Unveil the Mystery of Digital Printing –Epson Mona Lisa Digital Printing Solutions Users Seminar was Started in Keqiao as the First Stop

New things always evolve together with heated discussions. As an emerging newcomer in textile industry, digital printing is faced with both expectation and questioning. Epson is a world-famous digital printing solutions leader that aims to get in touch with users, discuss demands and uncover the mystery in digital printing for users by means of the National Seminar Tour on Digital Printing Solutions.

On September 11, debut of Epson Mona Lisa Digital Printing Solutions Users Seminar started in Keqiao as the first stop, which has the largest clothing distribution center in Asia - China Textile City, which occupies a decisive position in the textile industry. The seminar attracted more than representatives from 20 digital printing application enterprises in Zhejiang for sharing and communication in aspects such as the development overview of digital printing, applications in technical fields of equipment, nozzles and the ink, and future digital printing developments. On the site with heated atmosphere, representatives were active in asking questions, and users believed that digital printing is a Star of Tomorrow that can bring reshuffling for the textile industry.

Zhang Kan, Chief Editor of TopPrint (professional media under FunTex in digital printing industry) introduced FunTex’s textile industry matrix and mainly shared TSCI highlights.

FunTex owns 14 major vertical supply chain platforms to provide 700,000+ industrial people of textile and garment industry with information acquisition and opportunity matching service each day.

TSCI, incorporating with four exhibitions which including International Printing and Dyeing Industry Application Exhibition, International Digital Printing Industrial Application Exhibition, International Textile Fabric Industry application exhibition, and International Garment Intelligent Manufacturing Industrial Application Exhibition, and by adherence to “establishment of all-round textile supply chain eco-system“, will be presented as a Feast of the Textile Industry for visitors in Shanghai New International Expo Center on July 15-17, 2019.

Watch development of digital printing from TSCI 

At TSCI 2019, EPSON appeared with Mona Lisa, which attracted a great number of fans.

Single-pass digital printing machine

Development trend: with high output but insufficient number of corresponding digital printing orders. It is used to replace traditional printing presses with excessively high cost, but the progress of the launch has slowed down. It is still ready to cope with a soaring market.

Nozzles application: The nozzles used in the domestically developed Single-Pass machine are mainly from Kyocera, SAMBA, Starfire and Epson. Other nozzle applications have not been seen yet.

Ink application: Disperse ink is applied with better effect than active ink, while applications for acid dye ink and pigment Ink have not been seen yet.

Individual customization: A mixed application is enabled by combination of Single-Pass machine and traditional cylinder machine and by revamping. There is a little market demand, but the customized price is higher.

Scanner

Imported equipment is dominated by multi-color machine (12 colors), while domestic ones by scanning type and high speed machines.

Development trend

There is a wide range of optional nozzles. Nozzles from each supplier have unique features.

Active ink will play a main role. Users have an increasing using demand for sublimation Ink and water based sublimation ink, and users in some regions are in high demand for acid dye ink. Pigment Ink is expected to become a major role in the next wave of application;

Equipment witnessed an increase in auxiliary functions, rich color, improved precision and rising output of scanners.

Marketing director of Epson (China) co., LTD --- Mrs Huang Chaoyin has introduced the development, product and service to guests.

Epson, also known as Seiko Epson Corporation, was founded in 1942 and has developed three major markets: printing solutions, visual communication and wearable devices and industrial solutions, focusing on micro-piezoelectric technology, micro-display technology, sensing technology and robots. It has 85 subsidiaries with more than 80,000 employees, and its business profit in 2017 fiscal year was 74.7 billion yen. The corporation is committed to intelligent technology, environmental-friendly and excellent performance for users to create value. 

It is worth mentioning that the Mona Lisa digital printing project which is famous in the industry was started in 1998. Founding companies are the Robustelli (mechanical design) and the For.Tex (ink and fabric processing) in Italy. Epson formally joined in the project in 2001, providing the micro piezoelectric nozzle technology. In 2016, Epson officially acquired Robustelli and For.Tex, and the Mona Lisa Evo Tre series of new digital printing machine came out. In 2019 Mona Lisa made its debut in ITMA in the name of Epson, causing a sensation. The successive generations of Mona Lisa have been installed more than 270 worldwide.

Epson (China):

Adjust Measures to Local Conditions

Make All-around Efforts for Customer’s “Value”

Imported equipment is welcomed by domestic manufacturers for its superior and stable performance but its “remote and expensive” paid after-sales service is also troublesome for domestic enterprises. Mr. Zhang Liang, sales director of Epson China co., LTD., introduced Epson textile products, technologies, sales policies and supporting service in detail under the theme of Epson Accelerating Global Digital Printing Textile Business, and made a warm discussion with present enterprises representatives.

“Epson has been keeping up with market demand and is committed to providing the best service to its customers. The Mona Lisa series of high-capacity model, the Evo Tre 64, which was due to go on sale in 2021, will also be brought forward to 2020 to meet customer needs, with a capacity of up to 750 square meters per hours.” Mr. Zhang Liang said.

While concerning Epson’s “Adjust Measures to Local Conditions” sales policy in China, Mr. Zhang Liang introduced the following contents in detail:

1) Reducing price - the ink will be cheaper than the same type of imported product.

2) Tiered price (ink) - discount according to the customer’s purchase quantity, the larger quantity means the lower price.

3）Two-years of “Full Guarantee” service (nozzles) – free replacement for any damage within 2 years.

4）Door-to-door service (equipment) – customers do not have to bear any door-to-door service charges.

Manufacturers with imported equipment are well aware that maintenance of each equipment fault will cost abundant money and time, including: maintenance service application, service fees (hourly charge), engineer Visa processing and accommodation, etc. Therefore, the production progress delayed is helpless.

Mr. Zhang Liang cited the case of a customer in Changzhou:

Mona Lisa was installed in April, accepted in July and now officially put into production. As the operator accidentally rolled the fabric into the nozzle, which causes damage to the nozzle, customers immediately take the spare nozzle from the safe and replace the damage one. The whole process did not delay production at all and was totally free.

This is alive case, however, Epson’s supporting services in China go far beyond that.

In addition to the performance of the machine, customers are more concerned about the matching of the fabric of their factory products with the machine and ink. This requires certain testing and proofing to reassure customers. Epson has built proofing demonstration centers in Italy and Japan for solution development, presentation and customer proofing worldwide. Moreover, in order to better serve Chinese customers, Epson Shanghai solution center has been put into construction and is expected to open in 2019. This is good news for local customers in China, where the textile industry remains strong.

In addition to the above two aspects, marketing, sales and after-sales service teams of Epson (China) are also very perfect. Under special environmental protection policy requirements, Epson can fully cooperate and support customers to make “ink environmental certification”.

Nozzles are the core in digital printing’s application of the textile industry.

Mr. Zhang Liang shared a section of nozzle production video on site. The processing method of high precision, automation and robot production guarantees the accuracy and rate of final products. Adjustable size of the ink droplet of intelligence ink droplet transform system, S-shaped design for easier stitching (linear stitching allows users to have a wider printing area, while the compensation design avoids the problem of color loss), durability design and humanized replacement method (customers can replace themselves with about 20 minutes), all of which fully guarantee the quality of Epson nozzles. Comparison of test data of nozzles from third party shows that the Epson nozzles are in the forefront of stability, printing speed and ink compatibility.

With research and development, manufacturing, production and service in one package, Epson is helping the digital transformation and upgrading of the textile industry with its comprehensive and close-loop product service line, making all-around efforts for customer’s “value”.