The Ghent Workgroup (GWG) is looking for textile and 3D print experts to join its specification subcommittee. The GWG - which currently provides commercial print, digital print, sign and display, and packaging standards - is hoping to extend its work into these other two sectors.
“Over the years, we’ve gained a lot of experience with creating quality standards for print production in various market segments. As chairs of the specification subcommittee, it is our task to develop and advocate these quality standards. We started around 2002 by focusing on commercial print but have since significantly widened our scope,” said Loic Aigon, product manager at Enfocus, and David van Driessche, CTO at Four Pees.
GWG pointed out that, in many ways, textile print is like other segments for which it has developed quality standards so some of its work can be immediately applied. But there are also segment-specific challenges - the large variety of materials and their reproduction capabilities, repeating patterns, widely different colour reproduction etc.
In terms of 3D print there are also similarities to the other work the GWG has already undertaken, but the differences are much more significant. Where most of the other GWG work has been for processes that apply some ink to some kind of material, the range of production processes and materials in 3D printing is enormous. Additionally, where most of the graphic industry heavily relies on PDF, other file formats (such as OBJ and STL) are much more common here. Still, the GWG hopes to be able to apply its methodology and lend its expertise to jump-start standardisation.
The GWG is looking for people with different levels of expertise and experience in those two fields. It is particularly interested in hearing from those with theoretical knowledge of production methods and the software or hardware used or hands-on experience as a print company.