Digital carpet and vinyl floor printing: New possibilities for small and individual printed flooring
Floor vinyl offers a higher resolution compared to carpet. Printing floor vinyl makes the most complex, colourful designs possible on any floor. Short small runs and fast delivery open up new markets. The challenge for printing floor vinyl is adding a protection layer after printing to protect the print over a longer period of time. Spot colour carpet printing has been around for many years. Typically, larger runs must be printed using a maximum of 8-12 colours. Mixing colours on carpet is not as easy as printing fabric or other “more 2D” materials. The challenge for carpet is more complex as it is a 3D-material, that requires enough dye penetration and proper mixing of colours to create solid monotone colours. The carpet pile also reduces the print resolution. To solve this problem extensive knowledge of dyes, chemicals, yarns, software and calibration is needed.
