In the textile printing and dyeing industry, digital inkjet printing has long faced challenges such as low production efficiency, unstable quality, and reliance on imported core equipment. On August 6, 2025, a technology system led by Yuyue Home Textile won the first prize of the Shandong Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award. Its core achievement—the world's first 12-color rotary screen enhanced high-speed digital inkjet printing production line—may become a watershed for the industry. This technology is not a simple improvement but a systematic reconstruction from imaging mechanisms to equipment integration, reflecting the urgent demand for green, low-carbon, and high-end manufacturing in the industrial belt.
Background
The awarded project, titled "Research and Industrial Application of Multi-dimensional Collaborative Digital Inkjet Printing Quality and Efficiency Improvement Technology System," was jointly developed by Yuyue Home Textile with Qingdao University, Tiangong University, Shandong Yellow River Delta Textile Technology Research Institute, and Lufeng Dyeing and Printing Co., Ltd. The team first revealed the "line segment cluster" digital imaging mechanism of ink droplets, overturning the traditional paper-based dot imaging theory. Based on this, they independently developed image precision control and multi-scale molecular synergistic enhancement technologies, and successfully built the world's first 12-color rotary screen enhanced high-speed digital inkjet printing production line. This achievement directly addresses the industry's long-standing "bottleneck" issue—heavy dependence on imported core equipment and consumables.
Notably, this production line is not a laboratory sample but has entered the stage of industrial application. This means that the production process from textile fabrics to home textile products may undergo a dual leap in efficiency and quality. For the printing and dyeing industrial belts in Shandong and across the country, this technology provides a replicable upgrade template, especially at a time when traditional printing hubs like Keqiao and Shengze face environmental pressure. Its demonstration significance should not be underestimated.
Industry Impact
From a techno-economic perspective, the efficiency improvement of digital inkjet printing directly reduces unit energy consumption and wastewater discharge, aligning with the national "dual carbon" strategy's hard requirements for manufacturing. Traditional rotary screen printing requires plate making and paste mixing, while digital printing eliminates these steps, making it particularly suitable for small-batch, multi-variety flexible production. Yuyue's 12-color production line further enhances color fidelity and production speed, meaning factories can respond faster to fast-fashion orders while reducing inventory backlog. For buyers, this translates into shorter lead times and more flexible minimum order quantities, especially benefiting cross-border e-commerce and designer brands.
A deeper impact lies in supply chain self-sufficiency. In the past, core components of high-speed inkjet printing machines, such as printheads and inks, were mostly imported, not only costly but also at risk of supply disruption due to geopolitical factors. Although this technological breakthrough does not fully achieve domestic substitution across the entire chain, it at least proves that domestic enterprises have the capability for independent innovation in core mechanisms and system integration, paving the way for subsequent localization of components. For textile foreign trade enterprises, this is both a bargaining chip and a potential tool to circumvent trade barriers—if "green printing" can be promoted as a selling point, it may command higher premiums in European and American markets.