Heat Press

For anyone who is considering starting up a small business that entails transferring designs onto materials like T shirts or mouse pads, there are several pieces of equipment that will make the work flow of such a business far quicker and more efficient. One of these is a vinyl cutter. This make life far easier but is not absolutely necessary. It is possibly to get by without one – just barely. Another piece of equipment is a heat press. A heat press is an absolutely necessity as there is no other way of embedding the transfer inks into the cloth in such a way that it will stay there through repeated washing, drying and general wearing. There are many different types of products that can be produced in this way including heat press t shirts, mouse pads, tote bags, dresses, pants and shirts. For someone who is creative and who has learnt how to make money on eBay, or has other business nous, this is an excellent way to create an income.

Lets take an example of embedding a design on a T Shirt. Way before getting to the point of needing the heat press, you need a design to use. This can be created from a photo, your own design, a friend’s design or even a design you’ve bought. Wherever your design comes from, you’ll need to get it in a file format, usually either .jpg or .gif and import it onto your computer. From there you print out the design onto heat transfer paper using an inkjet printer. It is also possible to use laser printers but inkjet printing for this purpose is more common. It is also possible to buy the heat press transfers pre printed from suppliers, but this will add to your costs and since owning a computer and printer is so common these days or buying a new one is relatively inexpensive, it’s reasonable to assume most people would prefer that choice.

When printing onto ink jet heat press paper, it is wise to use special inks that can be used only with Epson inkjet printers. Epson uses a different technology called piezo that they created and patented. Other inkjet printers use thermal technology. The piezo technology allows the use of special inks that when embedded in a cloth material, becomes permanently washable and colourfast.

Once it has been printed onto the heat transfer paper there is still one more step before we use the heat press. This is to cut the design out of the paper. This can be done manually with scissors for the boundary and a craft knife to remove any unwanted fiddly bits within the boundary of the design. Alternatively, a vinyl cutter will make life far easier being able to cut the design out within one to two seconds in preparation for the heat press.

Next is the heat press machine step. Many people wonder why a heat press is absolutely necessary and why a hand iron is not satisfactory. Transferring the inks found on the transfer paper over to the T-shirt cloth and then embedding those inks into the cloth requires a combination of high temperature and high pressure. A heat press can achieve temperatures of around 200˚ C (400˚ F) and pressure of around 60psi. A hand iron cannot come near this combination and so is useless in creating a permanent transfer ink design on a T-shirt. Using heat press machines is as simple as placing the t shirt on the flat heat press bed and positioning the transfer in the desired location. The cover is then dropped down, locked into position with the t shirt sandwiched inside and set to operate for around ten to fifteen seconds depending on the materials used. The heat press is. Once complete, the t shirt is removed and allowed to cool. The transfer paper is then peeled off leaving the finished design on the t shirt.

For those wanting to buy a heat transfer press, cheap heat presses start at five hundred dollars and go up as far as ten thousand dollars for a pneumatically operated heat transfer machine. The lower priced heat transfer presses are perfect to use as a t shirt heat press. But if you want to get a cheaper one, it is possible to buy a used heat press for even less.