More than 50 years of innovation

Stork produced its first flat-screen textile printing machine over half a century ago, in 1953. Ten years later we unveiled our revolutionary rotary screen printing concept. This was an immediate success, and is now used for most of the world´s textile printing. Subsequent generations of machines have been developed - the latest of which is the Pegasus range - to expand possibilities and improve performance. Systems for drying, fixing and coating have also been introduced.

Equally significant have been the advances in the design of the screens themselves. Extensive research and steadily increasing expertise in the electro forming process has paved the way for the unique printing characteristics of NovaScreen® rotary screens. Stork is still the largest rotary screen producer in the world by far.

With the launch of the laser engraver in 1986, Stork/STK revolutionised engraving. Flexibility, speed and quality reached a previously unimaginable level. With the revolutionary bestLEN, Stork/STK has set the bar even higher in screen engraving technology.

In 1991 the first digital inkjet printer for printing sample patterns directly onto textiles was introduced. In 1995, Stork demonstrated a working prototype of the first-ever continuous digital printing system. Today, the ´Stork U See´ concept sets the standard in digital textile printing. Meanwhile our partnership with Dupont first bore fruit in 1993 with the successful Digital Cromalin series, which enjoys widespread use throughout the graphics printing industry as a high-accuracy colour proofing system.

Our first CAD system Image was introduced in 1991 at the Itma in Hanover and became an immediate success. Subsequent improvements have allowed the various processes involved to be better tuned to each other, and we have further integrated production process knowledge into the CAD (and CAM) software.

The accumulation of rotary screen printing knowledge enabled us to branch out into graphical applications in 1981. We initially made equipment for barcode master films and engraving flexo cylinders. Nowadays, in addition to supply label and packaging printing equipment for the food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and healthcare industries, we are also involved in ground-breaking industrial applications like RFiD, smart labels and electro luminescent lamps. And we will continue to innovate as markets evolve and technological barriers are pushed back.