Whilst all the ITMA hype surrounds the gigantic single pass
inkjet printing behemoths from the big guns in the industry, a much more
understated machine is causing a stir amongst the garment producers attending
the show.
Focus Label Machinery ltd is a great British company who are
market leaders in producing printing equipment for the care label and narrow
web textile market. For over 30 years they have produced specialised flexo
machines that have been installed all over the globe, wherever there is textile
production.
Since 2012 they have integrated Industrial Inkjet Ltd’s ColourPrint print engines onto their flexo systems to provide the hybrid d-Flex narrow web label printing system.
This year they decided to combine this digital technology
with their innovative and compact narrow web textile equipment to produce the
d-Tex machine.
Printing on both sides of the web, this machine can print at
up to 60 m/min, and can print fully variable data.
The unit uses Konica Minolta KM1800i printheads and sub systems from Industrial inkjet ltd, but the main innovations come from the Focus team and their understanding of what this part of the market needs. The new d-Tex concept is the first equipment designed specifically for this application. The d-Tex is a practical industrial production level machine and an effective method of producing short run digitally printed garment & apparel labels based on proven technology developed over several years by Focus Label in our packaging & paper division. Focus’ David Lee said “This machine is a little gem and is certainly causing a bit of a stir. We are asking people to express their interest in the machine on our website and we have seen a lot of interest in it at the show”