The chain

A textile development is made up of steps that build on one another. We take them on in full – from the base fabric to the finished piece. A project can join at any point; the chain itself stays the same.

Sourcing – base qualities to suit the design and the process
Design and artwork – development, digitisation, preparation for the process
Printing or dyeing – digital or rotary, patterned or plain
Finishing – treatments through to the fully finished cloth
Making-up – further processing into the finished piece

Sourcing

It starts with the cloth. We source the base qualities on which a design will later appear – matched to the fibre, the construction and the fabric weight that the intended process calls for. The qualities suited to this are set out in the overview of fabrics and weight ranges.

Base quality – the unprinted cloth that goes into printing or dyeing. Fibre, construction – jersey or woven – and fabric weight decide which process is possible.

Design and artwork

We develop designs and carry them into production: drawing, digitisation and preparation of the artwork for the printing process in question. We also take on designs supplied to us and make them ready for production. In either case, the work runs through to the finished piece. The designs go into apparel, including womenswear, and into other end uses.

Repeat – the repeating unit of a pattern. It governs how a design works out across the fabric width and along its length, and it has to suit the printing process.

Four layers of cloth carrying the same crescent design in taupe, burgundy, blue and blue-black — One design, four colourways

Digital printing

In digital printing the design is applied directly to the cloth, without a screen. The process suits sampling, designs that change frequently, and motifs with many colours and fine gradations. It covers the common base qualities and their blends.

Reactive printing: Viscose, cotton qualities, silk and their blends; jersey and woven fabric, 40–300 g/m²
Disperse printing: Direct inkjet printing and inkjet transfer printing; polyester qualities (PES) and their blends; jersey and woven fabric, 40–300 g/m²; wool qualities and their blends on request

Disperse printing – printing with disperse dyes, the dye class for polyester. In transfer printing the colour is first printed onto transfer paper and then transferred to the cloth under heat.

Rotary screen printing

Rotary screen printing is the classic screen process: every colour gets a screen of its own. It is used for designs with clearly separated colours and for ongoing production. Designs are printed in 1 to 10 colours; the number of colours is therefore part of the design decision.

Discharge printing and reactive printing: Viscose, cotton qualities and their blends; jersey and woven fabric, 40–300 g/m²
Disperse printing: Polyester qualities (PES) and their blends; jersey and woven fabric, 40–300 g/m²; wool qualities and their blends on request

Discharge printing – in the printed areas, the dye in the previously dyed cloth is chemically destroyed. This produces light patterns on a dark ground.

Screens and engraving

Rotary screen printing depends on the screen. We are responsible for the design, the digitisation and the making of the screens; the engraving is produced from our own data.

Screen – the engraved cylinder that carries one colour onto the cloth in rotary screen printing. One screen per colour; hence the range of 1 to 10 colours.

Plain cloth

Alongside patterned cloth, plain cloth is part of the programme. The colour is applied with reactive or disperse dyes – depending on the fibre.

Reactive: Viscose-elastane jersey qualities in various weight ranges; woven fabric in viscose and cotton and their blends
Disperse: Polyester qualities (100%) and their blends

Plain – cloth in one colour, without a pattern.

Fabrics and weight ranges

Fabric and process are closely linked: not every dye suits every fibre. The overview shows which qualities we handle in which process.

Process, fabric and construction at a glance
Process	Fabric	Construction and weight
Reactive printing, digital	Viscose, cotton qualities, silk and their blends	Jersey and woven fabric, 40–300 g/m²
Disperse printing, digital (direct and by transfer)	Polyester (PES) and its blends; wool qualities and their blends on request	Jersey and woven fabric, 40–300 g/m²
Discharge and reactive printing, rotary	Viscose, cotton qualities and their blends	Jersey and woven fabric, 40–300 g/m²
Disperse printing, rotary	Polyester (PES) and its blends; wool qualities and their blends on request	Jersey and woven fabric, 40–300 g/m²
Reactive, plain	Viscose-elastane jersey; woven fabric in viscose and cotton and their blends	various weight ranges
Disperse, plain	Polyester (100%) and its blends	various weight ranges

From sample to production run

Digital printing and rotary screen printing are two routes for one and the same design: it can first appear digitally as a sample and later go into production by rotary screen. Moving between the two routes is part of the development, not a break in it.

Finishing

After printing or dyeing, the cloth goes through finishing. Only then is it complete. The finish a cloth receives depends on the fibre, the construction and the end use; we specify it together with the process. From the finished cloth the chain runs on into making-up.

Finishing – the treatment of the cloth after printing or dyeing, including fixation, washing-off and drying. It determines handle, surface and dimensional stability.

Making-up

Making-up is part of the chain: we take a project beyond the finished cloth – cutting and further processing through to the finished piece. Not every project goes that far; where it is planned, this step is included.

Process management

Alongside the technical processes comes the organisation of the chain: which steps, in which order, with which fabric and with which checkpoints. We define the steps and the interfaces, coordinate everyone involved and take the project through the chain. We are responsible for design, process, sequence and result. All of this rests on textile engineering expertise and decades of experience.

Network

We work with a network that reaches across every part of the industry, in Germany and abroad. It has grown over decades, and it underpins our choice of fabric and process.

Our own ventures

We put these capabilities to work not only on projects across the industry but also on ventures of our own: we develop and run our own textile brands.

What we can do