Epson Canada partners with George Brown College to launch LIFT Lab

Canadian design students will now be able to use the latest technology to make their custom fabric dreams a reality, thanks to a partnership between Epson Canada and Toronto’s George Brown College. The college’s Fashion Exchange officially launched its much-anticipated Leading Innovation in Fashion Technology (LIFT) Lab October 29 at its Fashion Exchange hub in Toronto. The new technological hub will allow students to produce custom-designed fabrics and fashions. Among the technologies featured is an Epson 64-inch SureColor F9370 Dye Sublimation Fabric Printer for waterless, roll-to-roll custom textile printing. The technology can produce high-quality printed fabrics quickly and in flexible quantities, thereby saving travel and shipping costs, while also reducing environmental impact by minimizing wasted fabric.

In addition to an official ribbon-cutting ceremony and a warm welcome from George Brown College President Anne Sado, a panel discussion (moderated by Stacey Fruitman, Founder of SWS Ventures) on the current state of the digital textile industry was held. It featured Epson’s Textile Printing Group Manager Mark Radogna, George Brown’s FX Director Marilyn McNeil-Morin, and Mark Andrew Sunderland, Vice President of Textile Engineer and Strategist at Thomas Jefferson University.

The Epson SureColor F9370 delivers industrial-level production with speeds up to 1,169 sq. ft./hr. and features an integrated new fabric-wiping system coupled with a roll-to-roll media support system to handle economical, lightweight transfer papers. It’s designed to support medium to large-volume dye sublimation transfer printing. “The dye sublimation printing industry is rapidly expanding into new verticals, and Epson is dedicated to being at the forefront of our clients’ production needs,” said Tim Check, Product Manager of Professional Imaging at Epson America. “When developing the SureColor F9370, our engineers aimed to increase performance, efficiency and reliability – which resulted in print speed increases of up to 75%, making it one of the fastest printers on the market in this category.”