The production of porcelain decorations of colored areas, ornaments and picture motifs, as far as these are not made by stamp printing or by a ribbon machine, requires the production of the decorations on a decor sheet, which is classically produced by screen printing. Depending on the size of the decor, several decorations can be produced on one printing sheet. This explains the principle in the decal decoration, the smaller or more delicate a decor is and the less colors it has, the cheaper its production.

 

This process of porcelain production is called ceramic screen printing.

 

The process begins with the photo-technical exposure of printing screens. In the past, this was done classically in a darkroom. Today, this work is usually carried out using state-of-the-art digital equipment that can produce the individual color layers on the printing plates directly from the data. In contrast to classical screen printing, e.g. for paper prints, the production of ceramic printing sheets requires special inks, as these have to withstand temperatures of up to 1,200 °C in the decor firing without burning.

 

Depending on the edition of the decoration, hundreds or thousands of such printing sheets are produced. In the case of large print runs, the factories usually have a so-called "decor saw", with which the decorations are then literally sawn out in stacks. If it concerns smaller editions, the individual decors must then be sawn out by hand. Once such a decoration has been printed and cut out, i.e. it is ready to be applied to the porcelain, this piece of paper is technically called a "decal".

 

These decals are then applied by hand to the porcelain in the decal process.