Ricoh partners up with Swedish Coloreel to develop new thread colouring technology

Global electronics company Ricoh has announced a long-term partnership with Swedish startup Coloreel to develop a thread colouring unit for industrial embroidery, in which a white base thread can be instantly coloured. This technology allows for smooth color transitions, gradients and effects, as well as reducing total production time in up to 80 percent, as there would be fewer cuts for color changes. It will also eliminate the need to maintain large inventories of thread colors or to order custom-color threads.

“Ricoh will develop and build a major sub-system in the unit, based on the company’s advanced inkjet printing capabilities. This will be complemented by Coloreel’s colorisation technology”, said the the Japanese tech giant in a statement. The initial production of the unit, which will be compatible with any existing industrial embroidery machine, is set to start in the second semester of 2018.

“It feels amazing that a company like Ricoh, with their dignity and size, chooses to enter this partnership with us. To have Ricoh as our partner gives our product even more credibility, and we are excited to see what this partnership will bring”, commented Mattias Nordin, CEO at Coloreel.

Headquartered in Tokyo, the Ricoh Group operates in 200 countries, providing document management solutions, IT services, commercial and industrial printing, digital cameras, and industrial systems. In the financial year ended in March 2018, it reported worldwide sales of 19.4 billion US dollars (approximately 15 billion pounds).

Founded in 2009, Coloreel is finally set to put its product on the market. In April, the Swedish company announced a partnership with global contract manufacturer Scanfil, which will provide manufacturing, product development, sourcing and logistics services to Coloreel.

Picture: Coloreel/Website