Frequently Asked Questions
This is an excellent question that has many facets. In general, decals will adhere extremely well to wide variety of objects. We’ve had excellent results on most glass, metal, plastic, and wood surfaces. Glassware is the most difficult and we’ve had varying results from supplier to supplier. Glass processing, and finishing techniques contribute to adhesion of digital inks, labels, and adhesive. We offer Glass Adhesion Promoter that has worked well in most glass application trials that we’ve run. There will Always Be Exceptions to adhesion performance from surface to surface. The only way to determine if Magic Decals will meet your performance requirements is to try them. We’ve made that part easy for you. Purchase a Magic Decal Multi Sheet Sample Pack and see how they perform! There’s a variety of methods, and approaches to overcome adhesion failure. If you purchase a sample pack, and Magic Decals fail to meet your performance requirements, we’ll offer you Free Consultation to help provide a solution to your challenging printing project.
The laminator needs to be at least 12” wide and is used to ensure intimate contact between the A and B-Film when assembling. Magic Film requires NO Heat, it only requires Firm pressure. The use of a laminator helps eliminate, bubbling, tunneling, or ridges between printed images on the A-Film and the “Transfer” B-Film. This is Important because Decal Transferability is dependent on the B-Film carrying both adhesive and images for application. We share no affiliation with any supplier of finishing equipment. However, for your convenience, we’ve provided a link for laminator reference that we’ve used and have had good results with.
You must have a UV Flatbed printer. This process involves printing directly to an adhesive sheet. Therefore, any contact with equipment parts like rollers, feed mechanisms, and especially printheads should be avoided. If this occurs, it may cause damage to printer. Also, you must be using a proper type of Ink Set. Please refer to Printers, Ink Sets, and Layering Instructions. Short answer is, the ink set should not be too Hard or too Flexible, resulting decal will potentially Crack or Bubble upon or after application.
This is the most often asked question. Yes. Transfer Decals have proven to be dishwasher safe. Many applications have successfully gone through 100+ dishwashing cycles. Successful applications were achieved on acrylic, plastic, ceramic, metal, and glass surfaces. However, some glassware applications have not been successful. Glass has unique properties that affect the adhesion. Since there’s a plethora of glass suppliers and compositions, the only way to determine if your glass will pass, is to run a live test. If the decal fails to adhere, there’s a variety of methods in treating glass surfaces to accept Digital Inks and Label/Decal Adhesives.
Glass Adhesion Promoters, are available by Marabu North America LP, who are leaders in supplying adhesion solutions for, glass, plastic, and metal surfaces. If interested. Contact a technical representative who can help answer any questions you may have about your application. https://www.marabu-northamerica.com/contact.html
Transfer decals are very durable. They have a very aggressive adhesive, and the UV Gloss Clear/(Varnish) provides an extremely scratch/scuff resistant surface. Adhesion of the decal is determined by several factors. One important factor is the design itself.
If the design is composed of fine line artwork and small type, it becomes susceptible to damage. The image is being held in place by only a very minimal amount of ink and adhesive.
If the design is composed of bold artwork and large type, it becomes very durable. To create the most durable decal, a base layer of Gloss Clear and a top layer of Gloss Clear is required. In addition, we recommend that you add a ½ pt.-1pt. stroke line bleed over the edge of the graphic. This technique creates a “Lip or Ramp” around the ink layer, which helps prevent chipping or what is sometimes referred to as flagging.