The Apollo is an automatic high-speed digital garment press for runs of 1 up to a couple thousand, with a pricing mannequin that might allow printers to interrupt into DTG with out breaking the financial institution.
What does it do?
It’s a high-throughput, totally automated digital direct-to-garment printing system that may output as much as 400 impressions per hour, cured and able to despatch. Every is usually a one-off, or a part of a long term. It’s meant for quantity manufacturing of shirts or hoodies (with or with out pockets) and variations, the place every picture could be distinctive and it may immediately swap from dealing with white to colored supplies.
It is a huge system, with a 14.8×5.6m footprint, but just one operator is required. All operating prices, together with the machine, set up and consumables, are lined by a single click on fee based mostly on a yearly estimate of gross sales.
When was it launched and what markets is it aimed toward?
Kornit has been creating DTG printers because it was based in Israel in 2004, and it developed the primary digital white inks for darkish textiles. Apollo is its largest and quickest mannequin to this point, in a position to deal with volumes as much as 1,000,000 clothes per yr. It was launched in ITMA 2023 in Milan, Italy, and output clothes have been featured on Kornit’s stand at Drupa – guests have been additionally invited to see one of many massive strains in motion at Kornit’s European HQ in a close-by manufacturing unit unit in Düsseldorf.
In accordance with Moran Levy, director of Kornit’s Mass Manufacturing Section: “That is an industrial resolution, meant to enhance a fleet of analogue carousels.” The Apollo’s velocity is about the identical as a median carousel, and the idea is that in a high-throughput surroundings, Apollo can maintain one-offs and runs of up to a couple thousand, alongside standard display screen print carousels that may deal with the lengthy runs of hundreds of equivalent clothes.
“Apollo can match a spread of markets, from retail by means of promotional and licensing, because of the power to match Pantone and spot colors, with on-demand manufacturing,” says Levy.
The velocity means it may exchange a number of “legacy” DTG digital or analogue printers.
How does it work?
That is an inkjet printing system that may print six colors (CMYK, purple and inexperienced), plus white as a base layer on darkish materials, an ‘intensifier’ and a fixer. The inkjet system is Kornit’s MAX know-how, beforehand used on its high-volume Atlas MAX and Atlas Poly printers, that are slower and have much less automation.
It makes use of Kornit’s Eco Speedy, NeoPigment water-based inks. Kornit says all its inks are designed to satisfy the very best environmental requirements in addition to consumption reductions. Eco Speedy ink is licensed to stricter laws and is compliant with GOTS and OEKO Passport licensed, and BlueSign System Associate.
The ink is suited to a variety of cloth sorts, however is optimised for cotton and cotton- wealthy blends. Kornit cites appropriate materials as cotton, polyester, cotton-polyester blends, Lycra/Spandex, rayon/viscose, silk, leather-based, denim, linen, wool, “and extra.” No offline pre-treatment is required – all of Kornit’s options use its ‘wet-on-wet’ know-how with all processes dealt with internally.
The ‘good manufacturing’ sequence is completely automated and all of the operator wants do is manually load every garment at the beginning. A clean garment is scanned for dimension and different “related particulars”. Based mostly on this, the pallet will change its dimension robotically. The operator picks up the clean and arms it on to the semi-automatic loader, which stretches it onto the formed pallet that retains it flat all through printing. There are two printing stations. Pre-treatment is utilized, with the quantity of fixation fluid customised for the particular garment, and the white layer is printed if wanted for darkest clothes. Then the color print is utilized within the second station. Every shirt travels by means of each printing stations, so productiveness is identical for white and darkish shirts.
The automated unloader removes the shirt from the pallet and locations it on one lane of the dryer’s conveyor belt. Sensible curing will alter in accordance with garment and remedy in a two-step course of. The inline dryer makes use of know-how developed by Tesoma, an organization Kornit acquired some years in the past, with a hybrid curing system that mixes IR and scorching air (from a gasoline heater), mentioned to make use of 50% much less vitality than standard dryers.
Lastly the finished garment is transported by belt to a supply bin on the finish, the place it may be picked out for folding and packing.
The embedded front-end is Kornit’s personal Okay-Rip, which takes PDF information and robotically identifies the mandatory workflow. Levy says this permits mass customisation, providing “unparalleled color accuracy to satisfy the wants of manufacturers and retailers”.
Does it exchange something?
No, Apollo is an all-new system within the Kornit vary, with extra velocity and automation. Kornit claims it’s distinctive out there.
What’s the USP?
In accordance with Kornit, it’s a mixture of “ground-breaking productiveness” with a single operator, because of semi-automatic loading, totally automated printing with switch to Tesoma-based good curing and supply. It incorporates Qualiset tech for color know-how, and it may reproduce Pantone values and different model colors.
How simple is it to make use of/study?
Levy says: “Apollo makes the coaching quick and straightforward, since our good manufacturing takes care of the entire technical knowhow that’s wanted to function the system. The operator can concentrate on loading and nothing extra, making the coaching course of and ramp-up very fast. We provide full coaching packages that carry your workforce on top of things with the entire technical instruments which are wanted to run the system every day. The method takes two to 4 weeks, and consists of all operation, functions and upkeep.”
What does it value?
At Kornit’s Drupa press convention, CEO Ronen Samuel mentioned: “Apollo would value $1.8m (£1.4m), plus ink and repair contract. However as an alternative we provide all-SaaS fashions for clicks, which incorporates the machine. This frees up capital, so shoppers solely pay for clicks, ie bought jobs.”
Whereas Kornit isn’t saying what the cost-per-garment will likely be, this does appear a lovely method to get into the DTG market with out main outlay. In all probability many one-off orders will come from web-to-print, with fee obtained upfront.
Are there any installations?
Gross sales and installations have began, with the primary two going to Mad Engine International and T-Shirt Central within the US. There was one sale within the UK to an undisclosed website.
SPECIFICATIONS
Course of Inkjet with Dimatix StarFire 1024 Twinflex printheads, plus inline curing
Colors CMYK plus purple, inexperienced, white and primers
Ink Water-based Kornit Eco Speedy NeoPigment
Max decision 1,200dpi
Garment sorts Shirts and hoodies (with or with out pockets)
Cloth sorts Cotton, polyester, cotton-polyester blends, Lycra/Spandex, rayon/viscose, silk, leather-based, denim, linen, wool
Max print space 508x508mm with dimension shifting for bigger clothes
Throughput As much as 400 typical shirts/hour
Footprint 5.6×14.8m
Worth All lined by click on fee decided by predicted volumes
Contact Kornit www.kornit.com [email protected]
ALTERNATIVES
Kornit claims that the velocity and all-in-one automation of the Apollo is exclusive out there, and we haven’t discovered the rest that’s a direct competitor. Different high-volume options embody Brother’s POD providing, however this contains a battery of separate small GTX Professional B garment printers with separate pre-treatment stations, grouped subsequent to a number of lane configurations of the standalone Firefly curing techniques. This enables throughput of as much as 380 shirts per hour with 9 printers and a three-lane Firefly, however it wants three operators with handbook loading and unloading of every printer and switch to the Firefly lanes.
Contact Brother garmentprinter.world.brother/en-emea
USER REVIEW
“Apollo is proving notably beneficial for each retail and display screen printing segments, to shorten lead instances and enhance margins for short-to-medium run manufacturing. Retailers can react in real-time to new consumptions and developments and in addition dramatically streamline stock necessities and prices. Display printers can shorten lead instances to days and even hours” Mad Engine International, San Diego, California
