EFI Reggiani Update

We recently spoke with Adele Genoni, senior vice president and general manager at EFI Reggiani, to get the latest information on what the company has been up to. Despite the pandemic, it doesn’t seem that R&D efforts have slowed down, with three new products announced in just the past few months.

Printing News: Adele, thanks for taking the time to speak with us today, and congratulations on EFI Reggiani’s 75th Anniversary!

Adele Genoni: Thanks, Cary. The team did an amazing job during the pandemic, and we wanted to make this year, our 75th Anniversary, a special year. We have been able to launch three new products in the last few months, and we will have a fourth later this year!

PN: The most recent launch was the EFI Reggiani HYPER. Can you explain a little bit about that product and why you brought it to market?

AG: The HYPER is targeting the high end of the scan industrial segment in the textile world. It’s not only the fastest multi-pass textile printer in the world, its quality and speed are unmatched in the market as well. It is another milestone in our story, after we launched our single-pass industrial textile printer, the BOLT, a couple years ago.

PN: When you say the HYPER is fast, what does that equate to in linear meters per hour?

AG: It prints at more than 13 linear meters per minute in 1.5m width. You can also run a HYPER 340 with two 1.5-meter rolls of fabric and reach a speed of 20 meters per minute, which is comparable to some single-pass printers currently on the market and with a more convenient price than the low-end single-pass printers at the same speed. We think it is a very interesting opportunity to help our customers speed up the digital transformation and really boost their success. That is our target every day.

PN: What ink types and colors does it feature?

AG: The HYPER incorporates a new printhead that for the moment is only being used by us, and it has eight colors. We are in the process of scaling up and testing all of our ink sets. Reactive inks are already fully tested and approved. Once we finish our extensive testing, there is no reason why all ink classes should not be available for the HYPER, including pigment inks.

PN: I’m sure you have been talking with customers about the HYPER and beta tests as well. What has been the market response?

AG: The market reaction has been incredible. We have already signed four contracts, going into Pakistan, Spain, Portugal and Turkey. The pipeline is very long, and there is huge interest in this printer. It proves that we have identified and addressed the specific needs of the industrial customer base.

PN: I understand you are attending FESPA this year but will be taking another of your new printers to the show.

AG: Yes, we are participating in FESPA; it is an important stage for the textile arena. And we are bringing our new EFI Reggiani TERRA Silver to the show that we launched back in June. It is the ideal solution to get into the industrial printing segment with a short, smart and green process thanks to our TERRA pigment with binder technology. We have enhanced our performance in pigment inks as well, in terms of color intensity. We believe the customers visiting FESPA will be very interested to see the new TERRA Silver and will appreciate all of the properties that pigment ink can provide – less water, less energy, less waste and can print on almost any fabric. This is also a strong message about our focus on sustainability.

PN: Have you placed any of the TERRA Silver printers in the market since its launch in June?

AG: We already have several contracts in place. The TERRA Silver is part of our lineup of pigment printers, and we have installed pigment printers in nearly 20 countries. That means that customers can see the printers in action near them.

PN: The other printer you launched this year is the BLAZE, which was a very fast entry-level printer. How is that one doing in the marketplace?

AG: It’s going very well. We are also looking to develop a distributor channel for this product. For companies entering the digital fabric printing space, this is the printer for them. It is very flexible and can have up to eight passes, providing a wide range of possibilities in terms of designs to be printed. We know that this kind of flexibility is crucial, especially for customers taking their first steps with an industrial textile printer. It includes a lot of the technologies Reggiani has developed for our higher end printers, like the continuous ink recirculation system, and it’s easy to operate.

PN: It’s been interesting to watch the progress of the industry over the last several months. There were lots of struggles during the pandemic, but perhaps one of the things the pandemic has done is help to accelerate things like reshoring and digital transformation. Tell us what you are seeing in general out there.

AG: We are seeing some progress in the digital transformation, but it is not happening at the speed that everyone wanted to see. We are hearing from organizations that monitor the market that a full recovery should occur next year. For us, this year is going to be a good year, and we are expecting to come back to normal business-wise. We have seen an acceleration in the adoption of digital textile printing, but it has been more in the direct-to-garment segment; but direct-to-fabric is now starting to come back. Certainly, COVID spurred the digital transformation for those players that were already operating online, while the traditional textile business was more affected. But now they are starting to recover as well.

PN: Well, let’s hope that the rest of the industry follows your lead in terms of bringing new products to market, and that we get back to pretty much normal by 2022 and get rid of this terrible virus, or at least get to a place where we can live with it.

AG: Absolutely. I feel like we are getting back to normal, and these three launches have attracted a lot of attention. Plus, we are having success with the BOLT, planning to deliver three printers in the fourth quarter of this year. So that is a really good sign of recovery for the industry, because during COVID, there was a lot of overcapacity in the market and that slowed down placements for the BOLT in particular.

PN: Finally, I understand you will be heading to Las Vegas in January for EFI Connect.

AG: Yes, we are planning EFI Connect in the middle of January as always. At this time, we are targeting an in-person event, and that would be really amazing, to be able to see our friends and customers and be able to speak in person. It will be exciting.

PN: Thanks for speaking with us. We’ll look forward to hearing about another new printer launch later this year!