wallpaper

Wallpapers in the change of the time

Already in the antiquity people have decorated, draped, painted or painted with patterns the own four walls, embellished with mosaics and frescoes and often refined with gold.

Wall carpets and leather wallpapers

In the Middle Ages, lords, kings and high dignitaries found the naked walls from quarrystone probably also cold and uncomfortable. They were covered with colorful, wonderfully patterned wall carpets, also called "Turkish wallpapers". Patterns in the baroque style, Persian patterns like they are also to be found on carpets even today, graphic representations, hunting scenes and tournament fights testify from the high art of the weavers. The production was very costly and time consuming. The multi-faceting and the impressive colour creation are still to be admired in traditional originals.
These valuable gobelins were taken to the travels from castle to castle. The first leather wallpapers, embossed and partly gold-plated brought the Moors with to Spain and from there to Italy and France. In the 14th century the first wall layers from fabric in brilliant colours with the popular mythological and religious scenes came from Italy.

Far Eastern wallpapers

Exotic valuables were the Chinese wallpapers which were painted by hand on silk or parchment. This hand-painted wallpapers came to Europe in the 16th century. They were exceptionally expensive and were reserved to the high nobility a long time. The Chinese wallpapers, called the chinoiserie, encloses three big ranges of topics in the design. The most important type is the floral wallpaper with blossoming trees, insects and birds.
Sceneries from mountains, rivers and lakes, from rocks and shrubs were also shown. The third big range of topics shows the everyday life of the people.

The surface printing, one of the oldest printing methods

From the hand painting up to the present rotation printing the wallpaper production has developed step by step. The first paper wallpapers existed of sheets which were printed from hand or were stencilled.
The hand model printing was an almost "technical" process of the wallpaper production which is inconceivable from today's view. In a model of hardwood the single motives with brass stripes were inserted in the wood and were filled with felt. For every colour a model was required, also every colour course or every colour shading required a model. Several printing processes were necessary, because every model had to be raised like a stamp side by side on the paper road. It was begun again at the beginning of the paper road with each new colour. The so made wallpapers were very labour-intensive. As a rule up to 100 models were required for a pattern wallpaper, for a big mural even up to 1000 piece.
With the industrial production of surface printing wallpapers these were affordable also for the average consumer. The surface printing dominated the wallpaper production over 120years. On gigantic drums could be printed up to 24 colours at the same time. A printing roller was still required for every colour here. It is printed wet in wet without interdrying in the surface printing. Through the slight flow into one another of the colours originates the typical print image. Because the number of the printing cylinders is limited, so artistically valuable printings like murals could not be produced with this procedure.

New technologies to produce faster

In the 60th and in the beginning of the 70s it was taken back to printing methods, the flexo printing, the silk screen printing, the gravure and on the embossment.

The flexo printing is exact like the surface printing a high-printing procedure, indeed, here the impresson cylinders are made of plastic, the motives are milled superior. It is printed with low pasty, water-based or solvent-based special colours which were later equipped also rub-resistent.

The gravure printing is the counterpart of the flexo printing, here print the deepened, tiny ink cells which are filled with colour. The excessive colour is wiped off with a squeegee and the colour from the ink cells is brought under pressure on the paper road or the non-woven road. The gravure colour is very runny, it can be produced on the base of water or of solvents. The gravure allows very fine and above all sharply separated conversion of the patterns. The interdrying also permits colour courses and the printing of several colours about one another.

In the screen printing it is printed with a perforated round sieve. The pasty colour or the vinyl is given in the cylinder and is pressed through the holes of the sieve and is brought thus on the surface of the printing bearer. The stencils are engraved directly from the pattern with laser. According to dry temperature and the composition of the paste this can be foamed or be held level. The so-called PVC foam wallpapers are produced almost exclusively in the screen printing.

We owe the flat vinyl wallpapers or satin wallpapers to the hot embossment plants. In the rapport or wildly embossed, the lustre and the light breaking which are originate through counter-rotating hatchings are founded in the technology of the engraving.

The digital printing is relatively young, it is still in the children's shoes. A group of printing methods is called digital printing with those the print image will transfer directly from computer in the printing machine. Latex inks are used which guarantee an excellent image quality. In the wallpapers branch the digital printing is used above all for photo wallpapers, murals, wall tattoos and borders. Sometimes wallpapers with a motive desired by the customers are also made. The advantages of the digital printing is the possibility to produce small batch sizes and the impressive image quality.

New materials let create very high-quality wallpapers

Completely on effects it is put with a huge number of new used materials. Technologists and designers in the wallpaper branch know no borders, they are incredibly creative.
With velour, the velvet-like soft material elegant designs are to be found in many collections in charming optics and haptics.
Metal foils with or without oxidation spots provide for the viewer to have a valuable, almost antique piece of wallpaper on the wall.
In crystals, glass beads, rhinestones or granulate materials can be hardly renounced in high-level value assortments, however, they are also an impressive material with the effects of the light breaking and the noble lustre.
Halogen foils are only used very modest, because they are still expensive. The effect of the iridescing colours and the discreet shine will soon be "in" and above all affordable with progressive development.
Bamboo, cork, veneer wood, banana bark, sandstone, Japan grass and certainly the nature has to offer even more for our walls. These wallpapers emit a special charm, nevertheless, they bring the feeling of warmth in the space.
Fabric wallpaper, high-grade and elegant is popular as never before. Silk, jacquard, warps printed or completely plain, the fabric wallpaper is there again.
Also the qualities and the use qualities have significantly followed. Thus wonderful wallpapers have become from wall carpets.