Sailcloth and coatings

Can you print graphics on laminate and 3Di sails?

Short answer

Yes. Laminate and 3Di sails take large-format full-colour graphics produced as thin printed Mylar-based film, applied so that the graphic follows the membrane rather than sitting on top of it as a stiff patch.

A membrane is not a woven sail

A laminate or 3Di sail carries load through fibres laid along the load paths, with a film surface. Anything applied to it has to be thin and flexible enough not to work against that structure, and it must not become a hard edge where the sail flexes.

The practical limit on a membrane sail is rarely colour. It is thickness and stiffness.

What this is used for

Sponsor graphics on mainsails and headsails, team identity, class insignia, national marks and full-sail artwork on the working sails that are up for the whole race — not only downwind.

Working with the sailmaker

Graphics on a membrane sail are best planned before or during the build, so the artwork and the panel or fibre layout are decided together rather than one being fitted around the other afterwards.

Keep reading

Related answers.

Every answer on this site is written from real sails, real cloth and real production — not from a template.

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