Advantage and Disadvantages of a Heat Press Machine

The heat press machine that prints by pressure and temperature through two plates. It allows the users to control the pressure, temperature, and duration of the printing process. The process comes very convenient for garments that require specific heating and printing settings.

Usually, the upper plate provides the necessary amount of heat to imprint the design to garments. Both the plates provide enough pressure to print any design evenly. It requires 40 to 80 psi of pressure and around 400^oF to sublimate designs into fabrics.

You will require vinyl or heat transfer paper and specific ink for this method. The method is ideal for on-demand small batch of printings. Many small t-shirt business individuals prefer using a heat transfer machine for convenience. It doesn’t require huge space to set up, operating the machine is relatively easy.

Heat press printing gained popularity in the textile industry due to the ability to print full-color designs and images on garments. It takes only 2 to 3 minutes or less to print each item. The duration varies depending on the design and garment.

Advantages of Using Heat Press Machine

• Requires minimal technical skills to operate the machine.
• The machine takes limited space; you can keep it in one corner of the room — no need to arrange a specific space for setting up the machine.
• Compared to a screen printing machine, this one is less messy. It also ensures zero ink spills on t-shirts as you bring the design to the studio for printing.
• Heat press machine is able to print high-quality, complex, and images of many colors with decent image resolutions.
• For small businesses, it’s affordable and cost-friendly. You can use it to print a low quantity of garments.
• The machine allows you to print on a wide variety of fabrics such as cotton, satin, synthetic, and spandex.
• You can also print on various materials such as tiles, mugs, mousepads, umbrellas, and more.
• Works great at pressing photographic materials.
• Calender heat presses are affordable.

Disadvantages of Using Heat Press Machine

• Not appropriate for bulk printing.
• Print tends to fade away due to continuous washing
• Not good at printing dark t-shirts as it only suits on bright t-shirts.
• The prints cannot be ironed.
• Time-consuming for printing large numbers of t-shirts.
• Laying multiple colors feel bulky and heavy on the garments.