Olivia Rubin

RA Smart is delighted to be working with one of the country’s brightest young design talents. A graduate of Central St Martins in 2006, Olivia Rubin is taking the fashion world by storm and 2009 is set to be another busy and successful year for the London based designer. February will see her first catwalk show at London Fashion Week, in association with On/Off and she will also be unveiling a collection for asos.com which is set to launch in March.

An advocate of the digital process, Olivia has become recognised for her graphic prints and eye-catching use of colour that were such a hit at Fashion Week in September. 2009 is set to be another very exciting year in which her unique prints and signature style become increasingly accessible to everybody.

Digital Textiles - Superwide soft signage arrives in the UK

Digital textile printing is not new to RA Smart, we have been doing it for over ten years! R A Smart is a company renowned for being at the forefront of digital textile printing technology within the UK. With a unique position within this specialized sector as not only a reseller and supplier, RA Smart are also a major user of digital technology and have one of the largest textile digital facilities in the UK.

Digital textile printing in the UK can be broadly split into four main sectors although, of course, there are several other niche markets which utilize this technology:

• Fashion/Apparel using reactive and acid dyes on cottons/silks/wool
• Household Textiles/Furnishings using reactive, disperse and pigment dyes on cottons/silks/polyesters
• Sportswear/swimwear using disperse dyes on polyesters
• Flags/Banners/Soft signage using disperse dyes on polyesters.

The use of acid and reactive dyes requires the fabric to be pre- treated with the chemicals which are normally incorporated within standard screen printing inks and allow for the fixation process. These chemicals are not in the digital dyestuff as they would cause run-ability issues through the digital print heads, so the easiest way to incorporate these chemicals is to pad or screen them onto the fabric beforehand.

It is a similar situation when printing with textile pigment dyes and printing direct disperse dyes on polyester although it is not technically necessary for the pre-treatment it is generally used because it can help prevent the spread of inks and also enhance the colours. Textile dyes require a secondary fixation process normally dry heat or steam, this is not unique to the digital process but is a requirement whether traditionally printed or digitally printed.

After several ‘false dawns’ the UK signage industry is finally seeing the great benefits of utilizing textile digital technology within the point of sale and signage market. We have already seen this across the rest of Europe but the UK signage market has been slow to react partly due to the industry perhaps not fully realizing the superior results which can be achieved using this process and partly due to the additional investment in capital equipment if they have already invested heavily in solvent or UV printing technology.

Since Sign UK in April, RA Smart has sold four 320cm Superwide Mimaki JV5 systems all utilizing disperse dyes for either direct to textile applications of via dye sublimation. The first system in the UK was supplied to specialist textile printing company Image Fabrication in Kent:

The printer will be used for the production of high quality printed textiles for a range of applications including theatrical backdrops. Peter Baker of Image Fabrication explains ‘ This investment will offer a new dimension to our production facility allowing us to create extremely high quality prints up to 320cm wide onto a wide variety of textile without the need for stitching panels together.’ Magnus Mighall from RA Smart continues ‘Having sold several JV5 160cm machines for both dye sublimation and direct to textile applications throughout the UK, it is really exciting to see the latest generation of Mimaki super wide machines capable of printing at remarkable quality up to 320cm wide.’

Since then, RA Smart have secured orders for three more 320cm Systems which will be installed by the time this article goes to press. Cheshire based Cestrian Imaging are a specialist large format digital printing company who have a large array of solvent and UV grand format systems. Paul Whitehurst, Managing Director comments; ‘We have been keeping our eye on water based textile digital printing for several years now and with Mimaki’s new 320cm machine we believe the time is right to invest in this technology as we can offer both the width and production speeds as well as exceptional colours and print quality.’

Whilst this technology maybe new to a lot of signage printers, it is not a daunting as it may first appear and with over 35 years experience in the textile printing industry, RA Smart are well placed to guide and support any potential customers who are looking to move into the soft signage market. There is no doubt that this is the start of a new era in the signage industry and with a more informed market place the obvious benefits of utlizing environmentally friendly water based textile dyes to produce a far superior end result for soft signage will continue to push this technology forward into the Signage sector.

Desktop & Small Format Solutions

RA Smart are the natural choice for 100’s of customers investing in small format systems every year. Dye sublimation is the preferred choice for the majority of our small format customers. This is due to the fact the process is easy and straightforward to master and offers the greatest versatility.

A Small Format digital printer, such as the excellent Epson A3 1400 or A2 4450 adapted to print with disperse sublimation dyes and sold in conjunction with a heatpress, allows our customers to utilize this technology for printing onto a myriad of products from plain textile through to T shirts, mouse mats, bar runners, place mats, glass, ceramics etc.

Direct-to-Garment printers have been available for a few years now but the quality and reliability of these systems has been sadly lacking particularly in terms of technical support which is why RA Smart have been waiting until now before we have offered a viable and cost effective solution. Working with our long established partner Sawgrass Technologies, we now have the perfect answer for those customers seeking a reliable turn key system complete with printer, dedicated RIP software and even a pc. This system is White Ink Ready to allow printing onto dark garments, which will be available by the end of Autumn.

New Systems for 2008

The JV5 will continue to offer our commercial customers an ideal system in terms of price/performance with high quality production speeds of 40sq/mt hour, we are sure to see this machine as the preferred choice for a number of customers. The JV33 has now replaced the end of line JV22 and is aimed as an affordable short run production solution for dye sublimation or adapted it will handle limited direct to textile applications. The TX2 is still the machine of choice for customers requiring the versatility to cover a wide range of textile applications and even the possibility of running two ink chemistries at the same time for increased flexibility.

A really exciting development is the forthcoming launch of the brand new Mimaki UJV machine which uses new LED flexible UV curable inks. This will be a true hybrid machine offering the possibility to print not only onto rigid material but also textiles with the added advantage of a flexible ink capable of expanding over 150% of its original size. This machine will not only be of interest to our commercial and industrial customers but equally with our educational customers looking for systems which can bridge the gap between different surface pattern disciplines.

The UJV will sit along side the existing UV range of flat bed printers. These machines will allow printing on virtually any substrate and used in conjunction with a flat bed cutter it opens up a whole array of possibilities for design applications.

The CJV30 range brings together the class beating print speed and quality of the JV33 with the functionality of an integrated cutter, removing the requirement for an additional stand alone cutter. The CJV series is available in 4 widths as a solvent system: 61cm, 102cm,137cm and 162cm with the 61cm also available as a dye sublimation system. The package is bundled together with Rasterlink Pro4 print software, Finecut 7 plug-in cutting software as well as Simple Studio software. This will undoubtedly prove an extremely popular solution for a large numbers of customers looking for a professional solution for a wide range of print and cut applications.