Page 65 - October-November-2017

Paolo Milini, Vice President, Sales & Business colors are better on traditional printers and prefer to 64
Development for MS Printing Solutions S.r.l., Caronno still print on rotary machines. We don’t think we’ll go
Petrusella, Italy, a developer of digital ink-jet printing back, however. We’ll keep our rotary machine and - Changeover time between production runs is developing what he would eventually call the MS
systems. “Implementing new technology takes time, screen table, but it’s more expensive and greatly reduced. “You only need time to change LaRio in 1996 (LaRio is the name of the northernmost
but eventually digital printing will become accepted complicated; we think it’s crazy to do traditional fabrics, around 10 minutes, and if you don’t need to of the three branches of nearby Lake Como; in fact,
like seat belts in a car.” To illustrate that reluctance, printing today. change fabrics, it takes one minute to change the the stylistic “A” in the graphic representation of the
though digital textile printing has been a viable digital files versus 120 minutes for traditional LaRio name is an outline of the famous lake). Nearly a
technology for nearly 10 years the latest usage To elaborate on his point, Curti noted that in 2007 not printing,” marveled Lino Curti, Federico’s son and decade-and-a-half later, in 2010, the LaRio was
figures indicate that it accounted for just 3% of the a single meter of textile printing done by SCR was SCR’s Vice President of Operations. launched as the world’s first “single pass” digital printer.
textile-printing market in 2015. Despite that, some digital, but by 2011, 50% of the company’s printing - Digital printing allows for faster printing speeds, but
industry insiders are confident that rate will grow to was of the digital variety, and he estimates that as with no loss in printing quality. “The quality is the One look at the capabilities that the LaRio, which is
20% of the market by the end of 2020. much as 80% of the printing will be done digitally in same no matter what speed you print at and the the only single-pass digital printer in the world that
2016. speed is capped only by the rate that the ink can be works with both reactive and disperse inks, would
Taking The Digital Leap injected,” said Lino Curti. bring to his printing operation and Federico Curti was
One company that has fully embraced the idea of In addition to higher print quality, there are several - SCR used to need 3,000 square meters (10,000 sold. “In 2015, we started thinking about the single
digital textile printing is Stamperia di Cassina other significant benefits to digital printing – most square feet) of space to store its printing screens and pass because the market was changing and we
Rizzardi, or SCR. The company originated in Como, notably, savings in time and space, faster print cylinders, but without the need for those traditional needed to break out of the market,” he said. “It was
speeds and the ability to print with both reactive inks, printing components, that space can now be used to emotional to go with the LaRio, we thought it was
which are used with fabrics like wool, cotton and silk, store more fabrics. crazy, but here we are. We saw that single pass
and disperse inks, which must be used with A Perfect Partnership could be a new way for us to improve digital printing.
polyester. The most notable benefit of the LaRio’s SCR’s conversion to digital printing was aided by The LaRio is incredible. We can do 40 to 50 meters
ability to dispense both types of inks from the same having a partner that was committed to the cause in (131 to 164 feet) per minute, double the speed of
machine is that the changeover time between inks is MS Printing Solutions. After being in business for rotary, with none of the problems of rotary printing.”
only 10 minutes, compared to 120 minutes nearly two decades as a designer, developer and
associated with traditional printing. “The LaRio is like two machines in one,” added Lino
distributor of screen and rotary technologies for use Curti. “The quality is the same no matter what speed
Additional Benefits of Digital Printing: in high-end, roll-to-roll textile printing, Luigi Milini you print at, and we’re currently printing at 35 meters
- The time and resources needed to prepare and made the critical, forward-thinking decision in 2002 to (114 feet) per minute, while the LaRio has a maximum
clean the components (screens, cylinders, etc.) on deemphasize the old technologies and go all in on of 75 meters (246 feet). And with the LaRio the heads
traditional machines are eliminated. “There is a big the digital-printing revolution. MS Printing Solutions, are stable, the alignment is fixed; with other types of
di erence with water usage. When you print with which was acquired by Dover Corporation, Downers printing it can be hard to print in the same spot.”
digital, you need nothing, just put the fabric on the Grove, IL, USA, in 2014, produced its last
machine,” said Curti. “With traditional printing, you conventional machine in 2007 after building around Coupled with an equally large MS Maxi-D Fabric Dryer
have to put an order into the color kitchen; you have 2,000 of the machines between 1983 and 2007. from MS Printing Solutions, the LaRio setup takes up an
to mix the ink, have to prepare the cylinders, and entire wall in SCR’s printing shop, but with the space
have to clean the screens. Then the color kitchen SCR firmly entered the digital-printing universe in saved through the elimination of the need for screen
2007 with the purchase of 10 MS JP5 Ink Jet Digital storage, it looks like a natural fit in the facility.
Printers from MS Printing Solutions, which at the time
could print at a maximum speed of 20 linear meters Conclusion
an hour. Today, the same machines can print at 100 Confronting change can always be a scary
Italy, in 1947, but relocated in 1984 to the northern Italian linear meters per hour max. The company later proposition, but when it can be accomplished with a
trusted partner at your side, the task is made easier.
added a pair of larger MS JP7 models with a
We all remember the days when film cameras were accustomed to the old ways can be leery of the town of Cassina Rizzardi, which is about a 40-minute drive maximum printing speed of 335 linear meters an Federico and Lino Curti knew digital textile printing
at the cutting edge of photographic technology. new. Some textile printers in the fashion industry fell from the European fashion hub of Milan. hour. Those purchases, though, were just the was the future and they also knew that MS Printing
They ascended to those heights because the film into this camp when new digital textile printing Solutions was a trendsetter in the transition to the
was easy to load, use and develop, especially when came onto the market some 15 years ago. Though SCR is unique among textile printers in that the new technology, with the LaRio setting a new
compared to the old days when cumbersome they could see the benefits of digital printing, they company not only does third-party printing for many standard within that realm. This year alone, SCR
photographic plates and darkrooms were required were still married to the old screen or rotogravure recognizable high-end fashion labels (some of anticipates it will print two million meters (6.6 million
to produce a photographic image. Photographic (rotary) printing technologies. This means that they whom, in a bit of irony, prefer their fabrics to still be feet) of fabric on the LaRio machine out of the more
technology took another gigantic leap forward when may be consciously forsaking the advantages in printed with rotary printers), while also designing and than seven million meters (23 million feet) it will
the digital camera was invented, which eliminated terms of optimized printing times, costs and, most selling its own proprietary fabric designs. “We are produce this year.
the need for film, the trip to the store to get the film significantly, quality that converting to next going through a revolution with digital printing, and
developed and even the uncertainty of how the generation digital ink-jet printing machines can digital printing has completely changed the market,” “We feel the market is very interested in SCR now because
pictures would turn out. provide. “It’s a very conservative industry and they explained Federico Curti, President of SCR. “The Though SCR still does a great deal of its textile printing with traditional we have a LaRio,” said Federico Curti. “Customers have
are not really open to the change; some people still colors, shades, fastness of the ink are much better may be closed, or a cylinder may break, which will rotary machines (foreground), the addition of the MS LaRio will help put the said to us that I came to you because you have a LaRio.
company at the forefront of the digital-printing revolution.
But as with anything new, users who have grown don’t consider digital as an industrial solution,” said with digital. Some of our customers say that the delay the print run at least 24 hours. The market is happy we have a LaRio; it has helped us
appetizer before the main course. Luigi Milini began change our approach to the market.”

October/November 2017