1. The document discusses various textile printing methods and the shift from traditional to digital printing technologies. 2. Rotary screen printing currently dominates world production at 60% but is slow and expensive for small batch and customized orders. 3. New technologies like inkjet and xerography printing allow for mass customization with fast design changes, computerized processes, and on-demand manufacturing to meet trends of short lead times and one-off orders. 4. Inkjet printing is seen as the future of textile printing, replacing rotary screen printing by enabling semi-bulk and full scale customized production directly from a customer's computer design files.

1. Digital Printing: Mass Customization R.B.Chavan Department ofTextile Technology Indian Institute of Technology Hauz-Khas, New Delhi 110016

2. Printing Methods Block Printing Roller Printing Screen Printing Manual Automatic flat bed Rotary Transfer Printing Inkjet Printing Methods giving print like effects Batik Indonesia Tie-dye India Spray printing Japan

3. Approximate period of commercialization USA 1990 Inkjet, Xerox France 1968 Transfer Printing Portugal 1963 Rotary Switzerland 1940 Auto. Flat bed England 1900 Manual Screen Scotland 1785 Roller Printing India Ancient Block Origin Period Method

4. PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

5. World Production share Rotary Screen Printing 60% Automatic Flat Bed 18% Other methods 22%

6. Heritage based Technologies Block Printing Tie-dye Batik Spray/Stencil Human skill based Nation’s pride Non replaceable Unlimited life

7. Science based Technologies Roller printing Screen printing: Flat bed, Rotary Transfer printing Machine based Replaceable Limited life

8. Textile printing methods yet to be commercialized Inkjet printing Xerox printing

9. Textile Printing Trends Fashion dependent Shorter fashion seasons, 5-6 fashion forecasts in a year. Customers demand for unique designs with variety of colours Rapid drop in Average run lengths. Rare chances of repeat orders. There has to be quick sampling and quick production delivery World scenario: Globalization, quick response and reduced environment pollution Market demands: flexibility and versatility. Technology which will facilitate Mass Customization. production which specializes in short runs as little as one unit. production of unlimited designs of customer’s choice.

10. Present Trend Demand Activated Manufacturing Architecht Just in Time sales and marketing concepts The textile printing must respond to the delivery of high quality fashion designs with wide range of colour combinations in extremely short time The process must be eco-friendly

11. Rotary screen printing status Although Rotary screen printing machines are most suited for production runs they are not ideal to meet the requirements of Demand activated manufacturing architecht and just in time concepts

12. Situation prior to 1980 Total Manual approach, Time scale 6-12 weeks

13. Present Situation Design input Computer scanning Computer aided colour separation Computer aided choice of colour combination Computer print out of design on paper Customer approval Laser engraving of screens Sample printing Production printing Time scale 6-8 weeks

14. Limitations of Rotary screen printing Long process set up time for colour and pattern change Screen production is slow and expensive Screens require considerable storage space Does not meet the requirement of Demand Activated Manufacturing Architect and Just in Time concepts

15. Need for New Technology New Technology for fabric printing is needed that will permit Frequent design and colour changes with minimum down time Computer storage of design information Inkjet and xerography printing have potential of meeting these requirements

16. Present Development

17. Time to introduce a new product 2-3 weeks 7-8 weeks Total 1 week (Low yardage) 3-4 weeks Production yardage 1week 1 week Strike off 1 week Screen engraving 2-4 days Digital fabric samples 2 weeks 2 weeks Colour separation/Design editing Digital Conventional Component

18. Future Development With the current speed of technology advancement the use of inkjet printing will not only be restricted to sample printing. Further into future lie the prospects of semi-bulk production and eventually full scale production thus replacing Rotary screen printing technology

19. Future Development It is envisaged that a customer instead of purchasing a printed fabric available in the stores View the design collections on computer Select the design and colour combination OR Create new design Load the information to the printer Get printed length of fabric with design of choice