Education

Why are you heat pressing? Is it the best way to be headed with your business? These questions are important to you and they are important to us. There are times when printing out your own ink-jet transfers and then pressing them is not the most efficient way to handle a job. Here you can find out why and gain insight into other aspects of the digital apparel decoration industry.

Evolution of Apparel Decoration:  The commercial decoration of apparel began with screen printing.   Through this process, ink is pressed through tiny holes in a mesh screen onto the garment below, and then cured with the aid of a garment dryer.  In order to do many colors, a user must use multiple screens and many times, multiple stages of drying.

Heat Transfer Process:  The final step of the screen printing process is curing the imageing ink on the garment with, you guessed it, Heat.  The heat press bypasses the many screening stages and curing stages, putting all the work into one step.  The pressing and curing of the ink all take place at the same time. All of the inks are already prepared in a form that will be pressed once.

Heat Transfer Equipment:  The basic concept of a heat press is the use of heat and pressure over a period of time to apply decoration to a garment or other substrate.  The heat press is the core component, providing the user with adequate heat and adequate pressure to facilitate the transfer. Then, the user needs to have a choice substrate to decorate, and transfers of the desired type for the substrate.

Plastisol Transfers:  A plastisol transfer is the same ink as used in screen printing printed onto a special paper.  The inks are printed onto the paper in reverse order and mirrored, so that when you press a plastisol transfer, the screen printed inks are left as the design is intended.  The paper backing is pulled away after the press, and only the inks stay behind on the substrate, as if it had gone through a multiple step, screen printing process.  In order to make ones own plastisol transfers, a screen printing setup would be needed, however, there are many companies who produce plastisol transfers in both pre-print and custom runs, so no user would ever HAVE to make ones own.

Inkjet Transfers:  Inkjet transfers require a special paper and an inkjet printer.  Most inkjet printers can be used, but quality of inks will determine the quality of the transfer, even if using the best of transfer papers.  Some inkjet transfers use a coating on the paper as a white underbase, and will have to be cut out or they will leave a very obtrusive while square over the area of the page.  Others use coatings that are not as poignant, and can be used (typically on white shirts) straight from the printer.  One of the primary benefits of this kind of transfer is that you can use every color of the rainbow in a single printout that takes a matter of seconds.

Laser Transfers:  Using the same concept of an inkjet transfer, laser transfers work on the same principle but use a laser printer.  Using toner instead of ink, some are multi-step papers in order to apply an underbase or adhesive to the toner before pressing it.  With this two step process, only the area where toner has been printed, will there be any transferability, so there will be no "bounding box" of the page.  Once again, all the colors of the rainbow can be pressed from a single sheet.

Sublimation Transfers:  Sublimation:  Sublimation is the process where a solid is converted to a gas skipping the liquid phase that would normally be in between those two states of matter, through the use of high temperature.  In the case of apparel decoration, the dry ink on the paper is turned into a gas and then infused into the substrate.

Sublimation transfers require both a special paper and a special ink, so only certain printers will be able to accommodate the creation of these type of transfers.  With sublimation, the ink is actually infused into the substrate, so there will be little if any feel at all, and you can, once again use all the colors of the rainbow in a single press.  One limitation of sublimation, is that there are only certain kinds of coated materials that will support the process, such as ceramic mugs, tiles or polyester garments.

Vinyl Cutout Transfers:  Vinyl transfers are essentially a transfer material of a single color on a transparent backing.  The material is cut and pressed, and then the carrier sheet removed, leaving only the cut lettering or design in the single color.  The advantage of vinyl transfers is that they can be used on any color garment from the whitest of whites to the blackest of blacks, but each transfer is only a single color...so multi-color designs would have to be pressed more than once, and lined up manually, or lined up and layered on a separate backing and then pressed all at once.

Rhinestone Transfers:  Rhinestone transfers are small metallic "stones" laid out in a design on a transfer sheet.  Like Vinyl transfers, there is little limitation to they type of garment that can be used.  Most people will not be able to make their own, as the machines that place the rhinestones on the transfer are very expensive.  There are many companies that will produce rhinestone transfers both stock and custom.