The Mass Customization Sweet Spot.An Interview with Sharon Donovich – Product Marketing Manager, Kornit Vulcan

We met with Sharon, The Vulcan Product Marketing Manager who shared her thoughts on the changes taking place in the textile industry over the past few years.

For years, manufacturers have primarily produced long runs for the Direct-to-Garment industry. Screen printing machines have provided a cost-effective solution with good results for such long runs because the setup fees were absorbed in the overall costs. However, she explains that market is in a state of flux and manufacturing trends are shifting.

What is the main change and the drivers of this change?

Changes are occurring that are being driven by market demand.
Where there is still a demand for long runs, medium runs of significantly
shorter length (of anything between 50-500 pieces per job) are becoming more
and more popular. Such run lengths are less profitable when produced on screen
printing due to the costs and time involved in producing and setting up.

So this is actually where the new versus traditional worlds
meet? Who wins?

This is what she terms the “sweet spot” of the custom
decorators’ industry. There is a need coming from the market to provide a
manufacturing solution for runs of this length.

So what will the game changer be here?

A printer that can meet both requirements of long and short
runs. A printer that specifically fills this gap.

With the Vulcan Mass customization for example, Direct-to-Garment
digital Press or system, this is the first time that digital printing can
actually be profitable for medium runs, because the other DTG solutions are
still too expensive per print.

And it’s also the first time medium runs can be profitable
compared to screen printing. So the Vulcan sits in that spot between the DTG
systems that support online business with micro-runs and the screen printing
that is used to manufacture long runs.

The Vulcan customers say that for them the Vulcan sits in
the spot between their digital one off’s and their screen printing mass to
accomplish speed-to-market small and medium runs seamlessly.

How can manufacturers take advantage of this without turning
their factory floors upside down?

Manufacturers can leverage their existing screen equipment
by adding a Vulcan to the production floor. This will provide the flexibility
to divert the short to medium runs to the Vulcan, making them more profitable.
It’s also a way to better leverage human resources, production space and time.

Is there any compromise on quality?

There is no compromise at all. In fact the Vulcan gives
excellent results, reproducing spot and pantone colors used in the industry
because the Vulcan includes CMYK plus Red and Green (Hexa) ink, which therefore
covers 90% of the pantone library.

I see that the speed of the Vulcan is highlighted as a feature. Could you elaborate.

With screen printing an average job of 144 pieces with 5 colors will need about an hour just to print the job, not taking into account the prepress process, whereas with the Vulcan in an hour you would already be doing the next job. The Vulcan, our largest Mass customization Direct-to-Garment digital printer is a workhorse of note. With the Vulcan you can do 250 shirts per hour and no setup is needed.

Here what customers have to say…

To learn more about digital textile printing, come and meet us at ISS.

We’ll demonstrate SIX ways digital DTG printing can position your business for long-term profitability and opportunity.

Set a meeting at  http://digital1.kornit.com/ISS2018