Kornit Digital Europe opened its doors to the public on Friday and Saturday, 2/3 March. The purpose of their Open House was to build a bridge between screenprinting and Direct-To-Garment (DTG) technology.
The European office of Kornit Digital has been based in Ratingen, Germany, since January 2011. This office provides full logistical services to their European distributors, including handling all deliveries of consumables and spare parts. It also includes a demo room for hands-on demonstrations and a training centre that will offer a variety of professional training sessions, including technical operation and maintenance training, and comprehensive applications training in art and pre-press sessions.
The Paradigm
The Paradigm was central during the open days of Kornit. This digital add-on unit was shown live in action on a screenprinting carousel from the German firm Heinz Walz. Screenprinters can now produce creative prints where screenprinting and digital printing are combined.
The digital station is compatible with both automatic and manual carousels. The maximum print area is 40 cm × 50 cm (16″ × 20″). Full-colour CMYK images can be printed, and this simultaneously reduces, therefore, the number of required windows. Thanks to screenprinting, special effects for example can be achieved. There were, for instance, full-colour T-shirts with neon colours and glitters to be seen.
DTG
Of course visitors could also see Kornit’s Direct-To-Garment printers, including the entry-level Breeze, the Thunder and the Avalanche. The Avalanche DC Pro is for printers who want to enter the fashion industry. They can now print on dark garments without the usual white layer of ink that creates a ‘thick’ feel to the design. The Kornit Avalanche DC Pro retains all the advanced features of the Kornit Avalanche, and is ideal for printing all over up to XXL garments or cut panels. With its two additional printheads, a discharge chemical is applied to remove the dye molecules of the dark garment, providing a smooth base for CMYK and White printing and allowing a great hand-feel of the finished product. Printing with the Kornit Avalanche DC Pro can be done with the use of full discharge, discharge in combination with white ink, or discharge using only white ink.
The Canadian software developer Pulse Microsystems was also present at the Open House. Pulse is particularly well 
known for its software for the embroidery industry and focuses on personalisation. It also develops software for DTG printers. With Palette ID, Pulse wants to create a kiosk-format for digital printer shops. Their customers can create a decorated custom-made T-shirt or other garment on a mobile device, iPad, Android tablet, or a PC/Mac located inside the shop. An Internet connection is not required.
