Ricoh Aims High In China Using Its Colorgate Acquisition To Boost Sales Of its Digital Micro Factory (Dmf) Workflow Cloud Solutions And Textile Printers
Image Courtesy of Ricohl
SHANGHAI, Dec 14, 2019 - RICOH unveiled its Digital Micro Factory (DMF) concept workflow at the 19h International Textile Industry Exhibition (ShanghaiTex 2019), held November 25-28 in Shanghai Expo Center.
Tetsuya Morita, GM of Industrial Printing, announced that digital micro factory DMF, a very important concept to the Group, and RAMP-UP the apparel consortium had officially launched, answering to social issues in the future such as environmentalism and safety within the apparel ecosystem.
Morita then spent an hour with the press, furthering understanding of the DMF concept.
He acknowledged the highly developed nature of the Chinese apparel industry, but suggested the DMF concept was for the world market, including China.
Ricoh hopes to expand sales of DMF workflow cloud solutions and textile printers, with a goal of JPY10 billion in revenue by the year 2025.
DMF will produce significant social benefits using the advantages of industrial inkjet technology, such as diversity, customization, differentiation, multi-type small lot production and leading the industry trend.
Stepping up efforts to deploy the DMF concept itself, Ricoh entered a collaboration with Sweden's Coloreel (March 2019) to develop an on-demand thread dye and inkjet printer.
Ricoh also acquired LAC Corporation (2018, renamed Ricoh Digital Painting Company, Ltd.) and ColorGate Digital Output Solutions GmbH, (2018) a leading software provider with strength in color management.
The ColorGate acquisition marked an important first step in active capital cooperation, eliminating self-efficiency, and permitting Ricoh to RAMP-UP its partnership programs.
China is the world's garment factory, Tetsuya Morita said in closing. That is to say, China is ahead of other markets in terms of productivity and cost. Of course, the 'digital micro factory' is not suitable for mass production with this design. However, Ricoh was proposing its concept of DMF in today's most efficient market today, aiming to bring China's environmental protection system to bare, thereby achieving real sustainable development. We at the Ricoh Group believe this is huge. China is not only the garment factory of the world, it is the largest consumer and buyer of clothing in the world.
The Ricoh Group exhibited at a 96 sq.m booth in the Digital Printing Machinery Zone at ShanghaiTex 2019. The booth was sectioned by DMF Zone, Component Zone and DTG Zone, introducing the DMF concept, component print heads & inks, and DTG printers.
