Break-through in Digital Printing Technology: MS LaRio, Italy and Robintex, Bangladesh

Robintex Group, one of the most renowned textile industries in Bangladesh has started a new era in digital printing taking the printing industry footprint in Bangladesh to the next level. As printing technology moves along the ladder of efficiency and sustainability, MS Lario, an Italian company introduced a groundbreaking technology termed as the MS Lario Digital Printing Solutions. Recently, the Textile Focus team visited the state-of-the-art printing factory of Robintex, and the following is the story about how Robintex is revolutionizing digital printing in Bangladesh.

About Robintex Group Robintex, one of the largest companies in the textile and apparel sector of Bangladesh operating since 1996. The factory is situated at Vulta, Narayanganj about 15KM to the east of Dhaka, just by the highway that connects the Capital City with the country’s international Port City, Chittagong. It’s a joint venture company between Germany and Bangladesh that exports to the major export destinations of the country. It produces 1 lakh pcs of different types of knit products in its factory every day. It’s a vertically integrated factory with all the textile processing facilities including digital printing. The factory premises is a serene places with lush greenery and ample open space. The company opted for most of the environmental protection measures and is regarded as one of the most compliant textile factories in the country. They have the largest solar panel power generation in their factory which is another exclusive feature of this factory.

The Digital Printing Section

The printing section is Robintex’s one of the most state-of-the-art departments with the most modern technology. The printing solution from MS Lario which is the first of its kind and the fastest single-pass printing machine with a top printing more than twice the rotary printing machine. Apart from the rotary printing machine, there are two different purposes for digital printing machines as well that are capable to printing any color combination and any pattern you can imagine on any kind of textile.

More than 11 Italian experts from MS Printing Solutions came here from time to time and are helping hand in hand with Robintex-Group for a successful setup of MS LaRio.

The 3.2 million Euro investment has great potential as the printing industry is growing fast in Bangladesh. With the MS Lario technology, Robintex is now equipped with a sophisticated range of printing solutions with the fastest possible productivity. The scope of value addition in product design is really high now for them. As the Managing Director of the company states- fast production, printing accuracy and quality, and sustainability are the three main features of this machine. They bought the machine in 2019 and started commissioning in 2020 and they believe that with the state-of-the-art technology they will lead the AOP industry in Bangladesh.

The MS LaRio Printing Solution

Multi-pass printing unlike the single-pass has slow production speed for its print head’s to and fro movement and reduced overall sharpness which is a complete compromise in the print quality. To overcome the limitations of multi-pass printing, Luigi Milini, the founder of MS Printing Solutions introduced the world with a whole new concept. For his endeavor, LaRio came into the show with its magic as the first single-pass digital machine in 2010, shaking the world of textile printing.

The LaRio single-pass textile printing enables faster printing at a superior quality due to the incorporation of many printheads instead of having a few moving to and fro over the substrate. In Robintex’s newly installed MS LaRio, there are 6 bars, each having 34 robust Kyocera print heads, resulting in an array of 204 heads, all ready to work according to the need of the design. That is why, where a multi-pass printer can print around 6-7 meters per minute, MS LaRio, the monster printer, prints an astonishing 75 meter per minute, allowing flexibility, quick response and short production timing.

State of the Art technology of MS Lario

• Scalable
  • LaRIO’ s printing bars are scalable and easily implementable. This solution makes LaRIO a high-flexible system, starting from the design phase, allowing an ad-hoc machine’s configuration according to the customers’ needs.
  • The print heads per color bar can be doubled increasing speed performance and color inten.
  • LaRIO can be configured starting from 4 colors (CMYK) up to a maximum of 12 (CMYK + spot color)
• Non Stop Winder
  • LaRIO is designed to guarantee high-system efficiency, minimizing downtimes. The whole line has been designed to focus on this goal.
  • The non-stop jumbo-roll winder collects the folded fabric ensuring no machine downtime for roll changing.
• Belt Control System
  • Single-pass machines must assure maximum productivity. Meticulous belt control is crucial to guarantee the stability of the printing media and to support the very high speeds reached by LaRIO.
  • LaRIO’ s high-precision transportation belt control is performed by a combination between a particular steel foil and a dedicated electronic management system, that guarantees high stability and precision, thus the high definition of the prints.
• Operation Wifi Remote Control
  • Reduce set-up times and downtimes, as well.
  • Check the printing progress in real-time.
  • Detect any process irregularities or warning signals in real-time.
• In-Line Fabric Pretreatment
  • Reducing the set-up process that becomes one, halving the time.
  • Reducing the raw materials used in the process and the waste produced; thanks to the automatic dosage of the chemicals needed for the preparation.
  • Reducing Water and energy consumption thanks to the lean process and the usage of not-liquid but foam chemicals.
• Anti-crash Head System
  • LaRIO is equipped with an advanced detection system (OLA) of the thickness and flatness of the substrate.
  • OLA system measures, with extreme precision, the thickness variations, progressively changing the bars’ height during the transportation belt progression; stopping it in case of non-standard parameters.
  • OLA system ensures full print heads’ protection in case of accidental damage. In addition, each color bar has got its own anti-crash safety device.

• Remote diagnosis-MS Bridge
  • Enables temporary access to the machine’s software, the detection of anomalies, and the rapid analysis of the problem.
  • Enables the fast resolution of the simplest issues, reducing the on-site technical assistance and their related costs.
  • Enables the efficient planning of the on-site technical assistance, thus ensuring the best time management.

Conclusion

All over printing (AOP) industry is one the fastest growing industry now in Bangladesh. After denim printing industry is the most value-adding industry in textile processing with great potential. The speed, accuracy and sustainability the MS LaRio offers is such a combination that the textile industry finds in any technology. Robintex, being the first company to invest in such a bold technology investment becomes future-proof the printing industry. We really believe that technological development is the key to success in the future. As textile technology is changing rapidly driven by innovation, sustainability measures and consumer perception, as a manufacturing company we need to pay close attention to what’s happening in the technology world and modify our development strategy accordingly. Otherwise, sustaining in near future would be really difficult. Robintex is such an inspiration in this regard.