British Fabric Printing (BFP) has installed an Epson SureColor SC-F9400H dye sublimation printer supplied by CMYUK, enabling the business to expand into producing polyester-based textiles for sportswear, athleisure and interiors.
BFP was founded in 2020 by Essex-based duo Lisa Bence and Stuart Kettridge. Ms Bence had set up her own online children’s clothing store in 2017, where she was selling her own designs. The idea was to bring the necessary equipment in-house for the printing and production of Ms Bence’s designs, and offer an online bespoke printing service.
In the last 30 months BFP has also installed two Mimaki TX300 pigment ink printers and a Klieverik Vertex calender, all from CMYUK. ‘CMYUK have helped us enormously since we began. They will always go the extra mile for us, and we trust their guidance and advice,’ commented Mr Kettridge.
The installation of a paper transfer dye sublimation printer had been in the back of the couple’s mind for some time. ‘Since day one, we’ve been badgered to print polyesters but obviously you need dye sublimation paper transfer to do that. So, while it’s always been on the cards, we felt initially, we just needed to concentrate on our cotton jersey materials and products,’ he continued.
CMYUK invited BFP to its demonstration and training facility in Shrewsbury, where the Epson SureColor SC-F9400H was put through its paces. The high-volume six-colour 1.6m paper transfer sublimation printer is suitable for sports and fashion apparel, soft signage and other textile applications. It can also print fluorescent pink and yellow to create an array of dayglow spot colours.
‘It’s an amazing printer. The quality, speed [and] colour vibrancy added to the fact that you can print dayglow pink and yellow spot colours make it really impressive. The results are fabulous. People are really excited about it. We’ll be launching a new section on our website featuring these new fluorescent designs, providing a unique angle that no one else is doing. New products for adults as well as children will include swimwear, active wear, leggings and softshell raincoats. We’re also going to be offering blinds, we really want to branch out and this technology is an ideal platform on which to expand,’ said Mr Kettridge.
Mr Kettridge concluded, ‘We’re just getting on with the next level of our business and we’re ensuring that this is something we can handle by investing in technology that gives us versatility, greater efficiency and speed so we can do more within existing time scales. Already we’ve seen the difference as evenings and weekends have become family time once again. We’ve had lots of interest already from dance schools and those wanting bespoke blinds. It’s an exciting time.’
