Kornit Digital will reveal the new high-productivity, low-cost-per-print Vulcan system, a digital platform that for the first time rivals screen printing for mid-to-long runs, due to its speed and ink efficiency.
Compared to the company’s current systems, Vulcan users can reduce the cost per print by up to 40%. With the Kornit Vulcan, more textile printers and garment decorators can benefit from digital printing advantages that include drastically reduced turnaround times, mass customisation capabilities and the elimination of setup costs, coupled with significantly reduced labour and manufacturing space.
Kornit’s new direct-to-garment flagship will be the fastest direct-to-garment printing system in the market, capable of producing up to 250 high quality garments per hour, with dark and light garments printed at the same speed. This marks a significant increase of productivity at more than double the effective throughput of previous Kornit systems. The Vulcan will produce excellent photorealistic quality, featuring 60 new-generation print-heads with an advanced recirculating ink system in a six-colour-plus-white configuration.
The system caters for multiple print sizes and configurations with a maximum print size of 70×100 cm (27.5×39.5 in). Like all other Kornit systems, the Vulcan was developed around the company’s unique NeoPigment patented printing process. Kornit’s own water-based inks work on a variety of fibers (natural, man-made and blends) and allow for inline-pretreatment. For the new system, the ink will be shipped in 4 litre bottles. After printing, garments are cured with a standard hot-air dryer. The inks are Oeko-Tex 100 certified and GOTS pre-approved.
Oded Kraft, Kornit’s VP of Product Development, commented, ‘The Kornit Vulcan significantly expands the addressable market for digital direct-to-garment printing by offering a true alternative to large scale screen printing manufacturing. Given the continued trend towards large scale manufacturing of relatively small batches of discrete designs, Kornit made the decision to create a first of a kind versatile system able to run small, medium and large batches at extremely high speeds and with an easy-to-use user interface.
‘With its incredibly low printing cost per print, it is the most cost-efficient way to produce quantities beyond 100 shirts per print run, while being capable of customising each shirt. The Vulcan offers an optimal solution for existing custom decorators as well as web to print solution providers. The Vulcan is an exciting incremental step in our mission to deliver competitive digital solutions that eliminate environmental impact in an industry which has struggled to meet global standards.’
Kornit will reveal this new system at ITMA 2015, taking place 12-19 November in Milan. Kornit will launch multiple beta sites and evaluations of the system over the coming months and expects general market availability by the middle of 2016.
