Austria-based textile and carpet finishing machinery supplier J. Zimmer Maschinenbau GmbH (Zimmer Austria) reports its has installed a complete COLARIS-NF continuous printing line for narrow fabrics at Skytex Mexico S.A. de C.V., a Mexico-based producer of tapes and ribbons for home fashion, garments and rugs, among other applications.
Skytex previously produced solid-color ribbons in-house and imported printed ribbons to sell in mass markets. With the new COLARIS-NF continuous printing line, Skytex now is able to produce printed ribbons in-house and bring them to market as fast as it does its solid color ribbons, eliminating lead times.
Zimmer reports it completed installation of the Colaris-NF in less than two weeks, and that the printing line is the first of its kind. Features include: unwinding of two spools; positive feed-in tension control for two ribbons; inline pretreatment system for special applications; infrared dryer after the pretreatment; Colaris-NF digital printing system; twin cylinder thermofixation; wash boxes; final drying cylinder; and exit X&Y axis rewinder for two ribbons.
In other company news, Zimmer Austria has teamed with SeattleChem LLC — a Seattle-based provider of advanced specialty chemical technologies including textile printing and machinery, and polymers — to develop CombiPRINT-PP7, an oil-free powder thickener system for use with carpet and textile printing technologies.
The companies report the system offers advantages over oil-based thickeners including: excellent print definition and penetration with unmatched color yield; high performance and thickening properties; a simple cleaning and drying process; an environmentally friendly, non-toxic and non-hazardous process; compatibility with ChromoJET and screen printing; and cost efficiency, as it typically does not require additional chemicals such as penetration agents, foaming agents, antifoam and acid donors.
CombiPRINT-PP7 system is compatible with all dyes used for carpet printing, including those for nylon, wool, acrylic, polyester and cationic polyester.
January 7, 2014
