What Are Water Slide-off Decals?

Before the invention of pressure-sensitive plastic decals (in approximately the 1950s) all decals where manufactured by using water slide-off decals

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The water slide-off decal was manufactured by printing the graphic you wanted to display on the product or as a promotional decal on release paper. Water slide-off decals were printed using the silk-screen method of printing (A.K.A screen-printing).

Screen printing is a very old type of printing invented in China during the Song Dynasty (9601279 AD). This type of printing was called silk-screening, because the mesh used to press the ink through was made of silk. The term silk-screening has not been used since the 1960s. Currently synthetic threads are commonly used in the screen printing process; the most popular mesh in general use is made of polyester. Special mesh materials of nylon and stainless steel are available to the screen printer.

Screen printing uses a mesh of polyester which resembles a screen hence the term screen printing, the mesh is coated with a emulsion that is photo-reactive. When this emulsion is exposed to light is leaves a stencil imprint of the graphic that is to be printed, each color to be printed has it own screen.

Returning to the question at hand the water slide-off decals are printed onto the release paper one color at a time, because each color has to air dry before the next color is printed. The substrate that the ink is printed on is a water-resistant paper that has a layer of water-soluble adhesive. When the finished decal is immersed in water, the adhesive on the water-resistant paper release from the paper leaving a decal sandwiched between the water-soluble adhesive and the final clear coat of ink on the surface of the decals printed image.

The water slide-off decal does not have a substrate that it is printed onto. The release liner or water-resistant paper is just a temporary carrier for the decals image. The water slide-off (also known as a water transfer decal) is transferred to the substrate you want to adhere the image to.

Before the invention of plastics with adhesives all decals were water transfer decals, whether for promotion, branding products, danger and caution decals.

You will still find the water slide-off decals in a few industries such as furniture decoration, baseball bat branding. The reason these industries use this old technology is the water transfer decal is as thin as a layer of paint. When the decal is transferred onto a piece of furniture for decorative purposes or a baseball bat for branding a varnish is applied over the image. Because the decal is only ink the image will not leave a bump or a raised area where the image is applied.

The water slide-off or water transfer decals are also used in the decoration of ceramic, these are call ceramic decals, but that is another article.

by: Mr. Decal

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