Kornit debuts Storm duo at FESPA 2017

Digital textile specialist Kornit Digital used FESPA 2017 to launch the latest in its Storm series of direct-to-garment (DTG) printers, the Storm Duo.

The machine is added to the roster of Kornit Storm machines that also includes the Storm Hexa and Storm 1000. The first Duo was sold on the second day of the show to Turkish printer Tetas Group.

Kornit said the machine has been optimised for light garment productivity and has the potential to be used for shorter run jobs, printing on a variety of substrates at a maximum speed of 190 A4 garments per hour and a maximum resolution of up to 1,200dpi. It also has an integrated ultrasonic humidifier and a battery backup system.

The machine, which has 16 printheads in double-CMYK configuration, is fitted with Kornit’s recirculating ink system. This system was recently added to its flagship Avalanche models and has now been added to the Storm range. It is said to optimise print quality and ink efficiency, enabling faster system availability after the start-up process.

Kornit vice-president of marketing and business Guy Zimmerman said: “There is a huge market for people who want to print on light garments but don’t deal with white specifications.

“Customers already love it. They want to print on small light garments cheaply. It becomes cheaper than screen printing, it is a very efficient process.”

Zimmerman added that is is priced at one third below the Kornit Vulcan machine, which is being posited as a digital rival to screen printing carousels and is currently being tested at five beta-sites.

“With the Vulcan we are looking to redefine DTG,” he added.

Kornit has also launched a new web-to-print solution with UK-based Custom Gateway, covering the supply chain from website through to packaging and shipping. The solution is being used at FESPA to connect up all of Kornit’s systems. 

Kornit has in the past year signed lucrative deals for sales of its machines to Amazon and Cimpress, although no further information was available on how many have been sold and how the deals are effecting Kornit’s revenue, which Zimmerman said is increasing 30% year-on-year. In Q4 2016 it had sales of $112.7m.