A quiet week on the launch calendar, but a busy one for who sells what and what goes in the tank. Spandex took on HP Latex in the UK, Epson put a dye-sublimation printer on a desk for the first time, Sun Chemical pushed water-based ink at billboards, a Shropshire supplier picked up the Gongzheng owners stranded by the YES liquidation, Durst said its hybrid label sales tripled, and Brother went after the smoke coming off DTG cure tunnels. Every one of those stories lands somewhere on a printhead — which is where we always end up looking.
Wide-format · Distribution · November 2
Spandex UK adds HP Latex to its hardware line-up
Spandex UK, long known in sign-making as a materials and software supplier, has partnered with HP to carry HP Latex printers — a real widening of its hardware offer rather than a one-model deal. The opening line-up is the HP Latex 630, 730 and 830 series, sold alongside Spandex's own media range and application support. Spandex is running a hardware open day on 10–11 November for customers who want to see the machines running before they commit.
Printhead angle: Latex is one of the few wide-format platforms where the printhead is deliberately a consumable, not a service event. HP's thermal inkjet heads are user-replaceable and expected to be swapped on a duty cycle, which changes the maths for anyone moving over from a solvent machine with a piezo head they have babied for six years. Budget heads as a running cost, keep a spare on the shelf, and pay attention to the curing airflow — heat management is what quietly shortens head life on Latex.
Textile & garment · Product launch · November 2
Epson puts dye-sublimation on the desktop with the SureColor F330
Epson has launched the SureColor F330, its first A3 desktop dye-sublimation printer, going on sale in Malaysia from 2 November through Epson's own site and authorised dealers. It runs a PrecisionCore MicroTFP printhead with UltraChrome DS ink supplied in 140 ml bottles, and adds a Smear Reduction Mode for the moment the head passes close over transfer paper. Front and rear paper cassettes, a 2.7-inch colour touchscreen and a tiltable panel round it out — this is aimed squarely at the small customisation shop printing mugs, lanyards and short-run apparel.
Printhead angle: A desktop sublimation machine is still a piezo head firing aqueous disperse-dye ink, and it fails the same ways a 64-inch machine does — just faster, because the ink volume is small and the head parks for days between jobs. Dye-sub ink settles and dries on the nozzle plate more readily than solvent, so the F330 class of machine rewards a weekly nozzle check and a wipe of the head face far more than it rewards deep cleans after the fact.
Inks · Out-of-home · November 3
Sun Chemical takes water-based ink to the billboard
Sun Chemical, part of the DIC Group, has introduced Streamline Toccata, a water-based inkjet range built specifically for out-of-home advertising. The company is positioning it at billboard and blueback paper work, claiming outdoor colour and durability through extended display periods with significantly lower VOC emissions than the solvent inks that have historically done this job. No independent testing has been published, so treat the durability claims as the manufacturer's own for now.
Printhead angle: Moving a billboard line from solvent to aqueous is easier on the room and harder on the head. Water-based ink does not carry the solvent that keeps a nozzle plate wet between firings, so decap time shortens and the first pass after an idle period is where you will see banding. If you are evaluating a water-based changeover, ask what it does to your recommended capping and flush intervals before you ask what it does to your colour gamut.
Business · Aftermarket support · November 3
UK supplier steps in for Gongzheng owners after the YES liquidation
Your Embroidery Services entered voluntary liquidation on 15 October and emailed customers on 20 October that it could no longer provide servicing, technical assistance or support. YES had supplied Gongzheng machines in the UK — UV flatbeds, eco-solvent and UV DTF — leaving an unknown number of owners with no route to consumables or engineers. China Print Supplies, based in Oswestry, has said it can cover ink, spare parts and servicing for Gongzheng printers across the UK regardless of where the machine was bought. Managing director Scott Clutton said the firm had "two owners on the phone in the first week" and that "the quickest thing an owner can do is tell us what machine they have."
Printhead angle: When a distributor disappears, the machine does not — and the part most likely to strand it is the printhead. Gongzheng's UV and eco-solvent platforms are built around widely available industrial heads rather than anything proprietary, which is exactly why an orphaned machine is usually still serviceable. The useful move for any owner in this position is to find out today which head their machine actually runs, write the part number somewhere it will not get lost, and confirm there is a second source for it.
Labels & packaging · Industrial UV · November 5
Durst says hybrid label sales tripled — with the MPS deal still to come
Durst has reported that sales of its hybrid label solutions tripled over the past twelve months, without disclosing unit numbers or revenue. The growth is attributed to lines that put digital printing, flexo and finishing on one pass, particularly those built around the Tau G3 digital module shown at Labelexpo 2025. Durst and partner Omet had sold more than 20 hybrid presses worldwide by 2024 across the XJet and KJet series. Separately, Durst's planned acquisition of Dutch press manufacturer MPS Printing is scheduled to complete on 1 January 2027, subject to approvals.
Printhead angle: Hybrid label presses are single-pass machines, and single-pass is unforgiving: there is no second carriage sweep to hide a dead nozzle, so one blocked jet becomes a white line down a kilometre of web. That is why this class of press is sold on ink recirculation, nozzle-out compensation and automated head protection rather than on top speed alone. If you run or are specifying one, the questions that matter are how the head recirculates, how quickly the press detects a missing nozzle, and what it costs to replace a head array.
Textile & garment · Consumables · November 6
Brother launches PT 8158, a DTG pretreatment aimed at the cure tunnel
Brother Industrial Printing EMEA has launched PT 8158, a direct-to-garment pretreatment now available across the EMEA region. The headline claim is a significant reduction in smoke during curing — a workplace-air problem that most DTG shops solve with extraction rather than chemistry. Brother also cites GOTS 7.0 registration, improved wash durability and adhesion, and a reduced halo around the print. No figures were published alongside the launch.
Printhead angle: Pretreatment is a printhead consumable in disguise. It is applied as a mist a few inches from where the head will travel, and overspray that settles on the head face is one of the most common causes of white-ink nozzle dropout on DTG machines. A cleaner-curing pretreatment helps the room; what helps the head is keeping the application zone separated from the carriage, wiping the head face on a schedule rather than when quality drops, and never letting white ink sit still.
Whatever equipment you run — or are thinking about running next — the printhead is the heart of it. If you ever need a replacement head or a hard-to-find component, browse our full range of printheads and printer spare parts and accessories — our team is always happy to help you find the right fit for your machine.
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Sources: Texintel (Spandex/HP) · Tech Talk (Epson SureColor F330) · Texintel (Sun Chemical) · Texintel (China Print Supplies) · PrintIndustry.news (Durst) · Texintel (Brother PT 8158)
