The Netherlands-based firm will premiere Display Stretch 240, a densely knitted display textile, and woven textile Lightbox Polaris at the wide-format trade show, which will take place at Messe Berlin from 15 to 18 May.
240gsm Display Stretch 240 has 5% stretch and is suitable for pop-up walls and textile tensioning frames. Texo said the material can be hung onto a frame straight from the box.
The product is also suitable for premium displays where the frame’s cross-brace must not be visible through the cloth.
Texo said normal display cloth is too stiff and has too little stretch capacity to allow creases to fall out, meaning many white creases will remain visible, whereas Display Stretch 240 is 100% crease-resistant and “virtually opaque”. The material also uses a fine yarn, which Texo said increases colour intensity.
“For retail applications, because volumes are very big, the most cost-effective product to use is standard polyester. But for point-of-sale or stand building, people are prepared to pay a little bit more for stretch and for a product that is wrinkle-free in the frame when taken out of the box,” said Texo Trade Services director Floris Jan van den Heuvel.
Lightbox Polaris builds on Lightbox Venus, a woven textile with polyurethane coating that was launched at C!Print in Lyon in February. Polaris has been specially developed to work with UV inks and sublimation transfer.
Available in widths of 3.2m and 5.05m, the product does not have a direct disperse finish on the polyester side like Venus, only a coating on the UV print side, which Texo said makes it less prone to stress whitening.
“Venus is suitable for both dye-sub direct and UV, but the trade-off means that it’s not perfect for UV because the finish on the polyester side shows the wrinkles a little bit more,” said van den Heuvel.
“There is a big market for people that want to print UV on lightboxes, which is why we decided to make Polaris.
“To make the best product, it’s better to make one that is dedicated to one printing technique, otherwise it is ok for everything but not perfect for anything.”
He added: “Cutting some costs makes it cheaper, but Polaris also shows wrinkles less, which is the main reason we did it. Made in the EU, it is a competitively priced product that competes with Chinese-produced imports. Chinese products are also normally three metres wide, whereas this is five metres.”
Both new products will be commercially available from Fespa. Texo supplies directly to UK customers and has a warehouse in Leicester that holds some of its ranges in stock.
The company will also show a raft of other recently released products on its Fespa stand including 32gsm siliconised protection paper, 45gsm sublimation paper, and the aforementioned Lightbox Venus.
