 |
Digital Printing Richard Malachowski, Cranston Print Works |
|
Digital Printing Richard Malachowski, Cranston Print Works |
Summary by Michele Ferguson
Cranston Print Works is one of the oldest operating textile
companies in the United States, however, most of the operation has moved from
Cranston, Rhode Island, to Webster, Massachusetts. The company also has an office in New York City from which
their 38 designers work. They
receive gray goods, or fabric straight off the loom, and bleach, mercerize, and
print it, using a method called rotary screen printing.
The fabric is mostly cotton or polyester cotton blends and the finished
product--mostly quilting, home decorating and Christmas prints--is sold over the
counter, from bolts, in fabric stores. The
company prints about 50 million yards of fabric per year.
Cranston Print Works implemented CAD in 1998 after a five-year
“breaking-in” period. Richard
Malachowski, the Technical Development Manager for Cranston Print Works,
estimates that approximately 93% of all textile design is done today with CAD.
Mr. Malachowski had with him a sample of a rose print
fabric and the hand painted picture of the design originally done by the
designer. He explained that rotary
screen machines print continuously, averaging 40 to 50 yards per minute,
although some machines can print 150 yards per minute.
An engraved screen, costing $400 to $600 each, is made for each color in
the design. Eight screens were used
to produce the color in the rose print sample and this is an average number for
most prints. It takes 6 to 8 weeks
to produce a line of fabric, from conception of the design to finished product.
Cranston Print Works is currently ink jet printers to print on fabric. Ink jet printing is currently used to print an individual sample of a fabric within one to two weeks. A single sample can quickly be made to show customers and take to trade shows to get a customer response. Mr. Malachowski calls this “instant gratification,” and feels it takes designers “out of the box.” The designer can tell instantly what the design will look like on fabric with only one sample made, not an entire line production.
Ink jet printing, at this stage of fabric printing, has
some problems. It can only print
about 6 to 12 yards per hour (compare to 40 to 50 yards per minute.)
It is also very expensive, costing about $8 a yard for the color, as
opposed to $.25 per yard on the rotary screen printer.
The color reproduction is not nearly as good as with rotary screen
printing, which is a spot color application.
Mixes and blends of color are made ahead of time, which produces a
smoother color and wider range. With
several screens used for each design, there is some overlapping of color, which
gives a softness and three dimensional look to the fabric.
Ink jet printing is a process color application.
It puts dots of color on the fabric, using only four colors-- blue,
yellow, magenta, and black--which doesn’t allow good color duplication.
This gives a flat look to the fabric, which is unacceptable to textile
printers. There is a small glossary
of terms to describe what can happen to fabric printed by ink jet.
Mealy means not smooth; the fabric has a moiré effect.
Puddly also means not smooth, but as the name suggests, there are puddles
of color. Dithered means darker
dots are visible against lighter dots, which gives a very dull look. Ink jets use the same dyes used in rotary screen printing,
however, metallic, white, and fluorescent colors, at present, will not go
through the jets.
Ink jet printing has been used successfully in Italy to
print silk ties, which are a high-margin, short-run item.
It has also been used in Japan to print nylon used in ski jackets and
swimwear. A company in Delaware is
developing “mass customization” of clothing using ink jet printing as part
of the process. The customer will
be body scanned for size, then he/she will pick out the design of the garment
and color of fabric, and ink jets will be used to print the fabric in the amount
of yardage needed for that garment only. The
fabric doesn’t have to be printed edge to edge, but printing can be done on a
space of fabric just large enough to cut out the required pieces for the
garment. The fabric is then cut and
sewn and returned to the customer, all within two days.
The software used for ink jet printing has improved considerably in the past five years. Mr. Malachowski feels that with technology improving daily, ink jet printing on fabric may soon become a reality. He feels that ink jet printing should be allowed to develop as its own entity, separate from “ink jet printing on fabric” and at some point in the development, it may become compatible with fabric printing that can be done in a timely manner and at a reasonable cost.