By Cassandra Balentine
The February issue of Digital Output highlights the popularity of dye-sublimation (dye-sub) for silicone edge graphics (SEG). Essential to the success of this trendy display option is the fabric.
For dye-sub SEG, Maria Castricone, marketing and inside sales manager, Expolinc, suggests a premium-quality, stretchable polyester. The fabric should be wrinkle resistant and have excellent color absorption, which dye-sub enhances by penetrating the fabric fibers for vibrant, long-lasting prints. “It’s also essential for the substrate to have a smooth texture so it creates a polished look.”
Polyester-based fabrics with stretch properties are well suited for SEG. “Polyester’s absorbency allows the dye to penetrate deeply, resulting in long-lasting color and sharp image quality,” says Greg Lamb, CEO, Global Imaging, Inc.
In addition to a polyester-based fabric, Ken Bach, business development director, Aberdeen Fabrics Inc. suggests features like a smooth finish, good tensile strength, wrinkle resistance, and light transmission as essential.
“Stretch fabrics are particularly effective because they allow for a tight, smooth fit in SEG frames, minimizing creases or sagging,” adds Lamb.
“Printing on a smooth, soft fabric enhances the look. If the fabric has stretch in both directions, it makes the substrate even more ideal,” comments Jeff Mills, national product manager – TexStyles Graphic Fabrics, Beaver Paper & Graphic Media Inc.
Additionally, Lamb points out that substrates with excellent light diffusion properties work well in backlit SEG applications, providing an even glow that enhances visual impact without hotspots.
Joel Willcock, director, UFabrik, feels that SEG is all about understanding the application and the variables required from the different frames—tension, light blocking, or illumination. “An example of this would be our UFabrik Soft Backlit Textile. This product was manufactured without a top coating and woven under significant tension to produce the ultimate soft, white, and non-crease material in light box SEG.”
When it comes to SEG, the end result has to look good first, and everything else follows. “So many customers who use SEG systems want to print and pack, so stretch is near the top of the list. Depending on the end use—is it for booth signage, is it simply used as a cover up material—opacity is important. Will it be washed or cleaned regularly? Will it fold nicely? How’s the hand of the fabric? How cleanly does it showcase color after printing? Again, the way it looks in the end is at the top,” offers Danny Jimenez, sales consultant, media sales, TVF.
Willcock adds that in his experience of developing and manufacturing textiles, fabrics that are knitted rather than woven, have issues with ‘pin hole’ or ‘star’ effects where the light escapes through the material due to the loop in the yarn. “A top coating is therefore required to diffuse the light, however, if this becomes marked or bruised, it will show up on the graphic once lit. Also, additional wet processes in manufacture also make it less ecological to the market.”
Steve LaMarsh, director of business development, Display Source Inc., adds that fabrics should be durable, easy to maintain, easy to install, and offer shrink control for fit reliability up to extremely large-sized graphics. “Fabrics are now everywhere. Print shops, design centers, activation studios—all see the vast benefits of using and reusing the lightweight, easy to store and set up aluminum frames for SEGs.”
Mills adds that having a high shrink tolerance—for minimal shrinking—when exposed to heat in the printing process means there will be no need to overstretch the fabric to get it into the frame.
Fabric Options for SEG
Here are highlights of SEG fabrics from vendors who participated in this article.
Aberdeen
Aberdeen is a U.S.-based manufacturer of SEG fabric. “We produce our fabric through a proprietary process that is the cleanest in the industry, ensuring no microplastics or wastewater are released into the environment,”says Bach.
Some key highlights of its SEG fabrics include its premium, sustainable backlit fabric; non-toxic, blockout fabric; and fully recyclable fabric solutions.
Beaver Paper
TexStyles NatureSeries Soft Knit fabric is perfect for the environmentally conscious, says Mills.
It is a revolutionary new line of textiles made with sustainable technology—CiCLO fibers. Fabrics made with CiCLO fibers help reduce ocean pollution and textile accumulation in landfills because they biodegrade at a rate similar to wool.
TexStyles Backlit 90 is the only backlit fabric in the industry offering four-way stretch.
TexStyles Heavy Knit Smooth is a polyester knit fabric with a smooth print surface and excellent opacity.
Global Imaging
Global Imaging is a proud distributor of the entire Berger Textiles line of durable, polyester fabrics optimized for dye-sub printing.
According to Lamb, what sets Berger’s products apart is their commitment to quality and sustainability. “Their SEG fabrics are designed to meet the industry’s highest standards, with eco-friendly options available for clients prioritizing sustainability.”
TVF
“An important thing to remember is with almost any fabric that works for SEG systems, there is give and take. Based on your end use, you might have to sacrifice stretchability, opacity, white point, or some other aspect. No matter the fabric you select, manufacturers will have to play with the finished size of the fabric to ensure a perfect fit for their customers,” states Jimenez.
Three of the company’s most popular SEG-ready fabrics include the 6.2 oz. Microlux Brush 7818GFS, soft, lightweight, engineered for printing brilliant, high-resolution backlit images, and superior elasticity and superb crease resistance; the 7.8 oz. Supernova medium weight, is bright white and optimal for high-resolution backlit images, also it is specially-formulated with FRXU finish and yarns designed for wrinkle relaxation; and the 7.5 oz. Flash 8087PGFS, which is incredibly soft-handed and exceptional has crease recovery.
UFabrik
The UFabrik range currently includes 14 textile products that cater to 95 percent of all applications needed by the wide format print industry, according to Willcock.
Of these, seven are compatible with the dye-sub print process, and three are recommended for SEG— Soft Backlit Textile, Soft Display Textile, and Soft Blackback Textile.
Soft Backlit Textile is a 5.6 oz/yd 100 percent woven polyester textile designed specifically for backlit applications. A unique weaving process in its production ensures no pin holes and no need for a top coating.
Soft Display Textile is suited for both direct and paper transfer sublimation and is a soft and crease-free display textile with a high knit density accounting for over 80 percent opacity. With an excellent white point, it features superb stretch and recovery plus vibrant color reproduction.
Soft Blackback Textile is a high-quality 100 percent knitted polyester textile with a bright white print surface and an anti-scratch blackout coated reverse. It was developed to be the supreme direct and transfer dye-sub blackback with a perfectly balanced stretch and softness ratio.
Silicone Profile is a 100 percent silicon keder, which when being sewn to dye sublimated SEG stays flat and doesn’t bunch or buckle up. “It is perfect for SEG and available in the most common industry standard size—14 millimeters (mm) by three mm—as well as 12 mm and nine mm widths. This keder is highly stable in performance and will not melt, become brittle, or break in extreme temperatures. It is eco-friendly, REACH compliant, and safe to incinerate,” shares Willcock.
SEG Fabrics
Fabrics are a critical element of a successful SEG application. Keep features like ink compatibility, weave, white point, recyclability, and stretch in mind when choosing your selection.
Feb2025, Digital Output
