Epson Technology Wants to Lead Revolution in Digital Printing

Epson continues to develop new solutions in digital printing technologies developer and market leading companies. Epson machines are mainly installed in Istanbul, Bursa and Çorlu.

Epson, which has unique technologies, from printheads to printers, obtained significant market figures  both industrial and graphic markets as well as in textile printing market in Turkey. DTF Sales & Marketing Director EMEAR and Americas Epson Europe Paolo Crespi, both assessed the market and gave information about their new solutions in an exclusive interview for Tekstil Teknoloji Magazine.

Over the last year, what have been your key textile-related activities?

Last summer in Barcelona, at ITMA, we presented our new Monna Lisa Evo Tre range and new Genesta pigment inks, representing the latest Epson innovations for an evolving digital textile market.

The new Monna Lisa Evo Tre range features Epson PrecisionCore Technology and offers a complete solution for all textile market needs, from large scale, high speed production to small run, on-demand sample printing. Monna Lisa Evo Tre range includes the new Monna Lisa Evo Tre 64 and the Monna Lisa Evo Tre 8, as well as the Monna Lisa Evo Tre 32 (displayed in the 16-channel configuration) and the Monna Lisa Evo Tre 16.

These new models will give our customers the opportunity to meet the needs of an ever-demanding textile market; a market that is increasingly competitive and in which the exclusive high quality, productivity and colour fastness features offered by Epson is a way to stand out from the crowd.

What developments have your recently made in the European and Turkey market?  

Both for European and Turkish markets, we are working in one and only direction: our goal is to increase our presence in terms of units’ number. In addition, we want to allow our customers to boost their competitiveness in their own market segment and all the strategies we have implemented and we will continue to implement in all countries we operate aim at meeting this goal.

What technological trends are you currently seeing in the digital printing machinery market?

Today the digital printing market represents the 5-7% circa of the total textile printing market worldwide. If it is true, I think we could see the remaining 93-95% as a big opportunity to grow and as a challenge. The reality is maybe a bit different and complex, because there are several factors, we can’t control that can influence the growth of digital versus traditional printing.

Despite this, we had a very nice experience in the Como district. Since 2000, when the digital printing machineries have been introduced, the digital printing has replaced almost the 70% of the total volume printed here. I firmly believe that, sooner or later, the rest of the world will follow Como’s example and do the same. And Epson technology wants to lead this revolution.

What are your customers increasingly requesting in terms of digital printing machinery? 

As we all know, the digital printing market is more and more demanding, for this reason our philosophy is to pursue improvements and performances without compromising quality. For the Monna Lisa project we have always considered printing quality as a mandatory prerogative even before speed. Moreover, we always base our work on two pillars, reliability and flexibility. Only this way it is possible to face different market segments.

How important is the European and Turkey market to your company – and much work do you carry out in this region?

Italy is the country where we have the most important number of installations – almost 70%. But thanks to offices and companies located around the world, we expect to grow in several non-European markets like Turkey and Latin America, Asia, Thailand, Korea as well.

In particular, the Turkish area is a very important market for the Monna Lisa project. Epson machines are mainly installed in Istanbul, Bursa and Çorlu. The experience of doing business with Turkish people is really great. We have continuously expanded our customer portfolio, among which are important Turkish textile and fashion brands. Since the beginning, when we started in 2003, Turkey was the second most important market we focused on. Unfortunately, the depreciation of the Turkish Lira, in August 2018, slowed down the business. Today we are slowing recovering the positive situation we had before. Credit is an important issue to be solved to enhance business.

How is your company approaching the demand for industry 4.0 solutions?

As everybody knows, Industry 4.0 is an industrial automation trend that aims to enhance working condition and increase efficiency and quality of production. In this sense Epson in cooperation with F.lli Robustelli and For.tex have been working on 4.0 printing machine since 2015. Monna Lisa project offers different benefits: from the increase in efficiency to the internet connectivity and so the remote monitoring. The user can have all information at hand wherever and whenever he is: the machine downtime, the machine-hours, the amount of production per hours or day. Last but not least, the remote monitoring allowed by printing 4.0 allows significant time reduction.

What measures is the company taking to adopt a sustainable approach to manufacturing?

The entire range of our Genesta inks received the EcoPassport certification from OEKO-TEX®. They offer quality, precise, colour-resistant printing on all types of fabrics and their high reliability reduces head cleaning cycles and drastically cuts consumption.

The Reactive Genesta inks have obtained the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) approval – a global textile production standard for organic fibers which includes ecological and social criteria and is supported by independent certification for the entire textile supply chain.

Moreover, concerning our Monna Lisa printers, we can affirm that the streamlined textile printing process means reduction both in the volume of wastewater sent for purification and in the consumption of energy for heating process water.  In comparison with the traditional flow, the saving is overall of 27%. We did a test in fields on Monna Lisa Evo Tre, and the results show that a conventional rotary system has a carbon footprint of 139.56 kg of CO2eq while a digital system produces 85.66 kg of CO2eq.

What have been your company’s biggest achievements over the past 12 months?    

At ITMA 2019 we successfully launched Monna Lisa Evo Tre 64. Evo Tre 64 is the latest Monna Lisa model which delivers high quality printing at exceptionally high speed and combines productivity, quality and accuracy with flexibility to enable customers to meet requests from a more demanding textile market. With its 64 PrecisionCore printheads, Monna Lisa Evo Tre 64 reaches a maximum print speed of 779 square meters per hour (600×600 dpi – 2 passes), without compromising printing quality.

With the textile market requiring quick delivery and reduced lot quantity, Monna Lisa Evo Tre 64 is the right solution for printing companies that need to print small to large lot orders on different type of fabric with simple to complex designs at daily operation. Now large and medium-sized companies can manage frequent but diverse lot orders typical for the “fast fashion” market. With its high productivity and print quality, Monna Lisa Evo Tre 64 can replace multiple printers with a single printer.

What are your plans for the next couple of years?

We are working on two directions: continuous improvements of the printer’s technical performances, according to the specific requests of our customers; and continuous expansion of our Monna Lisa project in markets we haven’t faced yet (or only partially). For example, we want to boost our business in the Middle and Far East and Latin America.

Interview: Dilek Hayırlı