California Apparel News

Over the past few years, fashion manufacturers and brands have become increasingly focused on direct-to-consumer business. The SureColor F10070, an upcoming release from Epson America’s SureColor family of printers, hopes to support this business, said Tim Check, senior product manager of professional imaging for Epson America, which is headquartered in Long Beach, Calif. The SureColorF10070 is scheduled to be released on Sept. 1.

“This year we’ve seen a need for businesses to alter production plans to better accommodate smaller orders and quicker turnaround times to meet changing consumer demands,” Check said. “The new high-performance SureColor F10070 provides an efficient and cost-effective dye-sublimation solution for print shops looking to produce medium to large high-quality apparel runs and bid on incoming textile orders from businesses that sell direct to the consumer.”

The 76-inch industrial dye-sublimation textile printer has the length of a screen door’s height. It has the ability to take on large orders, according to a company statement, and the printer offers the fastest production speeds of the SureColor family of machines. It can deliver a continuous roll-to-roll performance at speeds of up to 2,700 square feet per hour. The second-fastest SureColor printer, the SureColor F9470 model, which was released in October 2019, offers production speeds of 1,169 square feet per hour.

The printer’s new features can help shorten lead times for production runs, decrease costs and make work more efficient for machine operators, Check said.

To help with efficiency and costs, the SureColor F10070 will be the first Epson printer to offer a hot-swappable ink system, which can automatically switch from an empty to new ink pack for uninterrupted printing, according to an Epson statement. This ink system allows for longer print runs without user intervention. It also reduces overall ink costs by more than 50 percent, according to Epson.

Other features of the machine include replaceable 4.7-inch PrecisionCore printheads, which have the ability to print sharp details and bright colors. It also features a redesigned 9-inch touchscreen control panel, which Epson said will give machine operators a greater overview of the progress of their production run. The SureColor F10070 retails for $89,995.