New Machines, New Goals

Last month was pretty crazy! As in, fly across the world to a new country for a trade show crazy. There was a big announcement before this year’s annual FESPA international event and when All American Print Supply learned what was going to be unveiled, we had to go check it out. So they sent me. Let me tell you - FESPA is HUGE. This is one of the biggest global events in our industry and is notorious for being ground zero for releasing equipment. I’m not saying things have been QUIET in the print industry, but it has been a little bit since the release of something that really shook the landscape, and the people (myself included) have all been wondering ‘what’s next?’ Boy did we find out.

For those not familiar with this convention, FESPA is a global federation of 37 national associations for the screen printing, digital printing, and textile printing community. Since their inception over 60 years ago, FESPA has been supporting the print community via successful exhibitions, events and publications providing education and networking opportunities. Truly spanning the whole wide world, FESPA has gathered all the big players in our industry together as far as Asia, Africa, South America and Europe. Many companies see this annual event as a launching pad to debut their latest innovations, and this year in Munich, Germany many of the companies we know and love were out in full force.

One of my first stops was to the STS Inks booth. This Florida based manufacturer has been supplying customers with state of the art direct to film printers, powders, films, and inks for years now, and it has been a joy to partner with them to provide Japanese made quality equipment to our audience. In particular I wanted to see the 64” XPJ-1682D in action and get some more information. Shahar Turgeman was kind enough to host in the booth for a full breakdown on this awesome machine, who it is ideal for, and what makes it so special.

One of my personal favorite pretreats has long been from Firebird Inks. Out of Connecticut, believe me when I tell you this is a company of scientists. They are breaking things down to a molecular level and just recently announced their latest formulation: NOVA.

Director of Digital Technologies Shawn Liu helped us go over the new solution and its unique properties such as-

-less stickiness, staining (!!!) and fiber issues with fibrillation

-reduces pretreat machine equipment maintenance time

-ready to pour and play, no mixing needed

-compatible with all the major DTG ink: Firebird, Epson, Brother, Dupont, Kodak and Ricoh

-2 year extended shelf life