How to Flock a Dashboard

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  2. How to Flock a Dashboard
  1. Arrange your workplace to ensure that you can apply your adhesive away from the area where the flock is to be applied.
  2. Ensure that your flocking area is clean so that you can re-use any of the excess flock and overspray that will accumulate when you are flocking.

  3. Clean the surface of the item to be flocked. It must be grease and wax free to enable the adhesive to stick properly. Silicon oils and waxes are difficult to remove so the surface should be lightly scrubbed with scotch bright and a liberal coating of solvent. While the solvent is still wet, wipe the surface clean with a dry cloth, so that you ‘float’ the contaminants off the surface and catch them in the cloth.

  4. Usually it is easiest if you can hang your work pieces from a rail in the gluing booth and then from a metal rail in the flocking area and then from a rail in the drying/curing area. Suspend the item to be flocked by wire hooks. These hooks can then be used to hold the item as it is transferred from glue to flock to drying. When applying the adhesive, ensure that there is a continuous coating of adhesive on the surface to be flocked and that the adhesive extends to touch the wire hook. Connect the earth lead of the flock application equipment to the metal rail in the flocking area. This will then ensure that the surface to be flocked is earthed through the wire hook to the rail to the flocking equipment.

  5. Put on your dust mask and eye protection.
  6. Now prepare your adhesive. It is good practice to add pigment to the adhesive that is the same colour as the flock to be applied. This provides an undercoat that hides surface colour variations and helps to mask any areas where the flock coating may not be as dense as it should be. It is also a good idea to ensure that the adhesive is a different colour than the surface being flocked to ensure that you can see when you have a good coverage of adhesive. If the adhesive is the same colour as the surface, it is sometimes hard to tell where you have applied the adhesive. If the adhesive is to be sprayed it may need to be thinned down first.

  7. Now apply the adhesive ensuring that you get a good even coverage about 0.2mm thick. A good sign that you have applied enough adhesive is that the whole surface is wet and glistening once you have finished. REMEMBER you must flock into wet adhesive !!! If the adhesive starts to go tacky before you have finished flocking the flock will rub off easily.

  8. Hang the glued item in the flocking area ensuring that the surface is earthed.

  9. Always start flocking at the bottom from side to side and work your way up the item. This ensures that any excess uncharged flock falling away from the surface does not land and lay flat on fresh glue.
  10. Once you think you have finished, tap the back of the item to remove most of the excess flock and then apply another coat of flock to increase the density of the coating.
  11. Now hang the item up to dry and do not touch the flocked surface until the adhesive has set.
  12. Once the adhesive has set you can remove the excess flock by blowing the surface with an airline or vacuuming the surface with the brush end of a hoover.