Surface Types for Vinyl Lettering Sticker and Decal Application
Rohan Roy
Mar 21, 2024
Vinyl Lettering
Vinyl stickers, often known as vinyl decals, have become quite popular in the world of home decor. These multipurpose stickers are made of polyvinyl chloride, a durable and flexible plastic material. They are used for a variety of reasons, including sign manufacturing, car wrapping, and t-shirt customization. In this blog post, we’ll look at the definition of vinyl stickers and provide a step-by-step instruction for applying them successfully.
Vinyl stickers include an extensive collection of adhesive labels that serve a variety of applications. They are available in a variety of styles and textures, including matte, glossy, and metallic, so you may select the one that best matches your needs. Furthermore, vinyl decals can be created with almost any design you can conceive. These stickers come in a variety of grades and thicknesses, each designed to serve a specific function.
Vinyl stickers are adhesive labels composed of PVC, a synthetic plastic known for its durability. This material may be simply cut to various shapes and sizes. Manufacturers emboss the stickers with brilliant colors and engaging designs, using special ink that clings perfectly to the vinyl surface. This feature makes stickers with Vinyl Printing an excellent alternative for personalizing your home because they can be applied to windows, doors, floors, and walls.
What surfaces can you use the stickers on?
In general, your wall surface should be clean and freshly painted, but not too recently painted, or your wall graphics may not stick (because the paint is too damp) or stick too well (surface may be clean but there is still some moisture beneath the surface).
The wall should not have excessive texture. In most cases, an orange peel surface should suffice, although rougher surfaces may fail to hole your designs entirely if there is insufficient contact with a wall.
In commercial places, painted metal, wood, or board made of gypsum (sheetrock) should suffice. Oil-based paints are a superior surface for applying vinyl wall murals than latex paints, but they are more expensive and difficult to find today. So you may have no alternative but to apply your wall vinyl graphics to latex paints. Just give them at least a week, ideally two weeks, to cure.
Finally, you can apply wall graphics on glass with no adverse effects. The sole caution is that it is much simpler to trap air bubbles behind a vinyl design if you don’t know what you’re doing or have little expertise putting vinyl lettering designer or graphics to glass. It may be prudent to employ an expert in this situation. The following are the places where you can stick the stickers.
Vehicles
From bumper stickers to windscreen decals, you may personalize your vehicle with car windscreen stickers that display your school affiliation, university of graduation, political party or candidate support, charity of choice, or products you endorse.
Signs
Many signs use vinyl decals for text and logos, either as exterior or interior mounted signs, or as signs placed to windows or bigger vehicles such as delivery vans and semi-trucks. You may have noticed full sides of semi-truck trailers promoting your favorite fast food chain driving along the interstate. The graphic is a large-format vinyl sticker or decal for Sign Printing.
Product labels
While a lot of labels are made of paper, large amounts are also made of vinyl sticker material. Wine containers, shampoo bottles, and food labels. The sky’s the limit. If you want to learn more about graphical labels, go here.
Warning signs
Many warning signs are vinyl stickers or decals. The stickers are put on pipes, doors, floors (to identify fire escape routes, for example), hazardous substance containers, and a variety of other locations where warning signs must be posted.
Others
These stickers can be stacked on many of the surfaces that are smooth. Usually the stickers will not stick on textured surfaces, oily surfaces, dirty surfaces, rubber or any uneven surface. But in many cases even if you are able to stick it on an uneven surface it may not last for a long time.
How to stick the stickers to ensure durability
Placing vinyl stickers can be a difficult operation, especially for novices. To help you, here’s a step-by-step guide on how to apply vinyl decals perfectly:
Prepping the Surface
Prior to putting a vinyl sticker, make sure the surface is clean and dry. Wipe the area where the sticker will be placed with a clean cloth to remove any dust or debris.
Sprinkle the surface with soapy water
To improve the adherence of the vinyl sticker, spritz the surface with a soapy water solution. Make this solution by putting a few drops of dish soap and water in a spray bottle. Mist the area where you intend to place the sticker.
Secure the sticker
Peel the backing paper off the vinyl sticker and carefully place it on the prepared area. Use your fingers to squeeze the sticker’s vertical edges and push it firmly onto the surface. Start in the Centre and work your way out, using uniform pressure to avoid air pockets and creases.
Push out any air bubbles
To guarantee proper adherence and avoid distortions or wrinkles, press out any air bubbles with a credit card or a squeegee. Begin at the sticker’s center and work your way out to the edges.
Heat Curved Vinyl Stickers
If you’re attaching a vinyl sticker to a curved surface, such as a helmet or cup, gradually heat it with a hairdryer. The heat increases the flexibility of the vinyl material, allowing it to adhere to the contours of the surface.
Peel the final layer
Once the vinyl sticker is securely in place, remove the final layer of backing paper. Your vinyl sticker has been successfully applied and is ready to be viewed.
Conclusion
Vinyl stickers are the most common type of sticker available on the market today. Also with the use of the web to print it has now become easy to create stickers. Vinyl stickers are constructed of several materials, including vinyl, PVC, and plastic. Vinyl stickers’ appeal stems mostly from their multiple features. You can also use Custom vinyl lettering designer to create different custom options of stickers.
As a general rule of thumb for Sticker Printing, whatever surface you are applying the sticker to should be considered filthy and cleaned adequately to ensure the sticker’s optimum adhesive strength and durability.
If you want software for custom sticker printing, you can contact wtpbiz for our custom software services in sticker making and printing.