By Cassandra Balentine
Providers of digital print technologies are just scratching the surface of what their products can do for the manufacturing space, and a few companies are succeeding with digital. The décor space is one area well suited for digital intervention.
Digital printing technology enables the decoration of wood laminates, by either printing directly to board or to paper to produce wood decorations.
The market is large. Grand View Research, Inc. estimates the global wood and laminate flooring market to reach 92.64 billion USD by 2020.
The research firm’s 2015 report notes technology advancements have led to the development of new products and installation techniques that have “widened the scope across residential as well as commercial flooring applications,” according to the firm.
Digital Disruption
You can bet that digital has a stake in future innovation. Already, manufacturers known in the digital inkjet space have shown interest in this market. KBA and Kodak are among the vendors offering demonstrations of inkjet technology in use for the industrial market at the 2016 drupa. In the wide format space, companies like EFI tout customers doing this type of work regularly.
Digital print technology brings its usual benefits to the table in this industrial application. Bruce Richardson, national sales manager – web presses, KBA North America, Inc., says digital printing of floor laminating surfaces enables shorter runs when compared to flexography or gravure technologies. “This allows a floor laminate manufacturer to produce material as needed, with lower inventory and reduced storage costs,” he explains. “New print designs can also be tested and optimized faster for delivery to consumers.”
Gillian Ewers, director of marketing, Xaar, says in addition to specific benefits offered by Xaar, which are detailed below, inkjet printing technologies offer generic benefits such as printing to the edge of the substrate, printing large designs without pattern repeats that are more life-like compared to analog processes, and the ability to quickly respond to changing market demands.
Specifically, vendors provide digital solutions that are designed or suited for industrial applications, including floor laminate decoration.
KBA’s RotaJET VL series of industrial presses can be used for printing laminate flooring paper substrates with high quality and resolution. Richardson says this provides a real wood, tile, or other décor pattern look to laminates.
“Digital inkjet printing delivers a high quality, fine detail finish, making it easy to create designs that are faithful to the original, and patterns that are virtually indistinguishable from wood and other materials,” comments Ewers.
Xaar provides printheads suited to this application. Its 1003, 2001, and 2001+ printheads serve this sector, and the 1201 and 5601 will soon be on the market to serve the decorative laminate flooring space. The 1003 is used for direct-to-board laminate applications.
Industrial Focused
For industrial printing, users require durability and stamina of their digital production presses.
Richardson notes that the RotaJET, which is used in the book, commercial, and packaging print markets is successful in industrial applications because it provides a high tolerance web tension throughout the web path, allowing precision ink droplets to be printed on the substrate. The company can fine tune inks for décor printing, and its pre-coating technology provides the capability for high density production.
Additionally, KBA’s RotaJET VL series industrial presses have the ability to digitally load files and print with water-based polymer KBA RotaColor ink with fast changeover for the efficient and cost-effective production of short-run work, including sample work and smaller inventories.
Richardson suggests that the RotaJET is cost effective in the two to three ton range of material production. “Future applications may include printing on synthetic/plastic materials as well,” he offers.
Ewers feels the image requirements for laminate applications are “quite challenging,” especially when printing complex patterns such as mixed woods or patterns with mixed grain directions—or with combinations of wood and graphics. To address this, she says the fine drop size of the different GS6 varieties of Xaar printheads—the Xaar 1003, 2001, and 2001+—are ideal for this application. She adds that white inks used by companies printing laminate flooring are highly pigmented and require a printhead where true recirculation of fluid takes place directly behind the nozzle. “This is the most reliable method used to keep the ink pigments in suspension and prevent nozzle blocking and the technology is unique to Xaar.”
Further, laminate producers benefit from the ability to vary drop sizes between the printbars in their printers. “The Xaar 1003 and 2001+ printheads, which deliver different drop size ranges—GS6, GS12, and GS40—have a common footprint within the range. Xaar 1003 variants are the same size, as are the Xaar 2001+ variants. This makes it easy to vary the printhead and therefore the drop size across different printbars, offering greater flexibility for different applications including those needing color or high laydown varnishes to create a digital structure for the life-like representation of wood.”
The Xaar 1003 as well as the Xaar 2001 and 2001+ printheads are produced using tuned actuator manufacturing, whereby individual nozzles are micro-milled to extremely precise tolerances to ensure each printhead performs similarly, explains Ewers. “Thus, color is consistent across all of the printheads in a printbar. This is essential, particularly when using many printheads across a very wide swath. An example is Hymmen—a German manufacturer—whose Jupiter machine, which uses Xaar 1003 printheads, can print up to 82.7 inches wide for a variety of products such as laminate flooring, skirting boards, doors/gates, and decorative paper and finishing foils.”
Hymmen industrial digital printing lines enable users to print the surface of roll or board products on demand. According to the company’s website, the Jupiter Digital Printing Line allows for printing substrates in the required length with the respective digital template—including wood, stone, or fantasy design—as needed.
All standard models of the Jupiter Digital Print Line are supplied in a solid, user-centric machine design suitable for industrial purposes and are available in different working widths up to 2,100 mm for both roll and board materials.
Technology Demonstrations
A few vendors demonstrated the capabilities of their product offerings in industrial settings at drupa 2016.
KBA showcased the capabilities brought to life by its client, Interprint, in its stand. The company demonstrated laminate flooring printed on a KBA RotaJET 168 by Interprint in Arnsberg, Germany.
Interprint Group produces décor worldwide for the furniture industry. The company utilizes industrial digital printing capabilities of the KBA RotaJET 168 to produce high-end décor on conventional paper. The print array design enables optimal color precision and repeatability. Additionally, RotaColor decorative inks provide color fastness and light resistance.
Kodak demonstrated how its Kodak Stream Inkjet Technology is able to print laminate substrates using an efficient digital inkjet process that competes with gravure printed substrates. Kodak’s laminate décor solutions, which are driven by Kodak Stream Inkjet Technology, print across a range of substrates to produce laminate flooring and furniture, wood grained cupboards, and stone-designed countertops.
At the 2016 drupa trade show, the company showcased the “This is Inkjet! Loft,” which featured a pseudo apartment decorated with Kodak Stream digitally printed products including laminate flooring, countertops, furniture, wallpaper, napkins, and water bottles.
In a blog about the demonstration, the company stated that, “the ability to print customized designs in short runs, eliminating inventory with just-in-time printing while achieving the durability and robustness comparable with gravure printing, will change how home décor and other wide format printing is delivered in the future.”
Innovation Below
As digital print technology evolves, so do the markets it serves. Industrial environments look to digital’s ability for customization and shorter runs to innovate offerings. The laminate flooring market is one area that benefits from this technology.
Jan2017, Industrial Print Magazine