'Fashion Design Studio' Opens for Plastics.

Enhancement Technologies Inc. (ETI), a provider of designer heat-transfer prints for thermoplastics, has opened a design and prototyping studio at its headquarters in Liberty Corner, N.J. The ETI Fashion Studio is intended to help customers quickly develop and prototype surface designs for plastic window treatments, upholstery, floor tiles, patio furniture, mats, footwear, and bath and kitchen accessories. The studio reportedly allows customers to accomplish in days what used to take months.

Since 1985, ETI has marketed a heat-transfer printing process that produces high-resolution, eight-color surface decoration on vinyl and other plastics. The Fashion Studio contains a "colorization workstation" with a 52-in. color screen. Visitors can access a database of about 1100 patterns and 2000 color choices keyed to actual production inks. Users can choose designs and recolor them on-screen. The designs and colors can then be produced by ETI in its printing plant. In addition, the 52-in. screen allows customers to superimpose the desired pattern on images of products in real-life settings. For example, a window-treatment manufacturer can transfer a design to blinds in a high-resolution photo of a room setting. A vinyl upholstery designer can view designs on a chair or couch. The studio also has a prototyping lab where patterns selected from the ETI library can be placed on the customer's plastic substrate and embossed to create physical samples.