Decol is what? Features, advantages and disadvantages.

One way to create a unique and colorful advertising products is decal, which can be applied on almost any solid surface. This way of creating images on various products is quite popular among consumers. For example, it is in this way that branded dishes, souvenir figurines and other items are most often branded.

What is a decal?

Decoll - this is actually known to all since childhood, decals. They are printed on sheets of special rubberized paper and fixed with a varnish. If such a picture is immersed in hot water, the varnish and the paint layer will easily disappear and the picture can be moved to the object. To fix the result, the item to be decorated must be placed in a special oven.

If you decide, for example, to place the logo of your company in this way on a large number of items, you will have to be patient. The fact is that the decal is done only by hand. Firms that promise to print thousands of copies a day are likely to be cunning - it is very difficult to implement this in practice.

Hot method of application

The implementation of hot decal is most suitable for applying logos to products made of ceramics, porcelain, glass and other materials capable of withstanding high temperatures. Hot decal is applied using paints that are absolutely harmless to human health, so that from the dishes, branded in this way, you can safely eat and drink. The subsequent calcination procedure allows to significantly increase the service life of the product, for a long time to preserve its attractive appearance.

Of course, hot decal is slightly more expensive than the one used for products treated with cold method, but the quality of execution is an order of magnitude higher. The application technique usually consists of three stages:

• Printing of the picture itself using silk screen printing;
• A sticker of the printed image on a souvenir or dishes;
• Firing products using high-temperature equipment.

This method of application has quite understandable advantages:

• Durability - the baked paint will not be erased and will not be scratched, it can be destroyed only together with the product;
• Wear resistance - the branded product can be washed, washed and rubbed using any household chemicals, the image will not go anywhere;
• Clarity - bright colors can not be burned out, do not fade even with years of use.

When applying images in this way, you can use natural precious metals in the edging of the drawings, achieve a matte pattern or imitate laser engraving.

Cold Decoration

This type of application of "transfer pictures" is used in cases where the product can not be burned for a variety of reasons: inability to withstand high temperatures, sizes and dimensions, and other qualities. In this case, a cold decal is applied. The picture for decoration is printed on special paper covered with water-soluble glue. After the drawing is printed, it is covered with a special colloid varnish and thoroughly dried.

This is the usual sliding picture, which moves to the object with the help of ordinary water. If you can not wet a branded object, then a dry decal is applied. Cold decolling, although it is much cheaper, but has significant drawbacks. For example, many components used during application are prohibited for use in the food industry, which means that you can not decorate your favorite dish or cup in this way.

Advantages and disadvantages

Like any other way of applying information to objects, decoding has both positive and negative features. The pluses include:

• Decal is the ability to decorate objects of any shape and size;
• Individuality of the decor, the possibility to order a print run from 1 piece;
• The use of various forms and methods of printing;
• Long life of a branded product;
• Durability and color of the applied print.

Undoubtedly, decal is not only advantages, but also certain difficulties. For example, these are:

• Because of the use of manual labor, a large percentage of marriage is likely;
• Complexity and complexity of printing;
• The possibility of distortion of the selected colors when baking, if the paint is of inadequate quality;
• Long prepress preparation.

How to distinguish decal from hand painting?

Despite the fact that the decoration of objects is very practical and beautiful, it is still mass production. However, sometimes unscrupulous manufacturers are trying to raise the already high cost of the product, giving out the drawing for manual work. How to understand - decal is it or hand painting?

It's not always easy to do this, so you need to be very careful. First of all, the decal is still a seal, so the picture will necessarily have at least a minimal graininess. However, sometimes, to see this, you will have to use a magnifying glass.

For manual work often try to give a decal with a sketch. This means that the main picture is still printed, but individual, especially important details are drawn by hand. But what if the magnifying glass is not at hand, and the ornament is very small and can not see the dots? In this case, compare the repeating parts of the picture among themselves - if they are absolutely identical, then before you decal. None, even the most skilled master is able to repeat the motif once painted with accuracy to a millimeter.