A heat press allows you to work on a large variety of products that require heat to set or fix them permanently to a product. The most common uses for a heat press are heat transfer vinyls (HTV), which are created using a vinyl cutter such as a Silhouette Cameo, Brother Scan and Cut, Cricut, Roland and many others.

A heat press can also be used to apply printable heat transfer vinyls, which are usually produced on either an eco-solvent based printer, such as a Roland BN-20, Mimaki, Mumutoh or others.

There are also latex printers and UV printers available that are capable of printing onto printable heat transfer papers.

A heat press can apply inkjet transfer papers, such as Neenah Jet Pro Softstretch or Jet Opaque brands.

Why not use an iron?

Almost all laser transfer papers require a heat press to apply them, as they require higher heat than an iron can produce. These can include the Neenah Ez-Print light-wear paper or Laser 1 opaque.

A heat press is the only machine that can apply sublimation transfers to garments, sublimation blanks such as mouse pads, key-rings, mugs, tumblers and more.

A heat press can even apply pre-printed plastisol transfers to garments, as again these aren’t able to be applied with an iron due to the types of inks and glues used.

Other uses for a heat press can include off setting DTG and screen printing inks to set them to a product.

How do I choose a heat press?

Heat presses come in various shapes and size:

• Small portable A4 sized heat presses, such as the Hobby Press and Hobby Press Pro
• Larger heat presses like the 16 x 20 Galaxy 20D Swing
• Specialist mug presses like the Galaxy mug press pro
• Hat presses, like the Galaxy Hat Press
• Interchangeable heat presses and so many more!

There are many types of heat presses as well as brands available on the market, with personal preference and budget ultimately helping you make the decision which heat press you want to invest in. At Picture Perfect Products we sell and support the Stockman and Galaxy ranges of heat presses, which we will deliver directly to you.