Heimtextil is enlarging its offering of products and information on the topical theme of digital printing. In addition to an extended Digital Print product segment in Hall 4.0, the successful European Digital Textile Conference by WTIN will be held for the second time during Heimtextil. The international trade fair for home and contract textiles continues to focus on the constantly growing market for digital textile printing.

“Digital textile printing has three advantages: in the first place, the technology requires fewer resources and enables faster production cycles. Secondly, textile designers can experiment more creatively and flexibly with high-quality forms and models. Thirdly, purchasers of home and household textiles have the possibility to respond more quickly and more individually to today’s consumer requirements,” says Ulrike Wechsung, Director of Heimtextil. “With our Digital Print segment in Hall 4.0 we can offer the largest selection so far of technologies for digitally-printed home textiles at the forthcoming Heimtextil and consequently new sales opportunities for our design-oriented exhibitors and visitors.”

Digital print is once again located in the vicinity of the Heimtextil Theme Park. The event highlight in Hall 4.0 offers a completely new presentational form for the trends at Heimtextil. “This will make Hall 4.0 the central point of contact for all those on the lookout for especially innovative products and future-related topics,” says Wechsung.

On the second day of the fair, the World Textile Information Network (WTiN) and Messe Frankfurt are extending an invitation to those wishing to attend the conference, to be held in English, Hall 4.0, Europa Room. This year, it will deal with the following topics: market figures and trends, advantages of digital printing over screen printing, new machines and technologies, printing on fabrics made of polyester, cotton and cellulose fibres, optimum colour management and fabric pre-treatment, the use of modern print heads and successful examples of digitally printed home textiles.

“There was great enthusiasm for this year’s European Digital Textile Conference. I think everyone had underestimated the level of interest they would encounter at Heimtextil in this newly emerging discipline,” says John Scrimshaw, editor-in-chief of the Digital Textile magazine.

“Heimtextil is the most important platform for the home textiles sector and we can see that digital printing will be even more prominent this time round. Digitally printed home textiles present a huge opportunity and the technology is moving forward rapidly. The programme will reflect this progress, while also seeking to give insights into the commercial and creative possibilities of the technique.” According to Textile Intelligence, the production volume of digitally printed textiles is growing at an annual rate of 25 percent.

To give Digital Print more room for growth, this product segment is moving into the new Hall 4.0. With its central position in the fairgrounds, visitors can experience the complete range of technologies and machines for digital textile printing. All the major players in the business have registered: these include HP, Reggiani Macchine, POD – Equipamenta, Durst Phototechnik, Kornit Digital Europe, Xeikon International, Digital Graphics and J. Zimmer. According to the most recent figures a total of eleven exhibitors will be presenting their innovative printing techniques.