Les Olivades—Fine Textile Printers Of Provence—Go Digital With The Epson MonnaLisa Evo Tre
For more than two centuries, the textile designer and printer Les Olivades has paid particular attention to maintaining their know-how and the quality of their textile production.
The Provençal company is counting on its new Epson Digital Textile Printer to expand its clientele who love beautiful fabrics.
At the foot of the Alpilles massif, roughly halfway between Arles and Avignon, the SETA factory (Alpilles textile finishing company) has been printing high-end Provençal fabrics since 1818.
They produce 50% for her own Les Olivades brand and 50% for external clients, including many major luxury brands.
The factory has just acquired a new Epson MonnaLisa Evo Tre digital printer.
Equipped with 8 print heads, it can reach, according to its manufacturer, a speed of 234 m2 per hour.
"We had already taken a step towards digital, four years ago", relates Philippe Boudin, manager of Olivades. “We bought two small Mimaki JV5 plotters, configured by the Italian company Robustelli. Today, the new machine allows us to obtain more reliable colour rendering, but also to print much faster. For the moment, the share of our digital production is still quite marginal. Our customers are always in the idea that the quality of digital is inferior to that of screen printing. "
But, with this investment, Les Olivades / SETA fully intends to expand this new market.
“The enormous advantage of digital technology,” continues Philippe Boudin, “is that it allows fabrics to be developed without having to produce screen printing frames (one per colour), which represent a heavy investment to be made profitable.”
He continues “Digital technology thus makes textile printing much more accessible, for example, for those who want to launch a new brand, or for interior design firms who would like specific fabrics. In digital, we print on the same materials as in screen printing (with few exceptions), with a completely comparable quality. We are still in the experimentation phase, but the colour rendering is there. To see the difference, you really have to have an eye, and more! The fact that the machine is limited to 160 mm in width, while our factory is configured to go up to 180, is not too inconvenient, as we are working more and more for the furniture market which uses narrower layers and increasingly require small volumes. It is also for the furniture that we have chosen pigment inks, because the fabrics for the armchairs or the curtains require a good resistance to the light.”
The SETA / Les Olivades group has around ten people and generates around one million euros in turnover.
About The Epson MonnaLisa Evo Tre
Monna Lisa Evo Tre is equipped with Epson PrecisionCore Technology and the breakthrough Genesta PG-Revo pigment inks to enable increased productivity and exceptional quality to meet the demanding and evolving needs of the textile market.
Working together with textile industry leaders, Epson Digital Textile Total Solution enables the best printing results and utmost customer satisfaction to take you to the forefront.
With the Epson PrecisionCore Printheads, combine quality, accuracy and speed to produce brilliant images.
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