Epson targets 30-40% dye sublimation market share in 2015

"India is the second-largest market for textile. Textile printing contributes 2-3% to the country's GDP," said Vasudevan LK of Epson.

12 Dec 2014 | By PrintWeek India

According to Vasudevan, Dhaval Color Chem (DCC), the sole representative of Epson's dye-sublimation kit, installed about 280 kit across the country in the span of a year and half.

"With this, we have almost penetrated in to 25% of the dye sublimation market. And given the size of the segment and the increasing demand for dye sublimation, as the market matures, in the year 2015, we intend to capture 30-40% of the market share."

The target market for dye sublimation transfer printing, for Epson, is t-shirt manufacturers especially those catering to sports industry. These include t-shirts made of polyester or cotton-polyester mix.

On display and in operation at DCC were the two Epson equipment; SC F7170 and SC F6070. Both the SC F6070, which handles a media width of 44-inch and the SC F7170, which handles a media width of 64-inch, are designed with the Epson PrecisionCore TFP print heads which work only with the UltraChrome DS inks.

The SC-F7170 prints onto a special transfer paper, which is then brought into contact with the textile in a separate heat press to achieve image transfer. It prints at 25 sq/m per hour.

According to Vasudevan, "Subject to the size of the machine, the demand varies. In a market like that in Tirupur, which is a hot-spot for t-shirt printing, the 44-inch F6070 is a favourite while in Surat F7170 is more in demand for the saree printing market."

Will the traditional screen printing technology be replaced? "Given the size and structure of the industry, digital has just taken baby steps in the segment in terms of volume. The digital technology is not set out to replace the screen printing technology. Today, anything above 5000 print run is economically viable on the screen technology," concluded Vasudevan.