Technology for Value Addition: Flock Printing - Apparel Resources

Feb 20, 2025

Inspired by the velvet appliqué and intricate pattern formations, minuscule fibre particles are deposited onto the surface to produce grassy texture in decorative patterns with plush 3D reliefs called flock prints. Flock printing is used to render velvet, velour and brasso textures on base fabrics like cotton, nets and tulles. Apart from the aesthetic appeal that this effect provides to the garment, this value addition technique finds utility for reasons like insulation, slip-and-grip friction, and low reflectivity effects as well. Owing to its markedly recurrent but infrequent appearance on racks of international fashion retailers, not many service providers look at it as a business growth opportunity.

Many flock printers agree that flock printing is an exciting technique to work with. “One can mix the flock powder of various colours to develop new colours. Moreover, it finds application in various forms – the entire collar can be flock printed, or it can be used as a patchwork or just as linear, geometric or abstract motifs,” shares Rajat Chugh, Director, Asian Overseas and Asian Texoprints, a Delhi NCRbased flock printer catering to exporters. “Normally we execute solid designs or prints, but now the possibilities are growing as we are also doing designs in multiple colours – as a pointto-point variation and as ombre gradients,” he adds. With 4 rotary flock printing machines and 4 curing chambers for postflocking treatment, the company has a capacity of producing 24,000 metres of flocked fabrics per day and like many other flock printers, it is not looking at any expansions in the near future. “We are making use of electrostatic automated machineries for producing flocked fabrics. For creating placement prints, logos and chest prints, electrostatic method is always the best suited and most viable one,” informs Harveer Singh, Purchase Manager, Flock Sur India.

The costing of a flock printing job is primarily a function of the cost of binder (adhesive), cost of flock fibres and area covered by the design. The cost of the binder varies from INR 70 (US $ 1) a kg for acrylic binders to INR 250 (US $ 3.5) a kg for polyurethane binders. The flock fibres costs vary from INR 200 (US $ 3) a kg for viscose fibres to INR 600 (US $ 9) a kg for Nylon 66 fibres. The area covered by the design costs an average of INR 30 (45 cents) per sq. m. Essentially manual methods cost more as compared to when done through machines. Manual methods suffice working for small order quantities or sample developments for exporters.

Technology for Flock Printing

With many automated machines being available in the market, the platform to do innovative experiments has widened. Now available in variety of applications like, one colour flock, two-colour flock, multi-colour flock going up to 16 colours, this advancement has provided a completely new edge to the design abilities and applications. Internationally, manufacturers are also increasingly furnishing half-tone flock designs, combined with printed colours.

HEBBECKER – The German frontrunner in textile processing, with more than 30 years of experience in multi-colour flocking – up to 6 colours, has a wide range of flocking solution.

Its VERSAFLOCK-PRO makes use of electrostatic fields to arrange flock material. This model is used to impart flock printing effects to continuous lengths of textile material. For designs where half-tone flock designs are combined with printed colours, HEBBECKER’s ALPHA-LINE+FLOCK and BASIC-LINE+FLOCK find utility in processing garments as the flock stations can be adapted into printing heads and the registration is perfect, i.e. within a tolerance of +/- 0.025 mm. Hence the flock material doesn’t spread.

M&R – An automatic T-shirt flocking machine from the US-based M&R companies is another option for tightlyregistered multi-colour flocking. Flocker 3000 is activated by the print carriage, and it’s compatible with M&R’s print-start/print-finish feature, M&R’s Patented Optical NoShirt Detector, and M&R’s Skip-Shirt Foot Pedal. Flocker 3000’s dosing brush is driven by a pneumatic cylinder, with speed settings adjusted by a flow control. Unlike some competing flockers, Flocker 3000 does not require print-head removal, the company claims.

Muratex – The flock printing machine from the Turkish company Muratex Textile Machinery works on the electrostatic method. The machine is designed for roll to roll printing of fabric and the fabric entry is controlled by a pneumatic squeezing cylinder. The machine’s flock cabin is covered with plexiglas for security. The machine also comes with a vacuum unit.

Hand-held electrostatic flocking machines are offered by Chinese manufacturers and suppliers like Jiangsu Xintu Machinery Co. Ltd., Dongguan Lihan Machinery Co. Ltd. and Taiwan Key Cheng Printing Machinery Co. Ltd.

Flock Printing Process

Short microfilament fibres of nylon, rayon, viscose and polyester, are applied directly onto the substrate that has been previously coated with an electrically conductive adhesive. The fibres vary in thickness and length according to the design which also co-determines the appearance of the flocked product. Thin fibres produce a soft velvety surface, whereas thicker fibres give a more bristle-like surface. Nylon amongst other short filament fibres is the most demanded flock fibre on account of its better quality and shiny properties. The output may look soft and fragile but is actually quite durable and does not fade. Viscose flock is mostly used in the domestic market because of its cheaper cost, but the flock tends to flatten after a few washes. Flock retains its colour and sticks on to the fabric through regular washes. Adhesives that capture the fibres must have the same flexibility and resistance to wear as the substrate.

The fibres can be deposited on the adhesive substrate manually by using a hand-held spray gun or mechanically through electrostatic, heat transfer and beater bar methods. In beater bar method, the adhesive is applied to the substrate, and then rapidly vibrating the substrate mechanically, while the flock fibres are dispensed over the surface. The vibration causes the flocking fibres to adhere to the adhesive and pack into a layer. In this case most of the fibres will be lying down in the adhesive. With these processes, the flocking fibres are randomly adhered to the surface of the substrate, and each fibre adheres to the adhesive at a different depth, creating an irregular flocked surface. In the electrostatic method, the flock fibres are dispensed through a flock hopper – a flock spraying equipment – and then the flock coated substrate is passed under a positive electrode grid, due to which the flock fibres arrange themselves perpendicular to the substrate. The most successful method to ensure a good dense coverage for better appeal is a combination of electrostatic flock application with the use of beater bars to help increase the density of the coating.