Following a recent open day at a major decorator, where over 100 visitors saw a new
digital printer in action, Dan Raywood met EED and Adelco to learn about the benefits
of the Kornit 931 and the new technology that could take the industry by storm.

BEDFORDSHIRE-BASED decorator Essential Embroidery Design (EED) has taken
delivery of a new Kornit 931 digital printer, the first in Europe, and unveiled it to
customers new and old at a recent open day.
The 931 has a far advanced decoration capability compared to other models on the market. Whilst others will print a 1-2mm strip per print, limiting speed of output, the Kornit machine can print from any of the 256 nozzles on each of its spectra print heads which are highly regarded among printers in various high speed industrial digital markets. This gives the Kornit a unique advantage in speed, ink deposit and resolution as well as the ability to profile different fabrics for the best print quality.
Adelco have recently introduced a new dimension to the printer too - the capability to print on dark garments. Currently the machine has four CMYK print heads, each with 256 print nozzles, but there are spaces for two more print heads, which will enable a double layer of white to be added as either a base for overprinting bright colours, or for a white colour in the finished design.
At the computer stage, the operator can manipulate the artwork to fit with the garment colour and fabric type to ensure the best possible finish, and white has now been produced to offer decorators an even wider choice of decoration possibilities. The decorating process from start to finish is very straight forward, a picture file can be emailed or sent to the decorator where it is adjusted and sized on a screen, EED explain that artwork file resolutions of over 600 dpi are usually ideal to ensure the best quality print. All file types can be accepted including EPS, Tiff, Jpeg and PDF. A sample print out is then produced to ensure that the image is produced in the best quality and that pantone references match if necessary. EED Director George Georgiou said, ‘When it comes to getting the image right on the on the finished garment, it is a case of the better the artwork the better the final image. The finalised image is then sent to a rip file on the computer. The image can then
be opened on the screen on the printer, where the operator can view a preview, the amount of prints required is then entered. The operator can also determine the  media’, the type of surface that is being decorated on, so that the nozzles are automatically set at the correct height and level when printing. This can include various types of fabric for T-shirts, as well as thicker fabrics for sweatshirts and flags. The Kornit 931 can print on a variety of fabrics, such as cottons, polyesters, fleeces, terry towels and silks. The operator can then move the image on the printer screen using a mouse to line up the correct placing for the decoration. This then produces a sample for approval, and once the sample has been approved, the run can be completed. Depending on the amount of prints needed, this can be done in a short run time due to the printer’s unique fast running speed. During printing, the print head moves over the garment as the garment moves across the print head. The whole process is clean, tidy and requires minimum maintenance.
As the images are uploaded from a memory in the printer’s computer, it is very simple for an operator to finish one job and move straight on to another. All they need to do is simply select the necessary image, line it up for correct placement, choose the media and the amount of prints needed and the process begins again. Mark Smith from Adelco, who are exclusively supplying Kornit printers in the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia, said, ‘It is a pretty serious piece of equipment and the only industrial high speed digital machine in the market. At the open day, George had customers coming in with discs where the picture has a very intricate detail - such as a face with a glint in the eye. A screen print of this image would have involved a two hour set up and eight screens, it was done here in three to four minutes on the computer and on the Kornit printer.’ George said, ‘When it is running in production it’s perfect, I believe this is the uture and I believe in the long term it will replace screen printing. One customer called me at 4pm on Friday and asked me to produce a sample for him, and by 10am on the following Monday it had been produced - the quality and detail could not be reproduced on a screen. The Kornit 931 is fairly simple to run, George explained that within a few weeks of training he had an operator using and maintaining the printer competently. George said, I’ve gone a different route to the conventional decorator and got some staff working on it, and I believe that it will work for us and I will see a return on the investment in a short time. I could have put three new embroidery machines into our workshop for the cost of it, but I wanted a different direction for the company and this has given us the desired choice.’ Depending on the print size area, the 931 is capable of printing between 5-600 decorations a day, and with general cleaning and maintenance carried out you should only need to replace the inks when
necessary. If working at maximum capacity every day, Mark said you should receive around eight years life from the printer. EED admit that they were on a learning curve for the first couple of months of using the Kornit 931, but following requests to customers for support to allow them to use and experiment with it, the response has been overwhelming. Subsequently, George explained that the education has allowed EED to produce better and better prints.