Italy-based MS Printing Solutions and JK Group, owned by Dover Corporation, are renowned globally for their range of innovative inks as well as digital printers. Visitors from around the world can expect to find their latest product range at their booth in ITMA 2023
MS Printing Solutions and JK Group are brands where modern technologies allow to improve any aspect of textile printing, starting from performance up to the most important environmental issues. The versatility of these digital technologies also opens the way to different printed applications such as paper and plastic substrates. Speaking exclusively to The Textile Magazine, Stefano Prando, Global Sales Director, said that the management was pleased with the company’s performance in 2023. “It has been a huge year in terms of changes. Starting from April 1, 2023 we have revolutionised our organisational model by joining forces with another OPCO from Dover Corporation, Markem-Imaje,” he said.
“Improvement was at the heart of this move – an extended global footprint, upgraded operational efficiencies and enhanced customer service through an easier, more convenient and faster business exchange. The result is a highly scalable model that is capable of quickly extending production according to peaks in demand and seasonality, thus simplifying supply chain stewardship. Last but not the least, 2023 has been marked by a boost of investment in cutting-edge technologies and development of innovative products and services through our enhanced research and development department, with environmental sustainability always being our driver,” he added.
Products and Markets
Listing down the current product range of the company for the global market, Stefano Prando said, “From the inks point of view we have 16 series designed for digital printing and four types of ink: direct disperse, dye-sub, pigment and reactive. These series have various applications, with our traditional focus on textile. From the machines point of view we have eight printing machines. Each one of them has a paper version and a textile one, we have dryers and steamers. But our portfolio has been growing more and more and we can’t wait to show what’s new at ITMA Milan 2023 which will give visitors an idea of what we have been working on.”
Speaking about the key global markets where the company feels it has a good presence, Prando said, “Our main vocation is to produce digital printing machines and inks to enable our customers in achieving top-level quality prints and therefore the key global markets are the ones which have a massive use of digital textile printing. Moreover, the growing awareness towards the immense benefits and advantages of digital textile printing has been determining opportunities for us to expand our market in an increasing number of countries. As such, our products are so designed as to cater to the requirements of various markets across the world.”
Latest Innovations
Highlighting one of the company’s recent innovations, Stefano Prando said, “As far as inks are concerned, the latest ink we have launched is ‘Digistar Helios’, a dye-sub ink that we have developed in partnership with Chromaluxe. Together we wanted to achieve an ink with higher fastness to weathering conditions than the standard sublimation inks, which could reach outstanding results when applied on Chromaluxe’s rigid metal coated substrates in order to create display photography and outdoor signage. As far as machines are concerned, we have recently closed a special project with an Italian company, printing nonwoven organic fabrics. Such a project represents the basis of what we are going to showcase at ITMA: a new-generation single-pass machine, capable of combining the best qualities of a single pass – speed productivity and unlimited printing runs with the best features of a scanning machine – compactness and high printing quality.”
Presence at ITMA 2023
Sharing an overview of the products and solutions that the company will be exhibiting at ITMA 2023, Stefano Prando said, “2023 is going to be a good year for us. At ITMA we are displaying the results of our latest efforts. All our machines have been redesigned from scratch, inside out, under the leadership of our new PD lead and our new research and development team. The heart of the show will be the future of single-pass machines and the newest member in our portfolio. A new era of digital printing machines is born and it harnesses the performance and reliability of a single-pass while taking up the same space of a scanning machine – a machine that is up to 10 times smaller.”
“By integrating the best of both worlds we can derive the same excellent results but fewer resources are needed in terms of money, consumption, stock and people. All this is a culmination of our sustainable innovation efforts. Our inks are protagonists too. ITMA is the stage where we are going to present to the world our latest ink formula: a pigment finally capable of combining the already existing qualities of this formula with new, improved characteristics. This ink can boast an improved colour gamut, a top-tier level of printability, a process even shorter, more agile and quicker than the traditional formula and an enhanced general fastness if compared to a pigment without pre and post treatments since it doesn’t need any pre or post treatment,” Prando informed.
“It is thus extremely eco-friendly. This radically innovated and even more sustainable ink has been created ad hoc for one of our renewed machines so that together they can work efficiently and give great results. In this way, together, they represent a whole solution – what we like to call ‘the future of pigment’. We want to be a partner at 360 degrees for our customers. That’s why our achievement lies in being able to give our customers a reliable and efficient system and a printing chain that is easily manageable since customers can rely on one partner for various stages of the printing process,” he added.
Explaining the ways in which the company’s solutions ensure sustainable manufacturing, Prando said, “We have always been attentive to the industry’s demands and our planet’s needs. A combination of these two requirements results in sustainable innovation. This solution has been a natural step forward in our history but we only followed a call that was already written in our DNA and is now becoming a requirement. Sustainable innovation is the light that has been guiding us in our projects over the past few years. It is what our new products are permeated with and this will be evident through what we are going to show at ITMA 2023.”
Key Advantages
As regards the company’s competitive strength, Stefano Prando stated, “Our customers set the goal. We have the task of achieving it but it is up to them to decide whether to buy and trust a brand or not. I can tell you what we offer – consistency and reliability. We design high-quality reliable digital printing machines and inks to allow full control of the printing stage, increasing the print look and performance by responding to a customer’s urgent need for a real sustainable textile production chain. We leave the last word to the customers.” Prando is confident about the continued growth of the ink and digital printing market. “Digital in textile is around 15% of the global textile market. This shows impressive further development expectancy for the next few years. Our goal is to make more and more people aware of the advantages that come with choosing digital textile printing,” he said.