The Xaar Aquinox allows users to print ‘bolder and brighter’
Xaar is the world’s leading independent manufacturer of piezo-based drop-on-demand inkjet technologies. The company’s printheads are trusted in industrial markets around the globe as the most effective way to lay down precise volumes of inks and fluids with absolute pin-point accuracy time after time. In an interview with Fibre2Fashion, Xaar’s Head of Product Management Justin Noble discusses the recently launched ground-breaking aqueous printhead.
What is the size of the global market for inkjet printers? At what rate is it growing?
Digital textile printing continues to demonstrate strong growth opportunities for companies throughout the textile and printing supply chain. According to Smithers, overall global growth in digital textile printing volumes will increase by 13.9 per cent from 2021 to 2026, and is predicted to hit a market share of ten per cent from six per cent over the same period.
While still relatively small, inkjet is the key to driving this growth in market share, and is the technology predominantly used to print synthetic fibres, natural fibres, and blends. OEMs are therefore increasing the availability of printers to the textile sector, and the launch of our revolutionary printhead – the Xaar Aquinox – delivers exceptional reliability, creativity, and sustainability for printing aqueous fluids, helping to grow the market.
How would you describe the market for printheads in Europe?
Whilst Asia is the dominant producer of digitally printed textiles on a volume basis, Western Europe continues to hold second position, driven particularly by Italy as the world’s fashion epicentre, and leading digital printing equipment manufacturers. Especially, since COVID, there has been an increase in the number of European companies purchasing digital textile printers, and we are seeing a demand for printheads that can cope with a wider variety of aqueous fluids – in particular pigmented inks – at which the Xaar Aquinox excels.
Which are your major markets globally?
As a global business we supply printheads to manufacturers around the world. While Europe is our largest geographic region, China and Asia are also key markets for Xaar, particularly in the textile sector. Our local representation and support in each region ensures that we meet the needs of our OEMs in developing the latest printers for inkjet applications.
How would you describe the demand for printheads, and inkjet printers post pandemic?
While the pandemic has undoubtedly challenged the global supply chain, we are still seeing growing demand for inkjet printheads across a wide variety of market sectors. It is an enabling technology that has multiple applications, and with the Aquinox printhead we can now deliver the reliability in aqueous printing that many manufacturers have been looking for. As such we anticipate that demand will continue to grow, and for Xaar to be key to delivering the printheads and technologies in the use of inkjet.
What are the top three market trends you see in digital imaging?
We would say flexibility, reliability and sustainability are the key trends that are driving growth in the use of inkjet technologies in the textiles sector. When developing our aqueous technology, the market need was clear – delivery of a truly reliable, robust printhead that can print a much wider range of aqueous fluids including high viscosity and high pigment loading. And that is what we have done with the launch of the Aquinox.
Please tell us about your water-based printing technology.
Our revolutionary printhead, the Xaar Aquinox, delivers exceptional reliability, creativity, and sustainability for printing aqueous fluids. The Aquinox is the latest development from Xaar’s ImagineX platform, and our aQ Power Technology provides a radically new approach to the reliable jetting of water-based fluids, delivering a truly transformational industrial printhead for textiles and any other sector that benefits from the use of aqueous fluids.
The changing landscape of the textile market makes the Xaar Aquinox printhead perfect for many applications. Simplified processes, exceptional print speeds and a wide array of customisation options, places the Xaar Aquinox at the very forefront of efficiency and versatility. Speeds of over 100m/min can be achieved, and a high native resolution of 720dpi and firing frequency of up to 48kHz, enables high fluid laydown for maximum productivity.
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
