Konica Minolta's Digital Single-Pass And Multi-Pass Technologies Help Turkish Textile Group Print 60,000 Metres Of Fabric A Day

Image Courtesy of Konica Minolta

Konica Minolta’s Digital Print technologies are providing the inspiration for Beztas Tekstil of Bursa to rethink their long term strategy for textile printing.

With production from the Nassenger SP-1 capable of reaching 60,000 metres a day the production volume is now available to justify the migration of Beztas’ textile printing from screen to digital.

Reliability, speed and quality are bywords of the Konica Minolta process, which along with the undoubted environmental and workflow credentials of the Nassenger range have combined to provide the impetus for change in the volume textile printing firmament.

About Beztas Tekstil

Founded in 1989, and controlled by the Acar family for four generations, Beztaş Tekstil is the textile division of Beztaş Group, a multi-utility also active in the energy and forestry sector.  

Vertically integrated, the company has spinning, weaving, knitting, dyeing, printing and finishing departments, and is able to provide small and large clothing brands with high-quality fabrics ready for packaging.  

To expand its digital offering, in December 2021 Beztaş replaced its existing fleet of industrial inkjet printers with Konica Minolta's Nassenger 10 and SP-1 systems.

A Vast Product Portfolio, For An International Clientele

Beztaş Textil produces knitted and shuttle fabrics, and jacquard processing.  

Among the most used fibers for the group's productions are linen, cotton, polyester, and mixtures of rayon, nylon, viscose and elastane.  

With a network of agents in key European markets, and a representative office in London, Beztaş can serve retailers on a continental and global scale.  

"We want to establish ourselves more and more as the one-stop shop for our customers," explains Emre Acar, CEO of Beztaş Tekstil. "To do this, we offer them countless collections and products, with an almost infinite amount of variations, compositions and weights of the fabric."   It is with this in mind that Beztaş Tekstil has steadily increased investment in digital printing technology.

From Nassenger 10 To SP-1, To Increase Quality, Reliability And Customer Service

To renew its fleet, Beztaş planned to buy a battery of new industrial multi-pass printers, apparently more versatile and modular than the single-pass.  

After a thorough analysis of the processes, carried out together with the team of analysts of Konica Minolta, Beztaş decided to combine Nassenger 10 with the single-pass Nassenger SP-1, replacing the existing printers.  

Konica Minolta is today the only supplier able to offer a fully proprietary industrial inkjet technology in terms of printheads, inks and construction architecture," says Acar. "Compared to other platforms on the market, Nassenger is a technological leap into the future."

Adopting the same Konica Minolta KM1024i variable drop heads, the same 8-color configuration, and the Konica Minolta Type P, Nassenger 10 and SP-1 reactive dyes produce a similar qualitative and chromatic result.  

Compared to the multi-pass, equipped with 81 heads, the SP-1's eight print bars are built with double-head modules, for a total of 216 modules and 432 heads. Nassenger 10 feeds fabrics up to 1,850 mm wide, which is reduced to 1,830 mm on SP-1.

The Qualitative, Operational And Economic Benefits Of Nassenger

The biggest challenge posed by Beztaş is a painless integration of the new printers into the existing workflow.  

A goal that Konica Minolta technicians meticulously address, making changes to the modules for unwinding, introducing, drying and collecting the fabric already in use.  

On the workflow management front, the open architecture of Nassenger 10 and SP-1 allows Beztaş to take advantage of the functionality of the Inèdit software already in place.

"Being able to replace only the print engines, without altering the lines, has allowed us to safeguard previous investments, and save an enormity of time and space," explains Acar.   "This is an extraordinary achievement, which qualifies Konica Minolta as the ideal technology partner with which to plan our future growth."  

To migrate more and more jobs from screen printing to inkjet, productivity is a decisive factor.  

In this context, Nassenger 10 guarantees a productivity of 450 m²/h in high quality, which rises to 4,300 m²/h on sp-1.  

Currently, Beztaş can print up to 6,000 m² of fabric in multi-pass and 60,000 m² in single-pass every day, which can be increased by operating on multiple shifts.  

In addition to being very productive, Konica Minolta's inkjet technology is extremely stable and reliable," continues Acar. "This translates into lower downtime and head replacements, lower running costs, enormously higher overall productivity, and certain lead times."   

Thanks to the joint work of his technicians and the Konica Minolta team, Beztaş also achieves full uniformity and color matching on the two platforms.  

A result that allows to realize samples and productions both on Nassenger 10 and on SP-1, based on the availability of the equipment and the length of the run.

Services And Partnerships To Support The Digital Transformation Of Textile Printing

Among the pioneers of industrial inkjet technology, Konica Minolta has invested resources in penetrating the world's leading textile markets, Turkey in the lead.  

“The global printing market is digitizing rapidly, and textiles are doing so at an even faster pace," says Hiroshi Yoshioka, Managing Director of Konica Minolta Italy. "With fully proprietary printheads, inks, hardware and services, we want to accelerate our customers' digital transition."

Gianluca Macchi, Sales Director Textile at Konica Minolta. "We are thrilled to have created a customized and eco-sustainable solution for them, combining Beztaş's experience in textiles with our technological solutions."   

With Nassenger 10 and SP-1, Beztaş is preparing to complete the migration of screen printing to inkjet.

In the coming months, the Turkish company aims to introduce a second Nassenger 10, and to consolidate the industrial partnership with Konica Minolta.