Let's say you drove your shiny new BMW into a river and instead of slowly sinking to the bottom, it performed as well as the most expensive of million-pound super yachts. You'd be pretty pleased, right? You had a boat and a car all in one. You'd save money and double your capabilities and the potential going forward. It would be rather exciting.

Well, one printer is suggesting something just as extraordinary may be possible in the large-format print domain. Using a HP Designjet L26500 normally used to run off banners, exhibition graphics and vehicle graphics, Scottish printer OPG Graphics says it can now print on certain fabrics to a level that a consumer would accept as equivalent to traditional screen or dye-sublimation printed material. This makes a sideline in interior design products suddenly a viable extra revenue stream for wide-format printers. But while HP is willing to back OPG’s findings, some other manufacturers are doubtful that digital printers made for vinyl and HP can produce high-quality consumer-standard fabric print. There is also some scepticism as to whether a market for these goods exists, even if they are up to the task.

Printers have used digital printers to print onto fabrics for retail and exhibition displays for some time, but any thought of going over to the consumer product side of things would prompt raised eyebrows. The quality was simply never good enough. That has changed, says OPG Graphics. The company’s recent installation of an L26500 Designjet was principally aimed at more efficient and effective delivery of the firm’s bread and butter work of vehicle graphics, advertising banners and exhibition stands. But through a bit of experimentation, OPG has discovered that the Designjet’s brighter colour gamut produces quality results on a range of fabrics, too.

"A textile print expert could probably tell the difference between our fabric prints and a dye-sublimation or screen printed product," says OPG general manager Alan Watson, "but end-users will just look at them and think they are beautiful, vibrant images."

Improved technology

HP is happy to agree. It says both the Designjet L28500 and L26500s, launched last year, boast improved ink technology for high-quality, vibrant results on a very wide range of textiles.

"Retail point-of-sale is still the biggest fabric application for the Designjet, as this is a real growth area and so a profitable end of the market," says Designjet country manager Phil Oakley. "But we are seeing more and more instances where printers are using their Designjet for interior products, and we’re getting more enquiries about printing these kinds of textiles."

Machines like the Designjet, explains Oakley, enable printers to use a machine they would have purchased anyway for their core work, to generate much-needed extra revenue by branching into other markets.

"In this current economic climate, you don’t want to limit your options," says Oakley. "You don’t want to buy a printer that can only do one thing; you want to be future-proofed."

OPG’s Watson would argue that future may already be upon us. He is in discussions with one company interested in producing tablecloths with OPG, and another looking at getting awnings printed. It is the Designjet’s recently developed ability to print double-sided pieces that could potentially enable these applications, reports Watson. He adds that OPG is also considering printing fine art canvases, blackout roller blinds, hanging drapes, decorative tapestries, light shades and fabric wall art and even wall ‘tattoos’.

While HP is sure of the capabilities of its latex machines in the in the consumer arena, EFI strategic product manager Mike Wozny is less convinced that general purpose machines are suited to specialist textile applications. Citing the Vutek GS3250r and GS5000r printers as examples, he says that while they are ideal for producing a wide range of products, including soft signage, their UV inkset is unsuitable for producing consumer goods.

And so he would recommend sticking with a specialist machine for consumer interior design products.

"Our roll-to-roll UV printers have advanced media handling capabilities and so print on textiles with very good results from an image quality perspective," says Wozny. "But you can see and feel where the ink is and where it isn’t."

This ultimately interferes with the final texture of the piece. Wozny explains that this is fine for exhibition display pieces only viewed from a distance, but problematic for soft furnishings. For this sort of product, Wozny recommends one of EFI’s digital dye-sublimation printers.

Some would argue that the output of the Designjets and other latex printers would suffer a similar fate in terms of uneven surfaces to the UV machines, and so are no more suited to consumer interior design products than the UV presses. OPG’s Watson, however, reports that this has not been his experience thus far.

HP argues that latex technology has a further advantage over UV in the health and safety arena. Solvent-free latex inks are safe for use not just in commercial settings, says HP, but also in the relatively confined spaces of a home, hospital or school.  Latex technology is ideal for these latter two locales, says HP, because of its ability to offer the best of both worlds: solvent-free print that is also rather more affordable than dye-sublimation or fabric screen-printing processes.

However, even some other latex printer manufacturers share EFI’s doubts over the technology’s suitability for the consumer home market. Joining the Designjet in the latex multimedia digital printing market is Mimaki’s recently launched JV400-LX. Duncan Jefferies, marketing manager at Mimaki supplier Hybrid Services, is less convinced than HP of latex printers’ suitability for interior textiles work.

"The JV400 does open up the possibility of printing for consumer markets, because the quality of the printed image – as with other latex printers – is very good," says Jefferies. "But the key issue here is how rub-fast and washable the results will be. While that’s not a consideration for POS and display graphics, it is with something like a cushion."