David Lopez, product manager for Professional Imaging at Epson USA, noted that digital printing offers several advantages to the wallpaper market, including customization, versatility and productivity. "Digital printing allows for highly customizable designs on a variety of compatible substrates and eliminates the need for traditional setup processes such as plate making or screen preparation, which are more expensive to set up, and unlike traditional printing methods, digital printing is more cost effective and can provide faster turnaround times for short print." This makes it feasible to produce small batches of custom wallpaper without the need for large minimum orders."
Kit Jones, business development and co-creation manager at Roland, points out that digital printing brings a number of advantages to the wallpaper market. "This technology does not require inventory preparation, it allows for 100% customization by design, and can reduce costs and better control production and turnaround times, Dimensor S is one of the most innovative products in this type of application, and its introduction has ushered in a new era of custom texturing and on-demand printing production, which not only enables unique outputs, but also enables the production of products." And it can bring a high return on investment."
Michael Bush, market Communications Manager, Fujifilm Ink Solutions Group, notes that inkjet and broader digital technologies are ideal for producing short and custom wall coverings prints. "Themed and custom wallpapers are popular in the decoration of hotels, hospitals, restaurants, retail stores and offices, and important technical requirements for wallpapers in these interior environments include odorless/low-odor printing; Resistance to physical wear caused by wear; Washable and light resistant, suitable for long-term installation. For these types of printing applications, the gamut of digital printing colors, as well as the trend to include decorative processes, continues to grow."
"Weak solvent, latex and UV technologies are widely used and are all suitable for wallpaper, each with its own advantages and limitations," Bush notes, "For example, UV has excellent wear and chemical resistance, but achieving extremely low odor prints with UV is more challenging." Latex has a very low odor, but poor wear resistance, and may require a second coating process to meet high wear resistance requirements for applications. The hybrid UV/ water-based technology meets the requirements for low odor printing and durability."
When it comes to the industrial mass production of wallpaper through single-channel technology, the ability of digital technology to match the productivity and cost of analog methods is an important factor. Wallpaper design often requires the ability to produce very wide color gamuts, spot colors, special effects, and finishes (such as metallic, pearlescent, and glitter), which is also a challenge for digital printing.
Paul Edwards, Vice President of Digital at INX, said: "Digital printing brings several advantages to applications. First, you can print anything in an image for the same cost as 10,000 copies. You can create a lot more images than the simulation process, and it can be personalized, while you have much better control over the repetition length of the image as you would with simulation."
Oscar Vidal, Global Director of HP's large format portfolio, said digital printing has revolutionized the wallpaper market by offering several key advantages. "One of the most important benefits is the ability to customize designs, patterns and images on demand. This level of personalization is ideal for interior designers, architects and homeowners looking for a unique wallpaper."
In addition, digital printing can reduce turnaround times and eliminate the lengthy setup required by traditional printing methods, and it is also cost-effective for small batch production, making it ideal for businesses and individuals who need a limited amount of wallpaper. High quality printing enabled by digital technology ensures bright colours, clear details and complex patterns, enhancing the overall visual appeal.
Digital printing also has versatility because it can be done on a variety of materials suitable for wallpaper, and this versatility allows for a variety of options for textures, finishes and durability. Finally, digital printing reduces waste by eliminating excess inventory and minimizing the risk of overproduction, as wallpaper can be printed on demand.
Vidal observed that digital printing had to overcome several challenges to gain a place in the wallpaper market: "Initially, its quality was difficult to compete with traditional printing methods such as screen printing or gravure printing, however, advances in digital printing technology, including improved color accuracy and higher resolution, have allowed digital printing to meet and even exceed the quality standards of the industry." Speed is another challenge, but with automation and smart printing solutions such as HP Print OS, printing companies can achieve unprecedented efficiencies, such as operating data analysis or eliminating repetitive and time-consuming processes.
Another challenge is to ensure durability, as wallpaper needs to be durable. Innovations in ink formulations, such as HP Latex inks, which use water dispersion polymerization technology to produce more durable prints, have solved this challenge, making digital prints more resistant to fading, water stains and wear.
In addition, digital printing must ensure compatibility with the various substrates used in wallpaper, which is also achieved through advances in ink formulations and printing press technology. Finally, digital printing has become more cost-effective over time, especially for short editions or personalized projects, making it a viable option for the wallpaper market.
Roland's Jones says the main challenges are to increase awareness of presses and materials, ensure potential customers understand the entire printing process, and ensure users have the right combination of presses, inks and media to help them meet demand from customers.
"While interior designers, architects and builders still have the same challenges to some extent, we are seeing a growing interest in this market to bring digital printing to the interior for the reasons mentioned earlier - unique production capabilities, lower costs, better control, increased profits," Jones said.
"There are some real challenges," Edwards notes, "not all substrates are suitable for digital printing." The surface may be too absorbent, and drawing ink into the structure may not allow the ink droplets to spread properly. The real challenge is that the choice of materials/coatings for digital printing must be carefully chosen, wallpaper can be a bit dusty, fibers loose, and these need to be kept away from the printing equipment to ensure reliability. Different approaches can be taken to solve this problem before the ink reaches the press, the ink must have a low enough odor to work in this application, and the ink surface itself must be scratch resistant enough to ensure good wear characteristics."
"Sometimes a coat of gloss is applied to enhance the resistance of the ink itself," Edwards adds, "It should be noted that the treatment of the output after printing must be considered." Material volumes of different image types also need to be controlled and processed. Also, the sheer number of print variants makes digitization more complicated."
"Digital printing has faced several challenges to get to where it is today. One of the most prominent is output durability and longevity, "Lopez said," Initially, digital print designs did not always maintain their appearance, and there were concerns about fading, smudge and scratching, especially on wallpaper placed in elements or areas with high foot traffic." Technology has improved over time, and today those concerns are minimal."
"Manufacturers have developed durable ink inks and hardware to address these issues," Lopez adds, "For example, Epson's SureColor R series presses use Epson UltraChrome RS resin ink, an ink kit developed by Epson that works with the PrecisionCore MicroTFP printhead to produce a durable, scratch-resistant output. Resin inks are highly scratch-resistant, making them an ideal solution for wall coverings in high-flow areas."
