New Allegro joins Barcelos-based Blur’s existing fleet of Avalanches to take business into new market segments 

Kornit Digital, a worldwide market leader in digital textile printing, has announced that its long-term customer Blur of Barcelos, Portugal, has purchased an Allegro single-step digital textile printing solution. Already highly successful with its Kornit Avalanche direct-to-garment systems, this enterprising company is now moving into the market for the full digital production of fast fashion products with the addition of full roll-to-roll printing capabilities.

Blur was established in 2012 as a garment printing specialist offering its services to the high fashion industry, and its growth and success is closely allied to the use of Kornit Digital’s products. The company started with just two employees and a single Kornit Avalanche but, twelve months later, demand was so high that it warranted the investment in a second machine, this time an Avalanche Hexa.

Blur’s growth pattern continued and, at the start of 2014, its customer base had expanded to the extent that the company acquired an Avalanche 1000, Kornit’s flagship model that allows for the highest level of productivity. Later the same year, productivity requirements demanded a further investment and a second Avalanche 1000 was purchased.

Blur’s steady expansion meant that, by November 2015, the company had 20 employees and this gave it the capacity to expand and develop its business into a new production segment for digital fast fashion. This is being complemented by an on-line ordering capability that gives customers flexible options for personalization, with all the benefits of an efficient web-to-print service that offers fast turnaround of orders that maintain Blur’s policy for quality and competitiveness.

Having made the decision to enter the roll-to-roll printing market, it was a logical and practical step to continue with a solution that benefited from Kornit’s NeoPigment^TMprocess. As a result, Blur invested in Kornit’s Allegro roll-to-roll system, a stand-alone system with the shortest cycle times from design to final product, and the only true one-step solution available on the market. This is complemented by a flatbed cutting system from Zünd which forms part of the Allegro & Cut workflow approach, first demonstrated by Kornit at ITMA 2015. 

The Kornit Allegro, with its print width of 1.8m, is a single-step digital textile printing system that is designed for high-speed end-to-end production, using Kornit’s patented NeoPigment printing process. The system features proven inline pre-treatment technology and works on a variety of fabrics, both natural and man-made fibers and blends. It is the only industrial textile printer available today that integrates all production steps in a single, integrated production line, removing the need for complicated pre- and post-treatments such as steaming and washing. It offers the fastest route from digital designs to the finished fabric. 

“The Kornit Allegro matches our ambition for various reasons, starting from its excellent printing quality, and through its extremely simplified process, eliminating the need of other machinery or external processes,” Mariano Dias, founder and owner of Blur, comments: “Moreover, the Kornit Allegro enables you to print on various fabric types with the same ink set. It is the most eco-friendly solution on the marketplace, since it uses 100% biodegradable inks.

“As a complement to this project, we will set up an on-line sales platform that will allow customers to print their own personalized fabrics, as well as to order pre-designed fabrics,” continues Dias. “This platform hence becomes an accessible and useful space for a wide range of creative applications. We plan to target both consumers and corporate customers.”

“Blur is an extremely buoyant and successful business based in Portugal, where textile printing represents a significant part of the country’s export market. This company provides an excellent example of how innovation and steady expansion with the right technology can take businesses into new markets where digital production is now playing an important role,” states Oliver Luedtke, Kornit Digital’s Marketing Director. “Relying on Kornit’s proprietary NeoPigment process, textile companies and brands can shorten their turnaround times, cut intermediaries and eliminate inventory cost. Because of its resource-efficient technology, saving energy and water, the Allegro is also a top choice for environmentally conscious manufacturers.”