Self Adhesive Vinyl – What You Need to Know
Whether you want to enliven your business with a fun wall mural or brand your fleet of vehicles, self-adhesive vinyl is your one-stop solution. However, it is important to know how this versatile material works before you start experimenting with it.
Self-adhesive vinyl is a flexible vinyl film with a pressure-sensitive adhesive backing. It can be applied to most flat and curved surfaces such as plastic, metal or aluminum.
Banners and Stickers
Self Adhesive Vinyl is great for banners, but it can also be used to create stickers that can be attached to all kinds of items. Customise clothing, accessories and hats with your own designs to give them a unique look. You can even add monograms to sand buckets or coffee mugs! Vinyl decals are also popular on car windows and walls. Use removable adhesive to make sure your decal doesn’t damage the surface of the window or wall when you remove it.
For a more permanent option, you can choose specialist adhesives that PVC self adhesive vinyl offer a low initial bond to allow precise positioning before adding pressure and squeegeeing into place. These types of adhesives are generally better suited to outdoor applications. They will withstand most weather conditions, but they won’t last in extreme heat or cold.
You can also use Vinyl to enliven your workspaces, whether you want to display a menu for customers in a cafe or zhush up the office with vibrant designs that are easy to refresh. Vinyl can be stuck to most flat or curved surfaces, including plastic, metal, painted wood and some types of concrete walls. It works particularly well on smooth surfaces. If you need to stick it on a rough surface, heating it with a hairdryer first may help. Then you can enjoy your new Vinyl wall art or sticker design for years to come.
Drinkware and Utensils
Drinkware and utensils made of self adhesive vinyl are all the rage now. It gives a unique look to the cup or tumbler and is also dishwasher safe. However, if the design is too thin or prone to scratching the customer may be disappointed when they discover that it peels off in the wash. A great way to protect your vinyl designs from scratches is by coating the finished product with a clear coat or sealant.
Decorative items are another great use for self adhesive vinyl. It can be used to create stencils that you can overlay on paper or fabric to help you create a paint mask. You can also use it to make stickers and decals for a variety of surfaces.
Craft Vinyl is a versatile material with endless applications. It can be used in retail stores to brand vehicles and create striking storefronts, or it can be used by homemakers to create unique feature walls or even clothing embellishments. Vinyl can be cut using a wide variety of cutting machines, and it can be easily applied with the use of an iron or heat press. The only limit is your imagination. Just remember to always supervise children while crafting with vinyl as small shapes can provide a choking hazard and should not be ingested.
Boxes and Jars
Aside from being an extremely eye-catching material, self adhesive vinyl is also extremely versatile and works great for a wide variety of projects and DIYs. As long as the surface it is being applied to is smooth and non-porous (like a glass window or flat board) self adhesive vinyl is pretty much a ‘you can do anything with this’ kind of thing.
It will cling to most surfaces and can be cut into any shape. It’s a very cool material to work with because it essentially does what it says on the tin and allows you to put some really snazzy graphics on your windows, walls, vehicles etc. The best part is that it does so without the need for heat activation and so you can enliven your space quickly and easily.
This type of vinyl can be either monomeric or polymeric PVC film with a pressure-sensitive acrylic adhesive and backed up with a PE release liner to ensure Self Adhesive Vinyl easy application. The PE liners are sometimes varied in texture or composition to allow for better lay-flat properties, specific finishes or to help the vinyl last longer.
The vinyl itself can be transparent or white and is usually available in a range of colours. We normally use Oracal 651 which is a 5-8 year rated outdoor safe permanent solvent-based adhesive vinyl that comes in 61 different gloss colors plus a clear for top laminates etc.
Home Decor
Basically falling into the ‘does what it says on the tin’ category, self adhesive vinyl is a super versatile material that can be cut into almost any shape and can cling to more or less any surface. This makes it perfect for enforcing social distancing, queue spacing and traffic direction around your building as well as producing interior and outdoor graphics for your business or simply decorating your home and office space.
In fact, it’s so easy to work with that you can even use it to make clothing and accessories like t-shirts or tote bags, or to create custom embellishments for your scrapbook. But the most common use for self-adhesive vinyl is to make wall art, and it can be either temporary or permanent, depending on how you apply it.
When applying a wall decal with self-adhesive vinyl, you should try to smooth it as flat as possible. If there are any little air bubbles that won’t go away with a gentle rub, the best way to deal with them is by pricking them through with a pin (on the edge of the bubble is ideal) and then smoothing it down over the hole. The air will escape and the vinyl should then flatten nicely.
You can also brush regular white glue (or the same type used on premium wrapping paper) onto the back of your decal to help it stick better to a wall with texturing as this helps the vinyl to press into the mountains and valleys of the wall and remove any moisture or dust that could otherwise prevent it from sticking properly. This method is particularly effective when working with repositionable matt vinyl options.