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Aftermarket Supplier IMEX Enters Textile Printer Business
IMEX, a company that manufactures toner for remanufactured cartridges in Japan and the United States, is expanding its product offerings with the introduction of its first textile printer. IMEX’s U.S. affiliate, IMEX America Corp., based in Salem, Oregon, launched the first textile desktop color printer, the IMEX SDP A410, through a dealer in the U.S. market in November.
In addition, IMEX is selling a set consisting of the printer body and four-color toner at 300,000 yen (approximately, U.S. $2,800) in Japan. The machine is also planned for sale in Europe.
General-purpose press machines that transfer colors to T-shirts and other garments typically sell for tens of thousands of yen.
The printer body is compact with a width of 400 mm (15.8 inches), depth of 450 mm (17.7 in.), and height of 320 mm (12.6 in.), so it can be easily installed at shops and event venues, providing on-demand printing services while the customer waits for the finished product.
The number of textile printers in circulation is small, but the market is expected to grow. The printer developed by IMEX represents the industry’s first sublimation-transfer printer using IMEX’s sublimation toner. In general, textile printers employ an inkjet printing process that is easy to volatilize. However, IMEX uses toner, a printing technology in which it excels in the aftermarket and has developed a toner that gets kneaded with a volatile color material allowing it to soak deep into the fabric by heating the sublimated color material.
The IMEX SDP A410 is a compact desktop model that supports A4 size material and prints at 20 sheets per minute. Because it is a toner-based system, it has the advantage over inkjet since it does not require drying time. While pigments are mixed in color materials for general toners, the toner for this machine uses dyes in the color materials and sublimates with a hot press to soak into the polyester fibers of a T-shirt. It also offers high-quality printing. Another benefit, according to IMEX, is that colors are fade-resistant. Speed is also of the essence, and it only takes about five minutes from print to press-transfer to T-shirt and finish. In addition to T-shirts, it can also print on tote bags and mugs.
IMEX America Corp. exhibited the IMEX SDP A410 printer at the Impressions Expo (formerly ISS) in Long Beach, California, January 17-19, 2020. In addition, its U.S. dealer will exhibit it at the VDTA/SDTA exhibition in Las Vegas, Nevada, February 16-18.
Caption: The IMEX SDP A410 textile printer and a T-shirt printed on the device.
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