NORTH CAROLINA - The Association of Textile, Apparel & Materials Professionals, together with the Specialty Graphic Imaging Association have partnered to offer a unique educational conference. Digital Textile Printing: The Future is Now, is being held December 6-7 at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel in Durham, North Carolina.  The program will feature leading textile and digital printing experts presenting topics essential for those involved in digital textiles. The 2-day event will deliver a broad range of content, with new technology, colour management, product performance, testing, design, and more included in the education focused event.

The first day includes a manufacturer’s panel, colour management for digital textiles, finishing, meeting customer sustainability objectives, product testing for quality assurance, and research findings from North Carolina State University College of Textiles. The second day includes designing for digital printing of textiles, fabric factors impacting digital printing, digital print inspiration and design, web-to-print, digital manufacturing, and more.

“The partnership between AATCC and SGIA for this conference dovetails nicely with both organisation’s mission and purpose,” said Johnny Shell, SGIA vice president of technical services. “Each organisation compliments the other and I’m very excited to have this opportunity.”

On day one, topics and speakers include a digital textile printing overview which will be provided by Johnny Shell of the Specialty Graphic Imaging Association (SGIA) while David Clark of Huntsman will look at the issue of which inks to use. Looking at digital finishing will be Steve Aranoff from Mikkelsen Converting Technologies while Ben Mead, Hohenstein Institute USA and OEKO-TEX USA will look at sustainability issues around inks and other textile chemicals.

Pre-treatment optimisation for digital printing with reactive dyes on cotton fabric will be the subject of a seminar by Katelyn Lee of Cotton Incorporated, while some blue sky thinking for the digital printing sector will be provided by Gart Davis of Spoonflower who will offer his own vision for digital manufacturing. Likewise on the state of the sector, Mark Sawchak of Expand Systems will look at the current state of digital printing technology.