A heat press is a machine engineered to imprint a design or graphic on a substrate, such as a t-shirt, with the application of heat and pressure for a preset time period. While heat presses are often used to apply designs to fabrics, specially designed presses can also be used to imprint designs on mugs, plates, jigsaw puzzles, caps, and other products. Both manual and automatic heat presses are widely available. Most heat presses currently on the market use an aluminum upper-heating element with a heat rod cast into the aluminum or a heating wire attached to the element. For high-volume operations involving the continuous imprinting of items, automatic shuttle and dual platen transfer presses are used. The substrates to be imprinted are continuously loaded onto the lower platen and shuttled under the heat platen, which then applies the necessary heat and pressure.
Here are some guides on the types and features of heat presses.
Types Of Heat Press:
Clam Type Heat press
- Clam shaped heat press typically used for normal heat pressing.
- Minimal space is needed
- Most advisable for personalized shop that offers unique designs and print and cut finished products, since the back portion of the plate of the Clam shell heat press will be first laid onto the press bed for 1-3 secs that sometimes might affect the finished products
Swing Type Heat press
- Side swing heat press mostly applicable in heat pressing designs with numbers, texts, or any detailed cut outs since swing type heat press evenly press through the press bed.
- May need a larger space, double the space of the heat press since the user will swing out the press platen.
- Swing away heat press also prevents flash burns since user has no direct contact with heat.
Drawer Type Heat press
- This heat press has a built in drawer that allows the user to draw out the press bed in order to properly lay the sublimation blanks.
- Avoid direct heat contact.
Pneumatic heat press
- An automatic heat press powered by air compressor.
- User will need a space for both the heat press machine and compressor.
- Best recommended for those in textile companies that produce high volumes of finished products.
Magnetic heat press
- This type of heat press has a magnetic feature that auto opens after pressing.
- Can be used for multitasking and with low manpower businesses.
6 in 1 Heat Press Machine
Combo Heat Press machine is designed to print on mugs, t-shirts, caps, plates, etc., with its different elements which are Platen Press, Curved Cap Press, 11oz Mug press and circled press for the plate. It is a fully assembled machine with one platen press and the other extra platen press is included in the packaging. It is a replaceable and multi-function heat press machine that enables you to work in such different items.
OTHER TYPE OF HEAT PRESS MACHINE
- MUG HEAT PRESS MACHINE
- LOGO HEAT PRESS MACHINE
- MINI HEAT PRESS MACHINE
- PLATE HEAT PRESS MACHINE
- PEN HEAT PRESS MACHINE
- CAP HEAT PRESS MACHINE
Heat press has a big role in digital printing. In order to produce high quality finished products, users should always pay attention to proper timing, temperature, and pressure that is being applied to the sublimation blanks during production. Users should also be wary of the type of heat press they should invest into, as there are several types of heat presses that are fit depending on the size and type of business.