Standfast & Barracks in Lancashire, England is one of the most versatile fabric printers in the world. Established in 1924, the company produces fine-quality prints for design-led home furnishings and apparel brands. It is part of the British luxury furnishing group Walter Greenback Plc and has an international reputation for a commitment to quality, innovation, and advanced technologies.
The company produces more than 150,000 yards of printed fabric per month. And until five years ago, it was all done by conventional printing. Today, digital production accounts for more than half of its business revenues.
Ecofast™ Fabrics
At the Heimtextil show for home and contract textiles in January, 2019, Standfast & Barracks will formally launch their new Ecofast™ line of fabrics. The products are produced on the company’s Durst Alpha 190 textile printing system with One-Step Greentex P inks. The environmentally friendly pigment and reactive and dispersion inks are based on Durst Water Technology.
The new Alpha Series, a super high-performance multi-pass inkjet printer, features different configurations and print widths for the digital production of clothing, home textiles and fashion.
The Alpha series offers print widths of 190 – 330 cm (6.2 – 10.8 ft) and can be configured with up to 8 colors and 64 Alpha-S print heads that achieve a native resolution of 600 dpi and a print speed of 460 linear meters/hour (15,800 sq ft/hr). The Durst Alpha series provides continuous ink circulation in all ink circuits in order to guarantee constant ink quality and reliable stand-by availability. A new intelligent feed system has been developed for the Alpha series that adapts automatically to different textiles and roll diameters.
The Alpha Series combines new process technologies to control the interactions of printheads, ink system, textile material, tissue type, pre- and post treatment, thereby making them reproducible, when required – with the aim of further advancing the economic efficiency of digital textile print.
“Our investment in Durst’s digital technology continues to trigger new waves of innovations,” said Stephen Thomas, managing director of Standfast & Barracks. “Digital gives unlimited opportunities and color variations with the ability to develop new application and products and continue to develop our business. Digital is by far our biggest growth area. It’s the future.”
“Standfast & Barracks is an exceptional example of how innovative companies are pushing the barriers by continuing to invest in new digital technologies,” said Martin Winkler, segment manager, Durst Textile Printing. “We take great pride in working in partnership with our customers to help them to bigger and better things. And we look forward to continuing to work with Stephen and his great team to further help them grow opportunities that are virtually unlimited with digital.”