The Status and Future of the Digital Textile Printing Industry

The digital printing industry has rapidly occupied the market in recent years, especially in the field of apparel and textiles. According to a recent report published by Allied Market Research, the global digital textile printing market size is US$2.2 billion in 2019, and it is expected to grow by 19.1% from 2020 to 2027. This report analyzes the global digital textile printing market trends from three perspectives of ink, application fields, and regional share.

Ink

With the development of digital printing technology and the increasing demand for personalized and diversified clothing, ink colors can now achieve more realistic visual effects and long-lasting and stable performance. On the one hand, this has promoted the development of the pigment field. The increase in the demand for diverse pigments has led to a compound annual growth rate of 21.9%. On the other hand, the development of pigments has promoted the development of the dye-sublimation industry in turn, especially in the fields of fashion and sportswear. According to market reports, the dye-sublimation market stands for nearly half of the global digital textile printing market, which is largely due to the advancement of dye-sublimation technology and the increase in customization demand.

As the concept of sustainability gradually penetrates the apparel field, environmentally friendly inks are more in line with market demand. Most advanced digital textile printing manufacturers use scalable inkjet printing. The application of environmentally friendly ink technology has greatly promoted the development of the digital textile market in the current and future years.

Application field

Thermal transfer technology can be widely applied to cotton, silk, polyester, and other fabrics. In addition to fashion and sportswear, household goods also have a great demand for digital textile printing products. The compound annual growth rate of the household market segment is expected to be 20.7%. The flexibility of design and the richness of colors are the main reasons for the widespread use of digital textile printing.

Regional share

Europe, Asia Pacific, and North America account for the largest share of the global digital printing and textile market. Among them, Europe still occupies a dominant position, followed by the Asia-Pacific region, accounting for about one-third, and the compound annual growth rate of North America is predicted to reach 18.9%. It is worth noting that the surge in demand for thermal transfer textile products is likely to be caused by the low cost of raw materials such as cotton. This is precisely in line with the market characteristics of the easy availability of raw materials and low labor costs in the Asia-Pacific region.

In summary, the digital textile printing market has great development prospects in the next few years, especially the thermal transfer market. The laser systems can provide an accurate laser cutting solution for sublimation apparel and print advertising due to computer recognition of contours. And heat treatment and non-contact processing can achieve clean and flawless edges. Applying contour laser cutting machine to the field of sublimation apparel and print advertising is a good choice to improve production efficiency and quality.