Ep. 116: Innovation of the Year 2024

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Ep. 116: Innovation of the Year 2024

In this special podcast series, we speak to the winners of the WTiN Innovate Textile Awards 2024. In this episode Federica Valente, marketing manager and Gijsbert Harmsen, senior sales executive at Coldenhove discuss the company’s Innovation of the Year award, with their Texcol® Pigment Transfer Printing Paper.  

WTiN: Hi thank you for joining me today on WTiN textile innovation podcast, and congratulations on winning Innovation of the Year, please. Could you share the story behind your wing innovation and tell me what inspired its development?

Harmsen: Yeah, I would love to do that. Yeah, as you may know, that Coldenhove is an is an innovative company. We have a special department which is dedicated to product development, innovation and development, and together with this team, we sat together through five years ago, about five years ago, and we discussed Coldenhove has been the innovator in the field of digital dye sublimation paper. So in 1998 we the first one, the first company to invent digital dye sublimation paper. Well, we now know what it led to. At this moment, it's about 50% of all the digital printing is done with dice simulation inks. So we thought, what can we do to bring something new to the market that doesn't exist, and which is revolutionary, so which could simplify or make better or whatever. And that's the reason why we started this innovation where we thought, what can we bring to the market? And we came to the conclusion that pigment textile inks would be the fastest growing part from traditional printing to digital printing. And we said, Okay, we have to bring something to the market, paper wise, that is revolutionary, so they can use that. So we decided that we should bring this type of paper to open up the market for pigment, textile ink.

WTiN: Amazing. You just touched upon it then. But like, how has it filled that gap and added to the printing textile market?

Valente: And maybe this is a two-side answer. In one side, what we developed, well, the gap that we filled with this technology is the roll-to-roll market. So this technology is a role to role printing technology, and it gives the possibility to print and print houses, to print small quantity, as well as longer runs. On the other side, as Gijsbert said, we always look at the trends in the market, and pigment was really a trend, and next to that, sustainability was a trend so, and it's still a trend, actually. So as the market goes in the direction of more sustainable printing, we also included this unique value in this product to help the market going into towards a more sustainable printing technology.

WTiN: In terms of sustainability and the printing market, what are the main challenges that you have observed in that sector?

Valente: Yeah, depends on which type of printing application. There are different technology in the market for textile printing specifically for this technology, but also sublimation, because those are the two areas we are experts at the moment in what makes the product really what sets the products apart from others is that it's a waterless Technology and to make textile, but to also print textile water. If there is a lot of water usage, there are chemicals involved for the treatments of the textile, the post treatment of the text, cells, some machineries are very energy consuming, workforce consuming. You need very. Big areas to where to where to set, to set the machine. And the beauty of sublimation, and now also tax code, is that you don't need all of this. You need a couple of machine. You need a printer. You need a transferring calendar, and then you immediately access it to what variety of textile and a printing technology that at the end of it, you have a ready, ready textile, so you can immediately use that textile. The image is, in the case of sublimation, permanently fixed into the textile, and in the case of textual it's transferred on the textile, and you're ready to go, amazing.

WTiN: And how do you ensure sustainability through your approach? And obviously it's such a big thing in the industry. But why is it, why is it particularly important to what you do?

Valente: We approach sustainability from different angles. So what I always say is, there is not only one answer, because sustainability can be the product in itself, and how this product helps companies being more sustainable. And in this case, using Taxco allows you to reduce the ink usage, as I said, less space in your facility, so you can have less machinery and do more things and print more textiles. And in terms of the process, this is the other side of the story. Again. It's a waterless process. It opens a lot of possibility for experimentation and new ideas. And there is also another side of this, that is how we approach sustainability as a company. So what Coldenhove does, how we want to be a more sustainable manufacturer? In one sense, we want to bring new things in the market to follow that what, what the market requires. But on the other side, we also try to be respectful of the sustainability rules in how we make the product. So for example, we look very closely on how to recycle water while we make the product. And we know that everybody knows making paper takes a lot of water, but we managed to recycle up to 98% of the water that we that we use to make the product. And we are also looking at how to close this circle. We invest in our machinery, and we are soon receiving our E boiler. Also we produce a lot of warmth because of the of the again, the process of making paper, and that is reused to warm the offices a few buildings around the facility, and in the summer period, we also use that heat to warm the swimming pool. There are a couple of camping areas around the Yeah, so to warm the swimming pool and those buildings as well, there are a lot of other things. So we use a solar panel, and we look at how to, you know, share energy. So, yeah, that's, I think that's also something important to talk about, because you can make an amazing product that is in the direction of sustainability, but we also take sustainability in the core of our company, and it's part of our vision to the future.

Harmsen: And if I may, add to that, how the process itself doesn't require any textiles to be pretreated. So if you talk about sustainability, if you can use untreated textiles that, again, from a sustainability point of view, is a huge advantage.

WTiN: in terms of global regulations, legislations coming into play, especially in the EU about sustainability, has this impacted your business at all? And how do you stay on top of those regulations?

Valente: Actually, I think we're lucky with that, because, yes, we are aware of these regulations. And we, I think last year also attended a seminar conference. It was, yeah, it was last year, I was shocked about the amount of regulation and new requirements that are coming, that will come in the next years. And I yeah, those affect manufacturing and affect the industry, for example, there we will be. I don't know if you heard about the product passport. So when a product goes to market, it needs to be very transparent. Where has been everything, and you see everything. But that doesn't change how we make the product, because that was already. Already how we were making and, for example, in terms of traceability, we all the pulps that we use to make paper are FSC certified. So that's already something that we used to do. That doesn't have to do with sustainability, but it has to do with the new regulations that are coming. So we'll see how that will evolve, but we try to be on top of it, and because we already had that mindset of transparency and trying to produce and being more sustainable manufacturer than I don't see next year's big changes for us. And again, sublimation and textual are waterless process and processes and there are no big harms in the in the in the way that the transferring process goes.

WTiN: Obviously Texcol is such an innovative product. What were the biggest challenges and hurdles that you faced while you were developing the innovation. How did you overcome them?

Valente: Well, because tech school is a product that is new in the market. There is no such a technology, or there was no other directly competitive technology. The biggest challenge was to make the product work. So we started this development from scratch is like you have an idea and you need to make it happen. There was nothing to copy, there was no starting point. So really, we had to start from scratch. The nice thing is that at cold enough, because we really look at innovation, we have a team of research and development, innovation and development. So we brought all the team together with the sales team, and, you know, we had to brainstorm and draw and dream and everything. So that was nice. That was the fun part, to see it bloom and grow. Yeah, the biggest challenge was, okay, now we try to go to the market. So we actually developed and started with a couple of selected customers to see what was really necessary, what were the characteristic of the product where we had to improve, and we had to develop, and we had to start and learn from the feedback that we got from the market. And yeah, it was all engineering. And it's nice to say that, because sometimes our colleagues, you know, they say in the background, in the lab, with the with all the formulas and chemistry, but that's very that's really where the development starts. And then we go to market. We test with a few customers, we see what, what the feedback is, and then we go back to the drawing table. So actually it was a very interesting process of creating something new, also a challenge.

Harmsen: It's funny that you say this feather, because the guys on the background are normally not the guys who get the compliments exposure, and all of a sudden. So when we started this whole development, and we had, we got this award of Best Innovation, they almost, they almost enlightened. They were so happy that there was this recognition of the work they had done in the last years of development.

Valente: And some, sometimes is sometimes it is hard, because you know you need to fail to understand how to succeed? And yeah, so at the beginning was like, Oh no, that's that's not really what we need. And let's go back and let's change and tweak. So yeah, actually, this award is important for them as well as a recognition.

WTiN: Did you collaborate with any key partners or institutions to create the product or not?

Harmsen: Yes, yes, we did. Of course. We started at Coldenhove. The idea is Coldenhove owned, it's also patented. So it is our idea. So when, let's say, we invented the wheel, and after that, we started contacting other companies, asking them, like, Hey, can you build a chassis? Can you build things around it that can make this technology, this work, this this paper technology, work in a digital printing environment. So that's what we did. So we contacted ink suppliers, we contacted textile producers, we contacted printer supplies, calendar producers. And also, hey, this is the idea that we have. What do you think? And everybody was like, wow, this is a great idea. Let's, let's start developing things together. And that's also the reason why we ended up with a group of people supporting the whole technology right from the start. I should say because, yeah, you take a leap into something which is unknown. And they did so a printer producer called Mimaki said, this is very interesting. We see the added value for the future of textile pigment printing. The same for two calendar producers, Monte Antonio in Italy and clifric in the Netherlands. They All Saw the interest. So together with them, we are now trying to showcase and bring the new technology to future customers. Amazing.

WTiN: And how did you go about choosing who you wanted to contact?

Harmsen: It was mainly those companies who were the early adapters. So those companies who said, because we were talking about something that didn't exist. So you start visiting these companies start showing there is nothing concrete yet. So those companies who said, who fit our mind of development, who are also innovative enough to think outside of the little square that you normally have. I said, this can be very interesting in a year, two years, three years from now, so we're going to invest in this. So we were looking for companies who had the same mindset from a development point of view, and that's how we came up with these key partners.

WTiN: Amazing. And if I'm allowed to ask, Do you have any plans to develop these partnerships, or any other products in the pipeline that you're currently working on that you could tell me about?

Harmsen: You can ask, but certain things are not yet to reveal, which I'm sorry, but we are continuing. I can say we are continuing to develop the text called product, and yeah, maybe a little tip of the call this a little preview is that we would love to have additional characteristics to the paper, so it is a transfer process. So you're not necessarily only transfer pigment textile inks, but you can maybe also transfer other characteristics, like maybe water repellence or order and neutralizing stuff, but that's thinking really out of the box, and it's definitely also not something for the next year. It will be future development

WTiN: Amazing. And obviously this is all fantastic, and winning the Innovate textile awards is a huge achievement. And what has that recognition meant to both of you and the wider Coldenhove team?

Harmsen: Well, the whole team was ecstatic. I'm not sure if that is a proper English word, but they were really like, yes, friendly shouting. Words came across, and we were not dancing in the hallway, but it felt like dancing in the hallway because we were very excited that we were rewarded, because we also saw the other companies who presented their ideas, and some of them were really, really good, innovative ideas. So then being picked by this group of experts and seen as as a major new development, which you also think is is true, because we do think that it will, that it will change the pigment textile printing world in the coming years, people will adapt to this new technology. And, yeah, everybody can start decorating natural fibres or synthetic leather or silk or with a very small investment, and that's awesome. So happy, proud, joyful. I think those are the keywords which came up as soon as we had received this award.

WTIN: I was happy to hear that. And my final question for both of you is, what advice would you give to any aspiring innovators hoping to make their mark in the textile printing industry?

Harmsen: I think that you always should evolve, that you always should look over this wall where AI right now, and where do you want to be in 567, years from now, that being it from other substrate, new textiles, being it from a sustainable point of view, Like, hey, we have to do something to reduce waste, reduce energy, reduce whatever. So I always think that you have to look ahead of time, three, four years, and that's the goal that you should achieve, I think, from all developments.

WTiN: And do you hope that Texcol call will inspire people? People to reach for that?

Harmsen: Yes, I do think so, yes, especially the textbook, because it is a technology, as further explained, which doesn't regard pretreatment, which has a very small footprint, which reduces energy, which doesn't need any pre-treatments after you did the transfer. So we think that it will inspire a lot of companies and a lot of people to maybe also contribute to this whole revolution of okay, this is now for pigment, inked. Pigment, textile inked. Is the same possible maybe for reactive inks, because we all know that reactive inks after printing, you need several steps to have it as a finished textile product. Can we do something there to make I don't know, the 678, steps of production back to two, maybe, and then contribute question mark. I'm not sure that this is just thinking out loud again, but I really hope that with our development, that others are energized to also look at, okay, let's contribute the better world.

Valente: Maybe one thing, if I may, add to what Gijsbert just said, which I'm totally in agreement with, is when we talk about innovation, often we think about new products. So, oh, we need to launch new product. We need the development. We need to develop something new. But I think it's time to think about innovation also in the process. So we have a very strong portfolio. You know, we are one of the leading companies when it comes to sublimation. So at that point, you not only look at the new product, but you also want to give some something about the how to make, what to make with that product. So I think it's it would be nice to start thinking about that as well. So innovation is not only the product, but it's the process, and it's how you use it and make it easy. One thing about tax Hall is also it's an easy process. So again, it's paper printer and transferring calendar instead of all these long and extensive steps that you need to make, for example, natural fibre prints. So I think that's also the direction we want to go. So not only the product, but the system and how to make, to make new end products with our contribution.

WTiN: Thank you both so much for joining me today on the WTI N innovate Head Start podcast, and congratulations again for winning our front Innovation Award.

Harmsen: Thank you our pleasure. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.