Startup Consumption
Sacrificial yardage is consumed during machine threading, tension adjustment, and screen registration before saleable production begins. Setup fabric waste includes leader cloths, strike-off trial lengths, and misaligned initial meterage on printing, continuous dyeing, and finishing ranges. Factories account for this material loss when calculating total raw material requirements for order quotes.
Operational Cause
Achieving precise pattern alignment across multi-color rotary screens requires running several meters of fabric through the drying chamber to verify squeegee pressure and repeat fit. Producing setup fabric waste is inherent to rotary screen and continuous dyeing lines, where web tension, temperature, and print paste flow stabilize only after initial movement. Machine operators use cheap plain-woven leader fabric to thread long ranges.
Cost Mitigation
Mill managers minimize scrap costs by stitching reusable synthetic leader fabrics to the front and end of valuable production rolls. Reducing setup fabric waste improves total fabric yield, lowering raw material scrap rates on custom fashion orders. Digital printing reduces this startup waste dramatically compared to conventional rotary screen printing setups.
Process Boundary
Automated digital single-pass presses with electronic camera registration reduce startup fabric consumption to under two meters. Garment cutting waste occurring at the sewing factory falls under cut-and-sew loss rather than mill setup waste.
