About Us
FotoCeramic is a trading name of Xerital Limited, established in England in 2004 (GB Reg. No. 05152934). The company is based in Stoke on Trent and is involved in the supply and manufacture of products and materials for the digital printing of ceramic transfers. The company provides ceramic toner, decal papers and finished transfers for use in the decoration and marking of ceramic articles.
Guides
Ceramic Transfers | Application & Firing
Our ceramic transfers have a lacquer coat covering the whole sheet, so you need to cut around the individual prints to separate them out. To release the decal, the transfers have to be soaked in water. The decal will curl up initially and when it uncurls can be slid off the backing paper and applied to the surface to be decorated. Don’t rush this process as you could stretch the decal. Use a rubber squeegee to remove excess water trapped between the transfer and the ceramic and allow to dry thoroughly before firing.
FotoCeramic transfers work best on glazed ceramics or fused glass. An in-glaze transfers system is available which can be fired to the glaze softening temperature allowing the toners to sink into the glaze.
It is also possible to use them on bisque (unglazed) ware by applying a diluted PVA solution to stick the transfer down prior to firing. This can be problematic though, and we can give no assurance that the transfers will work on any particular bisque ware. Alternatively a proprietary adhesive called EMSOLRed (from Vibrantz Ltd) is available on request for the same purpose.
Recommended firing temperatures
We suggest a firing rate of 100°C per hour to 300°C and then 300°C per hour to the peak temperature:
| Toner type | Peak temperature °C | Soak time (minutes) |
| Standard set | 780 to 860 | 20 to 30 |
| Unleaded set | 820 to 880 | 20 to 30 |
| Red toner set | 780 to 800 | 1 to 10 |
| Fused glass | 660 to 720 | 1 to 10 |
| Enamel ware | 720 to 780 | 1 to 10 |
| In-glaze set | 1060 to 1180 | 20 to 30 |
The above firing temperatures serve only as a guide and perfectly acceptable results can be achieved with a fast cycle up the maximum and no soak. If you’re new to using digital ceramic decals we advise a test firing to check all is well. If the colours are weak after firing, then you’ve probably fired it too high. Yellow and black are the most stable colours and will remain after the cyan, red, and magenta have faded.
Ceramic Toner
Our standard ceramic toner set consists of a cyan, magenta, yellow and black set used for the onglaze decoration of ceramics with a maximum firing temperature of around 860°C.
An alternative unleaded toner set is also available and is compatible with the standard set enabling colour toners from the two sets to be mixed without causing any firing issues.
In the red toner set the standard magenta and yellow toner is replaced with selenium red and cadmium yellow colours to enable a better red colour than is possible with the standard set. These colours are not as stable as the standard range and the colours will begin to fade when fired above 800°C.
A high temperature red toner set is available but these toners are not fluxed and need to be used with a fluxed covercoat or fired to the glaze softening point in order to fuse them to the ceramics. The colours are stable to 1200°C and can be used for inglaze and bisque transfer applications.
A firing guide for all sets is available on the ceramic transfer guide page.
Decal Papers
A range of decal papers is available for ceramic tranfers printing:
Standard Waterslide Decal is a 170gsm paper for digital printing of ceramics. The toners will fuse to the paper during the printing process but normally need a Thick paper setting in order to adhere properly. On Ricoh printer we recommend a Thick 3 or Thick 4 paper setting. The paper needs to be overlaquered after printing to create a decal which can be tranferred from the paper. This over layer normally referred to as a covercoat can be screenprinted using a wet varnish or alternatively we can provide a lamination paper on which the laquer has been preprinted.
Lamination Paper is available in 2 forms: standard unfluxed and fluxed. In order to fuse to the printed transfer the paper must be passed through a laminator with the lacquer layer in contact with the printed surface. We recommend a Fellowes Proteus or GBC 3500 laminator operating at a temperature of 130°C and the lowest (1) speed setting. The fluxed laminate will provide a glossier finish after firing but can leave a visible ouline around the printed area, whereas the standard unfluxed version will burn away but the transfers so produced can have a more satin finish particularly on harder glazes.
Precoated Decal Paper has a lacquer layer already applied to the paper to eliminate the need for over lacquering. During the firing process this lacquer burns off through the toner layer and in some situations can cause disruption to the print. We advise clients to run their own tests to verify that the product is suitable for their application.