Skytex Mexico S.A. de C.V., a Mexico-based producer of tapes and ribbons for home fashion, garments and rugs have got installed a complete COLARIS-NF continuous digital printing line for narrow fabrics at it site from an Austria-based textile and carpet finishing machinery supplier J. Zimmer Maschinenbau GmbH.

With the new COLARIS-NF digital 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. Skytex previously produced solid-color ribbons in-house and imported printed ribbons to sell in mass markets.

Zimmer reported that 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.

Zimmer Austria has also 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.

CombiPRINT-PP7 system is compatible with all dyes used for carpet printing, including those for nylon, wool, acrylic, polyester and cationic polyester.

As this 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.