Heimtextil Frankfurt in pictures: The first mayor show for digital printing in 2017 

Heimtextil is most important international trade fair for home and contract textiles. In the last few years, it has also become a “place-to-be” for the digital textile printing industry. Digital print expert and contributing editor for blokboek.com Sonja Angerer visited this important event and made the photo impression below.

Heimtextil trade show is annually held at Frankfurt am Main fairgrounds and believed to be the most important international trade fair for home and contract textiles. In 2017, the January 10th to 13th event saw 2,963 companies from 67 countries, a clear up of 99 from last year. Visitor numbers were stable with almost 70,000.  (2016: 68,277).

Hall 6.0 was the place to visit for the digital printing community at Heimtextil, as nearly all relevant vendors and manufacturers had their booth there. The three exhibition floor building Hall 6 was centrally located, its „Theme Park“ heavily advertised all over the fairgrounds.

Dgen brought its Teleios Grand G5 3,330 m textile printing machine with pigment inks to the Frankfurt show.

At Heimtextil 2017 HP showcased the Latex 365 printers as well as the recently introduced HP Latex 1500. HP displayed its Latex technology wide versatility in all kinds of flexible coated and uncoated materials, including applications such as wallpapers, canvas, printed flooring, textiles and faux-leather. HP took the decision to join Heimtextil five years ago as one oft he first manufacturers from the digital printing community. „I still recall our first participation at Heimtextil where everyone was wondering what is HP doing at Heimtextil.  It’s amazing to see that the vision we had for the decoration market is shaping. Applications are amazing and both designers and print service providers enjoy growth. This is just the beginning. All will become digital and decoration is not an exception“, said Francois Martin, GSB WW Marketing Director Graphic Solutions Business HP.

Online printing giant Flyeralarm has started into the new year by making a strategic investment into roll-to-roll textile printing press Kornit Allegro with pigment inks. As soon as March 2017, Flyeralarm wants to extend its portfolio to printing on (organic) cotton, silk and polyester. In the picture from left to right: Igor Zanoskyi (Managing Director Flyeralarm Large Format Printing GmbH) and Sander Lossie (Sales Manager Kornit). Photo: Flyeralarm

Mutoh took the opportunity of Heimtextil to introduce its brand-new ValueJet 1948WX, a 75 Inch roll-to-roll sublimation printer with printing speeds up to 100 m².

Heimtextil 2017 saw the  première of the “Digital Textile Micro Factory”. As part of the presentation, which has been set up in collaboration with “Deutsche Institute für Textil- und Faserforschung” (the German Institute for Textile and Fibre Research) as well as industry partners such as Ergosoft, Mimaki, Multi-Plot Europe (D.gen Distributor) and Zünd, a digital production chain was showcased live on siteKiian: Kiian Digital set up its booth a concept-space where visitors were able to see printing results first-hand. “During Heimtextil, visitors will discover a diverse array of applications showcasing these key selling points,” says Marco Girola, Marketing Specialist at Kiian Digital.” Continuous improvement of our inks’ performance by our superb R&D team is a key factor to our success.”

EFI´s textile printing division, Italian digital production print manufacturer Reggiani, is a household name on Heimtextil trade show.

The Tiger-1800B was the high-light at the Mimaki booth at Heimtextil. The highly productive, high quality digital textile printer achieves a maximum productivity of 385 m2/hour. Mimaki completed its acquisition of renowned Italian textil printer manufacturer La Meccanica in October 2016.