The recent presentation by Mr Aditya Chandavarkar, chief executive offier, Inkjet Forum India at FESPA 2012, Barcelona included an overview of the Indian conventional and digital textile printing market; the future of digital textile printing in India; major digital printing equipment and ink manufacturers present; key issues that need to be addressed for this technology to be successful in India.

Some excerpts from the presentations:

India & digital textile printing

Indiafs foray into digital textile printing has been recent and it is in the initial growth stages. The demand for digitally printed customised products in also increasing. The total estimates volume of digitally printed fabric is 31 million linear metres/year with a estimated annual market value of US $ 100 million. The major fabrics being printed with DTP at present include Cotton, Silk & Polyester with a large percentage of the application end use currently is printed fabrics for fashion & apparel.

One of the printing application, which has rapidly adopted digital printing is the printing of sarees. Looking at the growing Indian population & need for new designs this industry will continue to be a major component of Digital Textile Printing in India.

Ink pricing

The digital textile ink price has seen a sharp dip of more that 80% over the last 12-years in India. However the digital textile printing technology adoption has not grown at a proportional rate. There are a number of challenges, which need to be addressed first for digital textile printing to see uninhibited growth. However Inkjet Forum India will always see a range of ink products depending on the budget of the end user as the company see in all technologies across industries. At Inkjet Forum India feel that the price of inks should not the real motivator for growth of the Digital Textile Printing Industry. The emphasis should be more on the long-term advantages the complete package of Digital Textile Printing technology offers. The cost advantages it offers to the end user in the form of value addition, short runs, minimal wastage, very low turnaround times & low inventories adds much more to the revenues.

Conclusion

Digital textile printing is overall an interesting technology and provides exciting avenues for new products development, innovation and value addition to the end users. But digital textile printing is not a technology where you can simply install a a printer, put in the fabric and print. Running a digital textile printer at optimum production level is a combination of:

• Appropriate training from the machine manufacturers, RIP software suppliers, ink manufacturers & allied service providers to the end users to optimally use the entire Digital Textile Printing Package.
• Accurate feedback & documentation from the end user to the technology suppliers to resolve issues efficiently.
• Investment of time by end user to train their print technicians/masters.
• Timely follow up of maintenance schedule by end user and use of approved spares, inks to avoid downtime.
• Continuous interaction between suppliers & end users.

Inkjet Forum India is organising Inkjet India 2012 - Digital Textile Conference on 29th & 30th November 2012, JW Marriott, Mumbai where the best in the Digital Textile Printing Industry will converge. Inkjet Forum India is an inkjet knowledge & technology transfer platform to organise conferences, education programs, workshops and provide market research to help the Indian digital printing industry to understand technological developments, markets and applications requirements. Inkjet Forum India brings together more than 15-years of experience in organising events & comprehensive knowledge of printing inks & technology to create a competent knowledge sharing platform.

(Courtesy: By Mr Aditya Chandavarkar, CEO, Inkjet Forum India. Tel: +91 98694 41285. Email: aditya@inkjetforumindia.com. Web: www.inkjetforumindia.com)