New ‘True Blue Textile’ project to promote new ‘Wear to Save Water’ fashion concept

Textile Solutions Industrial Solutions

Kyocera Corporation has released its new sustainable inkjet textile printer, Forearth, which reduces the water use for textile printing to virtually zero in order to solve environmental issues, such as water pollution, in the textile and apparel industry. The new True Blue Textile project based on a ‘Wear to Save Water’ fashion concept, was launched to promote consumer awareness of environmental issues and featured textile design exhibits by AnrealagE and Vantan Design Institute. 

The project encourages consumers to learn and think about the environmental issues in the textile and apparel industry by wearing sustainable fashion.

True Blue Textile fabric was printed by Kyocera's Forearth water free concept digital inkjet printer with patterns based on the Niyodo River in Kochi Prefecture, which boasts the best water quality in Japan.

The textile and apparel industry has used vast amounts of water in processes such as steam and washing when dyeing fabrics, and water pollution resulting from this wastewater has become a global environmental problem. In addition, the problem of mass disposal due to overstocking is also under scrutiny, requiring an immediate response. To help address these issues, Kyocera has developed the new Forearth printer, which reduces water use to the absolute minimum by combining inkjet technology for high speed, high quality printing.

Forearth reduces the amount of water used during the printing of fabrics to almost zero, thus eliminating the need for specialised equipment to steam and wash the fabric, which is conventionally used in the pre and post treatment processes of textile printing. This contributes to a significant reduction in energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the system provides a soft feel to the fabric, which is important in the textile and apparel industry, and realises high definition printing on a wide variety of fabrics, including cotton, silk, polyester, nylon, and blended fabrics.