NEARSHORING - POLAND BECOMES A LEADING SUPPLIER OF DIGITAL PRINT FOR EU TEXTILE COMPANIES

“Poland has established several “micro-factories” where they can complete all garment production tasks in the house as a small, agile business. This includes everything from receiving a plain fabric roll, to printing, finishing, cutting, and sewing into finished garments.” - Simon Daplyn | SUN CHEMICALS

Guest article written by Simon Daplyn : Manager, Product Marketing at Sun Chemical

Tackling Sustainability Within The Textile Industry

Sustainability is a huge and growing focus of the printing industry at large, and for garment printing businesses in particular. With textile manufacturing widely considered to be the second most polluting industry globally (after petrochemicals) the sector is facing more pressure than ever to improve its environmental credentials.

The textile industry is estimated to use 378 billion litres of water per year, with 8% of water used within the textile market coming from the printing process. Credit: WWF, World Agriculture & the Environment

What’s more, the total greenhouse gas emissions from textiles production sits at 1.2 billion tons annually – more than those of all annual international flights and maritime ships combined. Credit: The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, A NEW TEXTILES ECONOMY: REDESIGNING FASHION’S FUTURE

The dyeing of fabric alone results in a significant amount of waste due to left-over dye solution and chemicals that require extensive treatment before the water can be re-used. All of these factors mean textile printing has a significant environmental impact.

Closer To Home

But what is being done about it?

One recent trend that will help to make textile printing more sustainable (and one that is likely to be accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic) is “nearshoring.”

This is the process of returning manufacturing either to the domestic market or to a neighbouring country, somewhere where manufacturing costs are still relatively cheap, but the manufacturer can benefit from nearby production and less complicated logistics. Manufacturing closer to the consumer can also reduce carbon emissions, result in more efficient processes, greater control of inventory, and reduced waste by enabling agile reaction to consumer buying trends with just-in-time manufacturing.

Nearshoring is being implemented heavily in Poland and, as a result, is one of the biggest drivers of growth within this market and region.

One of the key reasons for this is that the Polish market comprises many workers with the necessary specialist skills, such as cutting and sewing. Many countries even outsource the sewing of their textile products to Poland. Poland has established several “micro-factories” where they can complete all garment production tasks in the house as a small, agile business. This includes everything from receiving a plain fabric roll, to printing, finishing, cutting, and sewing into finished garments. Due to the web-to-print software and customer portals they have deployed, they are able to accommodate the trend of web-to-print, accelerating turnarounds by allowing customers to upload designs online and receive finished goods in a few days. Due to these factors, the textile industry, therefore, represents a critical component of the Polish economy and a significant employer.

Market Recovery And Sustainability

With the impact of COVID-19, textile output inevitably decreased significantly across the globe, but Poland, with its geographic proximity to so many European markets and with the emergence of micro-factories, has been better placed than most for rapid recovery.

Polish textile companies are leading the way in securing business with leading brands for the EU market while adopting more and more digital textile printing technology to elevate its competitiveness. Inkjet textile printers in Poland’s industrial segment have an increasingly positive influence on the market, and big textile manufacturers are looking to transfer their traditional processes to digital. One of the main reasons for migrating to digital printing is the sustainability benefits the process offers. It uses significantly less energy, chemicals, water, waste, and CO2 emissions than traditional printing. Just moving from analogue printing to digital printing alone can save 97% of chemical and water use.

Digital printing also offers the additional benefits of shorter lead times, customization, and the ability to print a range of effects on a variety of substrates. With an increase in demand from brands, in particular, from small fashion brands using online platforms such as Etsy, for more sustainably produced items and greater use of digital textile printing, there is also a growing demand for eco-conscious, digital textile-friendly inks.

Digital sublimation printing is a key area, particularly within the Polish market, driving a switch to digital printing.

While the technology enables a simple workflow and dry process, one drawback is creating paper waste after the transfer process. Although steps are being made to reduce paperweights, finding high-quality inks that are compatible with all such substrates remains another challenge. Two technologies that are growing in market share and enable dry process printing with reduced waste are direct sublimation printing and digital pigment printing. Both the technologies offer a simple solution for micro-factories that require agile production without high investment costs in processing and finishing equipment, along with any associated waste management.

In both cases, it is critical to select the right chemistry and workflow to maximise performance. Direct sublimation printing removes the need for a paper transfer step when printing polyester. However, the chemistry of the ink requires tuning to ensure the quality of print and management of the downstream compliance. When using transfer media an image is printed to the paper substrate, which is dried before transferring to the polyester fabric. In this scenario, typically it is only the dye that is transferred to the fabric and the image quality is governed by the performance of the ink on the paper.

When printing direct to fabric, all components of the ink end up on the textile, so the chemistry must be tuned specifically to ensure there is no requirement for a washing step after fixation. The wet ink must also be controlled in terms of penetration and sharpness as the 3D structure of a textile raises challenges of ink spreading, resulting in loss of detail.

Using the right chemistry can lead to excellent performance and residual benefits such as ink show-through on lightweight fashion fabrics and controlled penetration, removing any risk of revealing uncoloured material between the ribs of stretch polyesters used for sportswear. Direct sublimation is also growing in market share for sign and display applications.

Pigment inks are most applicable to natural fibres, such as cotton and some blends of cotton and polyester. Typically, a pre-treatment is applied to the fabric to help control the drop spread on contact with the textile. Most pigment inks contain a resin system to provide the binding of the pigment to the fabric to give the fastness properties required. Gaining in application adoption for fashion and home textiles, pigment inks require a thermal fixation process with no further post treatment, resulting in a shorter and water-free process compared to other processes such as reactive ink printing, which requires a steam fixation and post wash. Digital pigment printing, like direct sublimation, enables a more sustainable production process.

Pigment printing is the dominant technology for direct to garment printing - a market showing strong growth especially in web to print shops and online fulfilment.

The ink technology improvements, increasing colour and fastness, are leading to a wider adoption of roll-to-roll printing with home textile markets adopting the technology due to the need for increased light fastness versus dye-based alternatives.

Figure 1: Schematic of traditional textile print process versus no water option offered by pigment and direct sublimation printing

These technologies enable a wider adoption of micro-factory production, close to the consumer with the increased flexibility of on-demand print.

Such digital print processes remove the reliance on volume inventory printed in bulk - often leading to unworn garments being destroyed. Printing as the demand is created by consumer buying trends allows a more sustainable, local fulfilment, reducing energy, waste and logistics costs.

What textile printers need, in the Polish market and beyond, are partners and suppliers who can help them to capitalise on all the business growth opportunities that digital print technology provides, while at the same time helping them to massively reduce their environmental impact.

For the best results, they also need to seek out partners who offer comprehensive technical support at a local level as well as providing direct access to the latest ink technology for use across all the most popular printing machines on the market.

Technology was already changing the textiles industry rapidly before the COVID-19 pandemic shook things up even more dramatically.

With the sector now in a time of unpreceded change, there are challenges at every turn, and huge opportunities available for those with the courage and foresight to seize them.

For more information on how Sun Chemical is supporting customers with innovative inks enabling a more sustainable printing process visit: