THE NEW WEARABLE TAKES CENTRE STAGE THANKS TO DIGITAL TEXTILE PRINTING TECHNOLOGIES
“The Covid-19 health crisis has created a new product opportunity for the versatile digital print service provider. The HP knowledge centre provides the necessary software and product specifications for speedy production whilst using the HP Stitch, dye sublimation digital print technology”
Digital Print – The Technology for Proactive Production:
Whatever you had planned for print production in 2020, rewind and reset. Across the world supply chains are stretched to their limits, orders are stalled, cancelled, or frozen for the foreseeable future - and yet there are new opportunities for the print service provider.
The current pandemic has forced the print industry to pivot at great speed in order to meet the instantaneous demands brought about by the ongoing pandemic worldwide.
As the crisis has evolved the print community has sprung into action - replacing orders for spring retail and merchandising, or public events, with protective PPE and signage for social distancing, such as flooring graphics, screens, and other point of sale merchandising. Textile manufacturers across the globe, hit by cancelled orders for apparel, sportswear and furnishings have switched gears to manufacture millions of PPE garments in an effort to protect the NHS.
As the health crisis evolves and the global lockdowns come to an end, the focus on personal protection has taken centre stage, and the industry is pivoting again.
Governments have recommended, or even stipulated, that to save lives we adopt the practice of wearing face masks in public. In a show of solidarity, the face mask has now become an essential accessory and perhaps, a lifesaving item.
Printing face masks is big business and offers a stepping-stone for many print service providers as we await the “new normal”.
Millions of face masks are now required, and the creativity and adaptability of the print community is focussed to meet this demand. Utilising a digitised workflow, new products can be designed and printed in a fraction of the time it would take to set up a conventional order.
Offering a simple, yet incredibly versatile web-to-print system, HP and their knowledge centre were quick to provide the necessary software to do just that.
With a suite of tools and product information available online for download, protective face masks can be designed, manipulated and created in minutes and then printed using the HP Stitch, dye sublimation printer.
“HP customised protective face mask app offers the printer a simple web to print software suite to create print ready products in minutes”.
Without digital printing technology, the mass move towards product customisation wouldn’t be possible at speed.
This digitisation of the supply chain and the print workflow enables manufacturers to re-centre production and fulfil this unprecedented opportunity. Armed with an arsenal of technologies that can develop new products virtually, physically, and instantly, the HP app enables online customisation, personalisation and seamless production.
“The customised face masks are printed in a nested format for production efficiency, saving valuable fabric, ink and processing time”.
