ITMA: KORNIT BRINGS DTG TO MAINSTREAM
Kornit is launching the Apollo platform, a high-throughput, digital printing platform, at ITMA. This is one of a number of digital textile print products it is showing at the event.
The company, which is represented in ANZ by Kissel + Wolf, is also introducing the Kornit Atlas Max Plus system for decorated apparel – now incorporating smart curing, flexible pallet sizing, and autonomous calibration for quality, consistency, and productivity.
According to Johnny Shell, principal analyst at Keypoint Intelligence, Kornit’s expanded ecosystem comes at the right time for the market: “These technologies offer a way forward for businesses to potentially expand into new markets and realistically adopt short-run, made-to-order apparel. More recent advancements such as Kornit Apollo are engines of this transformation, empowering decorators to re-think how they’ll do business. These advancements will only continue to propel digital technology to the forefront of preferred apparel decoration methods.”
Kornit states that Apollo is helping digital production become mainstream. Apollo enables customers to be more flexible, generate revenue, move to localised manufacturing, and simplify workflow processes. It offers large-capacity and high-quality players the opportunity to adopt digital versatility and a quick time to market – expanding beyond screen printing to achieve vertical or horizontal expansion and robust business opportunities based on current operational models.
Apollo is based on the industry-leading Kornit Max platform, which has been field-proven. It is a single-step solution that is ideal for short-run or medium-run apparel decoration.
Kornit says it is designed to empower customers to sidestep the hazards of complex supply chains, it also offers speed and agility in digital decoration – designed from the ground up to decorate 400 garments per hour.
Automation of loading and unloading and integrated smart curing as well as inline adjustment of the garment type result in higher productivity and reduced labour, resulting to optimised profitability.
“The fashion and textile industry has remained at a crossroads – aware of its limitations but lacking a clear solution for moving from wasteful, inefficient production models,” said Ronen Samuel, CEO at Kornit Digital. “Offering a platform for agile, high-throughput digital production on demand, Apollo transforms what apparel producers and brands can do. It empowers them to meet the creative inspirations and ever-changing demands of a global community with capabilities to fulfill those expectations, with quality, consistency, sustainability, and the necessary profitability to scale no matter what unforeseen trends await.”
The new Atlas Max Plus system takes Kornit’s proven Atlas Max productivity up to 150 garments per hour. It features Smart Curing and Rapid Size Shifter palettes.
Also on display at ITMA 2023 is the recently introduced Max Poly, aiming to transform professional and recreational sportswear, teamwear, and licensed gear to inject new life into apparel with design freedom leveraging Kornit’s Max platform. Atlas Max Poly is an advanced polyester decoration system that can be used on blends, triblends and synthetic fabric combinations. Kornit claims that the solution produces vibrant and colourful prints with innovative neon inks, while maintaining retail-grade durability and quality.