Does anyone do real flock printing

[Prōdigium]

Curious about flocking, not the transfer stuff but the real deal....where does everyone buy it?

I ask because I am sure there are distributors that sell it, but after looking at nearly 50 printing supply shops its noticeably absent. Is there just not a market for this stuff anymore?

[tonypep]

Its not just about the "stuff" (rayon cones) but the application method that has pushed it out of fashion. Old school:electrostatic charging the platens such that the cones, when applied airborne (with a hand held device) will adhere to the adhesive in a completely vertical fashion ie; they stand on end. Oh boy does that get messy fast and that rayon will get on absolutely everything. Companies like Shenck make an auto add on applicator but prepare to pay dearly, watch it run sloooowwwwly, and permanently dedicate an auto exclusively to this process and enclose it in its own environment

[zanegun08]

Danny at Denver Print House does it.  I have a short from them and it's pretty cool.

There is a company out of China that sells the transfers cut C-star (I think) and they have a long flock that looks like shaggy dog and medium flock which feels like a microfiber blanket, good prices, and likely outlasts the screen applied flock if the artwork will work with the limitations.

The flock I have found locally for cad cut is not very "flocky" and with the cad cut from China they can do multi color

[DannyGruninger]

Yes you can email me(danny@denverprinthouse.com) as we do direct flocking inline on our roq presses. If you go to my instagram page - www.instagram.com/denverprinthouse there's several videos of us doing flocking. Flock transfers do not compare to our process as the heat pressing crushes the loft of the fiber. Our flock process is dialed, quick turns, and really good wash results.


We have some new techniques where I'm combining flocking with cracking for really old school looking prints as well. Flock plus foil as well.....

[Prōdigium]

Its not just about the "stuff" (rayon cones) but the application method that has pushed it out of fashion. Old school:electrostatic charging the platens such that the cones, when applied airborne (with a hand held device) will adhere to the adhesive in a completely vertical fashion ie; they stand on end. Oh boy does that get messy fast and that rayon will get on absolutely everything. Companies like Shenck make an auto add on applicator but prepare to pay dearly, watch it run sloooowwwwly, and permanently dedicate an auto exclusively to this process and enclose it in its own environment

Oh I know...I ran an M&R gauntlet that was pretty much "dedicated" to flocking like 18 years ago. The entire press was a massive fur ball from spray tack overspray and flock....it was nasty!!

The manual setups I see often use the little cones, but I can also get manual ones here that use a special gun that has a vacuum tool built in that eliminates most of the mess and puts in back in the container so its not wasted. Looks like a shop vac but runs on just air pressure.

As for types, here in China I have seen some crazy ones that indeed look like grass they are are so long and one company I visited was using the process to make fake fur for toys in a flocking conveyor system...truly nuts. Naked toy goes inside the flocking chamber...comes out the other side with hair.

Its just that I see textile printed with it, but it looks like no suppliers offer it and I am 100% sure its not all being done as heat transfer due to the cost and lack of speed. Even hand flocking with a wand is 5x faster than cutting & weeding.

Mostly I am trying to see if its worth my while to bring the stuff in and distribute it. Its super cheap but bulky and with around 60 colors, I am not even sure where to start. But it looks to me like the custom car interior and craft folks use a lot...and for the life of me I cannot understand, but as a ladies fingernail finish too. Flocked fingernails....lol

[DannyGruninger]

As mentioned very few suppliers sell flock product. We source from a company in Cali or Europe. The new process that roq has developed keeps the process clean. We have run orders as large as 10k pcs with just a little bit of clean up needed for the job. I would have never wanted to do flock prior to using the inline solution as it was way to messy before, now I actually love printing flock jobs as its not hard to do with the right machines.