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Printer Lets Customers Design Own FabricsDigital printers have changed the way people create and share documents. Now DuPont has created a digital printer for fabric, promising to transform the way people make swimsuits, purses, slipcovers and curtains.
Interior designer Jeanelle Dech and her husband, Larry, became one of DuPont's first customers, paying $175,000 for the printer last summer. They set up a new business, Adaptive Textiles, promising to print any pattern, in any color, in any quantity, on almost any fabric.
Finding the right fabric for her clients used to be the hardest part of Dech's job. Fabrics are often out of stock or unavailable in the right patterns or colors. Then, at a trade show, the West Chester, Pa., designer saw the truck-size digital printer called the DuPont Artistri.
"Because of this technology, designers will have a flexibility they never had before, and they can give customers what they always wanted," Dech said.
The printer also promises to limit Dech's risk. Instead of loading up on certain fabric patterns on the hope they will sell, Dech just buys DuPont's special ink and blank cloth and prints fabric to order.
Because patterns can be made freehand on a computer-drawing program, customers can design their own patterns, Dech said. The floral designs of the Dechs' 10-year-old daughter, Corynne, are the basis of Dech's Ad
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