Agfa and TFL partner in innovative inkjet printing project for genuine leather decoration

Agfa and TFL have entered into a strategic partnership, focusing on the development of Alussa, a dedicated inkjet printing solution to decorate high-quality genuine leathers used by the fashion, upholstery, automotive, aviation and nautical industries.

Alussa is the sum of a number of perfectly matched components. Agfa develops the inkjet printer and dedicated inkjet inks, as well as the software to manage and monitor the printing process, while TFL provides custom-developed coating chemistry. Alussa enables the leather industry to decorate high-quality leather in such a way that it exhibits the excellent performance required in terms of flexibility and scratch resistance. It is the first industrial inkjet printing solution outputting decorated leather that can handle up to 100,000 flexes. Productivity amounts up to an impressive 80 m² per hour.

Alussa can print both white and full-colour designs with photographic quality on diverse types of leather. As it is a digital printing solution, it is ideal for customising and personalising leather products, thus catering to a global trend. Also, it just as easily allows for the creation of one-offs (e.g. samples) as of large volumes.

“Printing images on leather using inkjet technology, and obtaining top performance in terms of flexibility and scratch resistance, is a complex challenge,” says Tom Cloots, Director Industrial Inkjet Agfa. “The Alussa leather printing solution incorporates both Agfa’s vast expertise in the field of inkjet technology, graphic workflow and colour management, and TFL’s in-depth knowledge of coating chemistry and coating application techniques. It combines the best of two worlds to provide a perfect synergy between leather and ink.”

“Fashion Trends are changing fast and it seems like the speed of modification and the desire for individualisation is increasing year by year. This is a big challenge ánd opportunity for the leather industry. Hence, we are very excited about the partnership between Agfa and TFL. Together we can create countless, customised fashion effects combined with high flexing and wearing properties to meet the rapidly changing demands of today’s fashion industry,” states Markus Hess, Global Head of Product Marketing TFL.