AATCC and SGIA Digital Textile Printing Conference 4.0 Another Huge Success

In early December, nearly 140 textile industry professionals gathered in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., for the Digital Printing Conference 4.0, the fourth annual conference hosted jointly by industry associations AATCC and SGIA. Attendance included designers, brands, retailers, a wide range of suppliers to the industry, print providers, educators and journalists. The conference was comprised of a mix of panel discussions, individual speakers, networking opportunities and plenty of time to visit with the sponsors in the exhibit area.

You might ask why these two associations have banded together in this way. Ken Bach of Aberdeen Fabrics pointed out that digital printing already had a foothold among a variety of substrates in the signage industry, and adding soft signage (signage printed on fabric) was the next logical step. He noted that in signs and display graphics, production is close to 100% digital these days. And in textiles, the hope is that we are nearing the tipping point where digital growth will take off.

Today, most industry experts report that only abut 6% of printed fabrics are printed digitally, and while the volume has stalled in single digits for some time, many of the barriers are now being swept away—quality, speed, repeatability, ability to print on a wide range of fabrics—these are table stakes for suppliers to the industry, and digital printing has made huge strides in all of those areas in recent years.

That’s not to say that digital doesn’t still face challenges, nor does it indicate that analog production will go away any time soon. One attendee, a printer who has both analog and digital printing, noted that rich black and grays are the most commonly used colors in the world, and digital still has challenges with these.

Like many other industries that have undergone or are undergoing an analog-to-digital transformation, there are hybrid analog/digital solutions that are bridging the gap, such as the Digital Squeegee option from M&R that replaces one station on a flatbed screen printing device, or the analog stations that can be added to EFI Reggiani’s BOLT.

Plus, and perhaps one of the most important factors in any analog-to-digital transformation, digital technologies enable production of new applications that were not possible before. In textiles and apparel, that includes things like very short runs or even runs of one, use of a virtually unlimited number of colors, extremely fast time to market with virtually no waste, a more sustainable lifecycle and many more.

“The challenge to the industry is mindset," said Kerry King, AATCC’s president and senior vice president of Research & Development at Spoonflower. "Let’s not let perfection get in the way of progress. There are significant environmental challenges we need to address, and digital printing contributes to reducing the industry’s footprint. If we wait for all the colors to be perfect, we are waiting too long!”

Ron Gilboa, group director of Production Services at Keypoint Intelligence, kicked off the individual sessions with a market overview of textiles, apparel and décor. He pointed out that the overall garments and apparel industry represented $1.6 trillion in revenues in 2019, growing at 4.2%. Home textiles are expected to grow at 3.5% by this year to $131 billion, with India set to become the largest supplier of towels and bed linens globally, and a greater than 8% growth rate. And clothing continues to lead the pack in terms of items that are purchased online, with 57% of consumers surveyed reporting they purchased clothing online in 2018.

Environmental issues continue to be a challenge the industry must overcome. The textiles industry is the world's second largest polluter, behind the fossil fuels industry, and is one of the top three water consuming industries. Just as an example, it takes 5,000 gallons of water to produce a T-shirt and a pair of jeans!