İpeker, whose vegan fabrics have become a choice of leading fashion and apparel brands in recent years, runs a successful partnership with Konica Minolta to differentiate its fabrics through digital printing.
İpeker, Türkiye's century-old fabric manufacturer, is chosen by global apparel brands for its sustainable and vegan production processes as well as its distinctive designs. Using Konica Minolta digital printing technologies since 2016, the Bursa-based company brings its custom designs and collections to market with the same colour and quality standard. With a rich range including woven, knitted and jacquard fabrics, İpeker also increases its operational efficiency thanks to Konica Minolta's sustainable solutions for resource and ink savings.
Founded in 1920 as a small family business in Bursa's traditional silk production, İpeker has grown into an integrated global company supplying quality fabrics and rich designs to many global apparel brands. After ending silk production in the late 1980s and becoming customer-focused, the company combined traditional and digital production techniques in the 2000s to create synergistic collections. Focusing on high-quality, sustainable materials such as cupro, İpeker today has an annual fabric production capacity of over 12 million tonnes, almost all of it exported.
İpeker's choice in digital printing: Konica Minolta
Ümit Kaleoğlu, İpeker's Production Manager and Board Member: “Today almost all of İpeker's production uses sustainability-certified materials, with quality above world standards and a minimal carbon footprint. We are also proud to be the only textile company in the world holding V-Label certification.” Kaleoğlu says more than 50% of İpeker's printed fabric is produced on digital printing machines.
“İpeker brought the first digital fabric printing machine to Türkiye. Over the years we have worked with many brands; our latest investments have been in Konica Minolta printers.”
According to Kaleoğlu, digital printing is a more environmentally friendly process because it needs no screens, prevents ink waste and lets printed fabrics be washed with less water and chemicals; pattern and colourway changes take seconds. Techniques such as discharge, devoré and puff printing, however, are still done on conventional machines.
“We can offer our customers the same quality and colour in every print”
“Besides customer collections, İpeker sells its own collections in many countries. So we must deliver the same patterns and colourways in repeat orders without any difference in colour, appearance or quality. The high repeatability of Konica Minolta digital printers was decisive in our latest machine choices.”
Kaleoğlu notes that a modification Konica Minolta made to the infeed print roller solved some issues they faced with woven fabrics, and that its Türkiye-based service team and remote-connection support ensure fast response.
“İpeker will increase its digital printing capacity in 2024”
İpeker bought its first Konica Minolta machines in 2016 and continued its later investments with the same brand. With installations planned for 2024, Konica Minolta machines will become the majority in its digital printing department. Kaleoğlu: “For years we have been happy to work with Konica Minolta for both its technological expertise and its fast, reliable service.”