Swedish innovative company Coloreel has entered a long-term partnership with the global electronics company Ricoh. Together they will create a groundbreaking thread coloring unit for the textile industry. Ricoh will develop and build one of the major sub-systems in the unit, based on Ricoh's inkjet printing technology and Coloreel’s technology for colorization.

Coloreel and Ricoh have cooperated for several years, and have now signed the final contracts. This partnership is a joint development effort to revolutionize the textile business, first with the thread coloring unit for the embroidery industry.

"This partnership is a high profile project for us; we see much potential in this product and this industry. We believe in Coloreel and their unique technology, says Tetsuya Morita," General Manager of Commercial and Industrial Printing Development Division at Ricoh.

Ricoh has been driving innovation for more than 80 years and is a leading provider of document management solutions, IT services, commercial and industrial printing, digital cameras, and industrial systems. Ricoh will build the sub-system for the colorization process using their long experience in the world of printing and combine it with Coloreel’s new technology for colorization. The development has taken place with Ricoh’s engineers in Japan, England and Coloreel’s engineers in Sweden.

"The partnership with Coloreel further demonstrates our commitment to collaboration and pushing boundaries. Combining our history of driving innovation for over 80 years, our commitment to customer needs and intent on becoming the analog to digital transformation experts in industrial process is enabling us to disrupt this exciting industry, says Peter Williams," General Manager of Commercial and Industrial Printing Business Group at Ricoh.

The Coloreel technology enables high-quality instant coloring of textile thread while it is in the textile production. The first product to be launched based on this technology is a groundbreaking thread coloring unit that works with any existing industrial embroidery machine. By instantly coloring a white base thread during the embroidery production, Coloreel enables complete freedom to create unique embroideries without any limitations in the use of colors.

"It feels amazing that a company like Ricoh, with their dignity and size, chooses to enter this partnership with us. To have Ricoh as our partner gives our product even more credibility, and we are excited to see what this partnership will bring," says Mattias Nordin, CEO at Coloreel.

Coloreel will start production in autumn 2018. World-leading companies in textile, fashion and sportswear are standing in line to use this revolutionary product.