The fine Messe Berlin is closed and the lights have gone down on another FESPA Global Print Expo. If you followed our live coverage last week, you know that the two major themes of the show were textiles and corrugated. And while the emphasis still remains on the hardware that can output on a wide variety of materials, of increasing importance is how to efficiently get work to that hardware. As a result, there is more attention being paid to workflow, specifically, the idea of the “microfactory,” or an entire production ecosystem that comprises a web-to-print storefront that allows customers to order apparel or other specialty items in small quantities and then track the order through production and gauge an estimated delivery time. This is not a new concept; Mimaki has been using the theme of the microfactory in its trade show presences for at least the past two years, and over in our Textiles section, Sister Cary has been tracking some of the actual microfactories that have been cropping up in the real world.

Here are some quick hits from this year’s Berlin show.

Mimaki launched a new textile printer line, the Tiger-1800B MkII, a high-speed (max 385 square meters per hour [sqm/hr]) textile printer that can print either direct-to-fabric or via transfer paper. Output equipment manufacturers are recognizing that they need to provide more than just a printer, and are providing more and more elements of the entire overall ecosystem, especially for print service providers new to things like textile printing, which often requires ancillary equipment unfamiliar to shops used to dealing with paper-based substrates. Mimaki is thus launching its “Rimslow Series” of  pre- and post-processing equipment (Mimaki had acquired the Australian company Rimslow last year) which includes a pre-treatment unit which applies an agent to the fabric to help with ink adhesion, a post-printing steaming unit that fixes the ink to the fabric, and a washing unit that rinses excess ink and treatment agent off the fabric. Not all textile ink types require these pre- and post-treatment processes, but Mimaki has been expanding the number of inks its equipment supports so as to enable printing on the broadest array of fabrics possible. (They are of course not the only manufacturer doing this—EFI and Epson have also been expanding their ink compatibility.)