Heat Press Question

[q582gmzhi]

Hi,

New member on the forum, I am a small business and been running a number of years printing signs etc and wanted to explore the garment side and have a few questions regarding 'branded' heat presses.

I already have a Roland Versacamm (CMYK - No White - Eco-Sol Max) and a Canon Imageprograf (Lucia Inks) within the business.

From my research and basic understanding, I believe that I could use the Roland with the Eco-Sol Max inks to print onto a type of white heat transfer vinyl then apply these prints to garments using a heat press. I don't believe the Canon Lucia inks would work for this.

I have researched a number of heat presses, both with and without pressure indicators (Pressmech A3 - no pressure indicator vs Hotronix - some models with pressure indicators)

My main area of concern or confusion is, how important is a pressure indicator to the job of applying the prints onto garments and why do some heat presses have pressure indicators and some not.

Hope that makes sense.

Thanks in advance

Daz....

[Justin]

Hi Daz, welcome to the forum

We've been using heat presses since....well let's just say a long time. Never felt the need for a pressure indicator tbh.

You get a feel for what's low, medium and high pressure and it's not always that critical with most applications.

We currently use the Pressmech for our smaller stuff and they are superb. My 'personal' opinion of other presses is that they are somewhat over engineered to look pretty. This just means costs escalate dramatically whilst quality doesn't necessarily follow.

I'm aware of a couple of users that have A3 presses costing £2k plus and they literally fell apart during use, screws falling out etc. Sure, they have fancy screens, user settings and really do look the part but I'll stick with my Pressmech thanks Tried and tested, nothing fancy, parts easy to get and change (not that we've ever had to)

If budget is tight you could try and find a used machine. Older Adkins were built in UK (now built in China) The older ones are a beige colour top and bottom, later machines have a grey upper platen. Still good machines but not as good as the older presses.

[pw66]

Pressmech, the cheapest option is from Nova Chrome (unbranded but the same machine).

No need for a pressure setting, just something else to go wrong. You can guage your own pressure before you press. If you can close and open the press with two fingers then it is light pressure, if you need to use your hand it is medium pressure. High pressure is when you need to put your shoulder into it.....

[q582gmzhi]

Thank for the responses, I did think is the pressure indicator just a sales gimmick and could you actually work fine without one.

I had already had a look at the Nova Chrome one and thought is it was made by Pressmech.

Thanks again

[socialgiraffe]

I have had Adkins since starting out and can not fault them, I have one that was made in China and a rough calculation is that it has done over a million presses with only one time needing a replacement part costing £45.00 So do not rule out Adkins, even the Chinese ones.

Be careful purchasing older, secondhand machines. They may be cheap, but always check to see if you can get replacement parts. Adkins used to be brilliant at this but not sure how good it is now that they are owned by Xpres.

New machines at the cheaper end but still relaible are MEM and MICROTEC both have some pretty decent machines which are pretty relaible, particularly their pneumatic versions and the higher end of their range


On another note, the only garment film worth using on the Roland is Siser (Graftyp is the main dealer in the UK). Its very very durable and some of their vinyls withstand a 60 degree was.

[pw66]

Plus one for the Siser vinyl for print and cut. Their Hi 5 Print is my go to printable t-shirt vinyl.

Microtec do make some very good printers at the mid market price point. They also make a lot of the better ODM 'own label' presses sold.