for hotels, hospitals, and nursing homes.

[Related: More textile printing news]

At the beginning of last year it installed three Roland DG XF-640 dye sublimation printers and now prints 25 per cent of work in-house, and Price says all work will be inhouse in the next five years.

“In the past year or so we decided we would accelerate that transition from rotogravure to digital, and that has gained momentum,” he says.

“We like the idea of applying the same design to a whole raft of base cloths for different functions so we can print just as easily on waterproof upholstery as we can on a shear flimsy drapery or a tablecloth.”

Digital print operator Carla Yeung says Materialised can now print 200m every 22 hours on the new Roland DG XF-640, compared to 50m a day with its three old Roland DG XJ-740s.

“Sometimes we have one or two day deadlines so being able to print that fast is really good for us. It prints fast and dries quickly,” she says.

Price says after a thorough look at the market, he stuck with Roland DG because it was familiar and he had good experience with the previous machines.

“We set out to make a difference, and having the right tools that function predictably… we can make a difference,” he says.

The textile printing industry is expected to double every two years.

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