What to look for in a Heat Press: The most important piece of equipment in your shop

Posted on April 16, 2009 by bobrobinson

When talking about heat applied graphics, I would be remiss if I didn’t take some time to discuss what to look for in a heat press.  Whether you are thinking about a swing-away press, a draw press or a clam style heat press, here are some things to consider when purchasing a heat transfer press.

The Big Three 

 The “trinity” of heat printing or the three main components to manage are Time, Temperature and Pressure.  These components are critical in achieving successful prints each and every time.  So how do you make sure that you are managing these accurately?

Go Digital  

Today’s adhesives on heat applied films and heat transfers are more sophisticated and more application specific than ever before.  Every heat applied transfer has its own “recipe” and the margin for error is much narrower than in the days where 350 degrees and “mashing them on” for 10 seconds was a one-setting-fits-all situation.  You want to make sure that you achieve melting point to liquefy and activate the adhesive without over applying heat.  Too much heat can liquify the adhesive to the point that it can actually absorb entirely into the fabric and not adhere to the transfer.  Without a digital temperature read-out on your heat press, your temperature can vary 10 to 15 degrees.  The length of time or “dwell time” that the press is engaged on the transfer is critical as well.  While time is time and you could use an egg timer or (God forbid) count in your head, having a digital timer incorporated in your heat press is an overlooked convenience.  Even better would be to have one that not only counts down and beeps, but actually opens automatically when the timer hits zero.  That’s not just a lazy man’s feature, but a production tool that allows you to multi-task and not be chained to your heat press waiting for the beep.  I would venture to say that there have been a lot less damaged garments since this innovation has been available.  The last component to be measured is pressure.  Having a digitalmeans of measuring the actual applied pressure takes away all guesswork.  To date, pressure has been very subjective as “medium pressure” is a lot different to a 250 lb man in comparison to an 80 lb woman.  Having a live digital pressure read-out on your heat press can be a big plus.

Size matters

There are typically 3 standard sizes of heat presses (aside from special application presses), 16×20,16×16 (or 15×15) and 11×15.  If you are looking to purchase your first press, I recommend a 16×20.  The reason is that while a large portion of the designs that you want to press will fit on a 16×16, you don’t want to short-change yourself and limit yourself to a cerain size image.  For the price difference, you will never regret going larger to start.  The other benefit of the larger heat press is that it is easier to align designs properly when you see more of the shirt on the press and use the longer side lines of the lower platen as a reference.  Many heat transfer machines have interchangeable lower platens that can help when you have long runs of smaller garments or odd shaped items to heat press.

Heat Press Manufacturer

It pays to buy from a reputable company who will service you well and from a manufacturer who offers a product with a solid warranty, easy to use and good service after the sale.  If you have never heard of them, there’s a good chance that you might want to avoid them.

Heat Press Style

The style of your heat press shouldn’t be a trendy thing, it should take into consideration the type of heat applications you will be doing, who will be the primary operator(s) and also physical space restrictions if any.

There are 3 major styles of heat presses, each has its own beneficial attributes.  The most commonly used heat press is the clam style press.  This one opens and closes like an alligators mouth (or a George Foreman Grill if you will) where it is hinged in the back.  The clam press takes up the least amount of space, is typically the most portable and requires the least number of operator motion to use.  Some people are concerned with burning there knuckles on this one, but I say you will only do it once.  If you are looking to have full access to your shirt and design, then you should consider the swing-away heat press.  This one pivots the heating element totally away from the work area allowing for placement of individual letters or rhinestones etc.  The pneumatic or “air” version of the swinger is my personal favorite press as it offers so many veratile benefits (more on that one in another blog).  The swing away press does take up the most space in your work area, over twice as much as the clam style press, so consider that as you decide.  Rounding out the offerings is the Draw Press.  Much like the swinger, it allows for full access to your design area, but instead of swinging the heat away, it draws the lower platen toward you like a drawer.  If you are placing individual rhinestones, this might not be the best choice as you are now moving the garment and all, but for normal heat transfers and heat applied films, it’s a nice alternative.

I could continue to ramble on, but hopefully, this covers the key elements to consider when choosing a heat press.  If you have any questions that I didn’t cover here just drop me a line or give me a call.

 

peace

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High Volume with a Heat Press

Posted on April 13, 2009 by bobrobinson

How To Maximize Efficiency For

High-Volume Heat Seal Production

as published in January issue of Printwear magazine

 

 

Learn what it takes to tackle the largest of heat press jobs efficiently and profitably.

 

By Bob Robinson

 

Many decorators associate heat seal production with mom-and-pop shops doing lettering and numbers on a dozen sweat shirts or letterman’s jackets for local schools. However, while that’s certainly an effective, profitable way to use heat seal technology, the process is definitely capable of more — a lot more. In fact, for the right kinds of jobs, and with the right processes in place, decorators can whip out some seriously large jobs using heat seal applications.

 

Why Bother?

On a single heat seal machine, a decorator can realistically do about one garment per minute, on average. That’s a rough estimate, of course, given the assortment of variables that can affect production output. So why use heat seal technology for high-volume jobs? There are a number of reasons.

 

One of the chief advantages of using transfers is that you don’t produce the job until it’s ordered. You don’t commit a garment to a design until the point of sale because no pre-production is required, meaning that transfers allow you to tackle huge orders without making an equally large financial commitment until the order is made.

 

Further, some jobs are simply not well-suited for screen printing, such as those involving substrates like nylon — something that you can easily tackle using heat seal applications. Sometimes a heat transfer is the only practical way to decorate an item because of its unusual shape or what it’s made out of. If the job requires any type of mass personalization such as names, etc. heat-applied applications may be the only way to go.

 

 

Get Equipped

Tackling high-volume heat seal jobs could mean running anywhere from a dozen- to three-dozen heat seal presses. You’ll want presses that automatically open, as they minimize the time the operator needs to stand at the press. While these few seconds might not amount to much on small orders involving only one or two presses, they add up to lots of time — and lots of associated labor costs — with larger jobs.

 

An air swinger type press (a swinger style press that automatically opens) on a stand is generally more comfortable for operators because it requires only depressing 2 side buttons to engage the press (no handle to reach for). A clam press, which is generally placed on a counter or table, may require a stepstool for shorter employees. Air presses are roughly $3,000 for a 16” x 20” unit. You can find them as large as 22” x 22”, but a 16” x 20” is likely to handle the vast majority of jobs you’ll be doing.

 

Unlike clam shells, swinger presses accommodate a wider variety of substrates because of the ability to thread the garment onto the platen, which is not possible on a clam shell. In other words, if you are loading a T-shirt, you can pull the shirt over the air swinger platen in much the same way as you load a shirt onto a screen printing press. The bottom half of the shirt hangs loose. On a clam shell, you generally have to put a Teflon pillow inside the T-shirt as both top and bottom layer of the shirt have to be positioned on the platen and heat pressed.

 

However, clamshells have their place for certain applications that are extremely repetitive and simple. Some high-volume shops have rows of air swingers and a few clam shells to handle small, simple jobs. Both types of presses also can be fitted with custom platens that are designed to do a specific job such as umbrellas, tote bag pockets, or sneakers. This also can speed up production.

 

Suppliers offer plenty of other options besides clam shells and swingers, including cap presses, oversize presses, and other specialty equipment. Basically, if there’s a substrate out there being decorated with any type of volume, you can bet there’s a heat press that can handle it. Whether or not you need one or more of these out-of-the-ordinary presses depends, obviously, on the types of jobs you’re getting.

 

Get Organized

High-volume production requires an efficient shop layout. Remember, your goal is to shave off critical seconds from the production process, so you want to reduce or eliminate the number and length of steps required to produce each garment. While it’s true that heat press applications are generally fairly straightforward, they still require the same type of organization and oversight as any production environment. A production manager should evaluate each job prior to production to determine its most efficient path.

 

Upon receipt, garments from the supplier should be laid out flat and verified by size and color. Hang a decorated, finished sample shirt in full view of the press for operators to use as a reference, indicating critical measurements. For instance, if a logo must be placed a half-inch away from a seam, demonstrate this on the garment — and on the work order, of course — so that everyone is applying the logo in the same place.

 

Once they’ve been verified, the easiest way to sort and stage the garments for decoration is usually by size and color. Often, you’ll have different transfers for different garment sizes and colors, so sorting this way allows you group similar transfers. For instance, one press operator might be doing all of the smaller transfers for youth sizes, while another does transfers on the 3XL garments. If a shirt has transfers in multiple locations, generally, each transfer should be applied by a single person, and then moved down the assembly line for another person to apply a transfer in the second location, and so on.

 

By the way, it’s a good idea to assign someone other than a press operator to the garment sorting/staging process. This way, you’re ensured of having at least two sets of eyes — the sorter and the press operator — verifying the garment size and color prior to decoration.

 

At this point, the garments are ready for the focal point of production — the operators at the heat presses. Because they’re the main point of decoration, the presses all should have everything required for the operator within arm’s reach. Put a small table to the right of the press (for right-handed operators). Blank garments should be within reaching distance behind the operator, and you’ll need an area to stack the finished garments.

 

As garments are completed, they can be stacked into a cart, such as a Rubber Maid plastic cart. Stack them flat, so that you can inspect the garments through the cart; if they’re rolled up or folded, you miss the opportunity to examine them later. The cart then makes its way through the rest of the production process — from decoration to quality control/folding and shipping.

 

Get Efficient

Your production manager should constantly evaluate the efficiency of jobs, especially for those taking place across the course of several days. It may be that a particular application requires an additional person, for instance. He also may discover that press operators don’t have everything they need at their fingertips, and they’re taking steps away from their work area wasting critical time.

 

In evaluating efficiency, you also must keep in mind the accuracy and quality of a job, of course. It doesn’t do much good to produce at record speed a job that isn’t going to meet the quality standards of you and your customer. That said, press operators should be trained to check for quality right at the press; this is absolutely the best time to catch a mistake. For instance, they should make sure they’re not scratching the plastisol ink transfers or applying transfers crookedly.

 

You’ll also want someone to spot check garments as they’re packed into boxes for shipping, just as an extra quality control step. Checking every single garment at this stage of production would be practically impossible — which, again, is why it’s so important that the press operator critically evaluates everything he produces.

 

Another way to boost efficiency: Keep production logs for every job detailing all of the particulars: dwell time, run size, production per press operator, and so on. Give each operator a simple log that he uses to track how many garments he did per hour or day. You can then bundle these logs together by job and enter the information into a spreadsheet.

 

Over time, you’ll see what it costs your shop to produce a particular type of job, and you evaluate pricing accordingly. You also can better evaluate your shop’s capacity, and you can establish production benchmarks, in terms of how long it generally takes to produce a job, and you can then strive to meet or exceed those standards.

 

This type of detailed documentation may seem unnecessary for what is a relatively straightforward production process. However, such information is critical for the kind of production efficiency and analysis required to successfully tackle high-volume jobs with heat seal applications. By doing your jobs efficiently and intelligently, you’re ensuring that they’re done profitably.

 

Bio

Bob Robinson is a sales and education representative for Imprintables Warehouse, a full line distributor of heat-applied products including equipment and supplies for cutters and digital print and cut technology, heat press machines, digital transfers, and software. His production experience ranges from small custom orders to high volume garment decorating for the past 12 years. For more information, contact Bob at bob@imprintableswarehouse.com or visit the Web site at www.imprintableswarehouse.com.

 

You can see the digital version of this article as published in the January issue of Printwear at:

 

http://emags.nbm.com/pw/20090101/full/pageflip.html

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Designing Your Production Space for the VersaCAMM

Posted on April 7, 2009 by bobrobinson

Maximizing Workflow

With A CAD Cutter or Printer/Cutter

as published in Hot Graphics 2009 Spring Edition

 

A well-planned production area and streamlined workflow can help get the most out of your equipment.

 

By Bob Robinson

 

Adding new equipment to your shop is an exciting time: It represents new business opportunities, the potential for new customers, and, hopefully, new levels of profitability. All of this is especially true with cutters and printer/cutters, which present enormous decorating options.

 

If you’re adding a cutter or printer/cutter to your shop, get ready for an influx of new types of orders — and get your shop ready to handle those orders by laying out your new equipment in the most efficient manner possible. But before moving any new equipment into your shop, you’ll need to give some serious thought as to how you’ll physically arrange it — and doing that requires understanding how the work actually flows through the decorating process.

 

Go With the Flow

With cutters, everything begins at the computer, where the design is created and prepared. That said, you’ll want to keep the computer as close as possible to the cutter. On some units, such as the Roland VersaCAMM, the controls are on the right; by placing the computer on the right side of the unit, near the controls, you can easily reach over to the cutter’s controls while staying seated at the computer.

 

If you’re using a printer/cutter, you’ll first print the design onto the material; if your unit is a conventional cutter, then you’ll obviously skip this step. After the unit cuts the design, you’re ready to weed away the excess material. Next, you’ll mask the design by laying onto it a piece of clear, adhesive material — it looks like a huge piece of Scotch tape. Bend the adhesive material in the middle slightly so it hits the design first, which will help you avoid air bubbles. You’ll run a squeegee across the adhesive material to push out the air, first lightly, then a second time with additional pressure. 

 

Leave the protective backing on the weeded and masked designs so that you can stack them up and take them in bulk to your heat press area. This is a more efficient process than actually applying each design as you weed and mask it, because you’re grouping together similar tasks rather than jumping back and forth between tasks. Use a cart to move those pieces over to the heat press area. Then, after the garments are decorated with the designs, they can be folded, stacked back into the cart, and rolled over to the packing/shipping area.

 

The Work Area

With a firm understanding of the workflow process for your cutter, you can lay out equipment in the most efficient way possible. Ideally, you’ll have a 10’ x 10’ area for your cutter, giving you ample room to operate the unit comfortably. Decorators with spacious production areas might be tempted to allocate even more room for their cutter, but that would be a mistake. A compact work area translates into efficiency by putting within arm’s reach the tools and supplies you need to stay productive. You’ll also want a table for weeding and masking; a standard four- to six-foot table should provide plenty of room.

 

Designate your cutter area as strictly for creating the designs and handle the application of those designs using the heat press in another part of your shop. In all likelihood, you’re already doing other types of heat transfer work, so there’s no need to move the heat press into your cutter area.

By the way, if you’re just now purchasing a heat press, consider a 16” x 20” unit so that you’re able to handle a larger variety of sizes. Also, consider an Air Swinger press, a versatile piece of equipment that allows for custom platens to handle odd shapes, like bags, gloves and hats.

 

Other equipment and supplies you’ll need include the media itself (the material that you’re cutting), as well as squeegees, masking material, weeding tools, and scissors. Consider bin storage below the table to hold these supplies.

 

For a one- or two-person work area, consider arranging equipment and supplies into a “U” shape. At the base the “U” is the cutter, with a six-foot table to the right, and the computer on the far left-hand side of that table, next to the cutter. The rest of the table is used for the weeding and masking. Your configuration may be different depending on your particular needs, but the goal is to keep everyone working with no waiting and a minimum amount of wasted energy in-between tasks. Employees shouldn’t have to walk anywhere to reach their weeding tools or to find masking material, for instance; it all must be within arm’s reach.

 

More Tips for Maximum Efficiency

Of course, getting the most out of your equipment is about more than just putting it in the right place; it’s also about using it intelligently. For instance, when the design is at the unit being cut (or print and cut, in the case of units like the VersaCAMM), the most efficient thing for you to do is to busy yourself with another task, like weeding and masking designs you’ve cut previously, rather than watching the unit and waiting for it to finish.

 

Other tips for increasing productivity:

 

Be specific. Make sure every job has an order sheet with all necessary information, including due date, file name, image size and location, type of garment, and so on.

 

Chunk it up. Break up sheets on rolls into manageable chunks. For instance, if you have a uniform order for 200 pieces, you might send only 50 at a time to the cutter. This allows you to check quality on the run midway instead of at the end, and you can busy yourself with weeding and masking while the next batch is at the cutter.

 

Keep it manageable. The length of your groupings of designs will vary depending on the design itself, but avoid sending designs that total more than 4 feet at once to the cutter. Keeping chunks at this length will prevent them from getting so long that they become unwieldy. You can tell the cutter to cut the pieces automatically so that you don’t have to do it by hand, using scissors. The pieces then either drop onto the floor or into a catch basket.

 

Be smart about weeding. Whether or not you should weed designs one at a time or in groups depends on the design itself. If you’re doing large ones, you’ll probably want to weed one at a time instead of fighting with a large piece of material with multiple designs. If you’re doing 24 tiny ones, you could weed them all at once. You’ll develop a feel for the right approach, knowing what’s manageable and what’s too cumbersome.

 

Try a different order. For some designs — especially smaller ones — you might find that it’s actually easier to weed after you’ve done the masking rather than beforehand. That’s because much of the weeding will happen as a result of the masking, leaving you with less weeding to do manually. Any time you’re doing a new order, try this reverse method first; if it doesn’t work, go back to the conventional sequence of weeding first, then masking.

 

Gang up. Printer/cutters like the VersaCAMM use white media so there’s no need to change out material for different colors. However, you will need to change it based on the type of fabric you’re decorating; for instance, you’ll use one type of material for polyester and another for nylon. For maximum efficiency, group jobs that use the same type of material so that you’re not repeatedly changing it out on the cutter.

 

Likewise, gang up smaller jobs so that you’re cutting numerous designs at once, not just one or two. Be careful, though, as you don’t want to inadvertently put the wrong design on the wrong substrate — a relatively easy mistake to make when you’re batching together designs from different orders.

 

Think big. For large runs, you may want to use a cold laminator, a piece of equipment familiar to those in the sign industry. This unit puts an extra protective clear layer on top of film. For decorating purposes, you would weed the designs then run them through the laminator with the mask on top. This route is faster for large runs than using a squeegee, and it can provide better, more even coverage, thanks to its consistent pressure.

 

Like most aspects of your business, creating the ideal system is often a matter of trial and error, so try these suggestions and see what works best for you. With just a little experimentation and some careful evaluation, you can create a workflow that gets the most efficiency and profitability out of your cutter.

 

You can see the digital version of this article as it was published in Hot Graphics Magazine 2009 Spring Edition by clicking the link below:

http://emags.nbm.com/hg/20090101/full/pageflip.html

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Top Eleven Reasons to Own a Vinyl Cutter

Posted on February 6, 2009 by bobrobinson

Anybody can give you the “top ten”, but I thought I would lay out the top eleven reasons to own a vinyl cutter especially if you are an apparel decorator.

1.  Versatility – There are so many new markets that you can expand into including:  Sports Teams, Signs,  Decals, Applique and contour cutting Full Color Custom Transfers.

2.  Value- Your initial investment is one of the smallest in this industry, yet the return on your investment is one of the quickest.  In short, the cutter pays for itself in no time.

3.  Durability- With today’s heat applied films, you can rest assured that your designs will look good pretty much for the life of the garment.  That has been defined as 50+ washings in this industry.

4.  Short Runs – The perfect way to do low quantity runs that would not be cost effective with screen printing is to cut and heat press cad-cut films.  Many screen printers themselves are using the cutter so as not to turn away smaller quantity jobs.

5.  Quick Turn – We live in an “on-demand” society where many customers just gotta have it now.  Being able to handle last minute additions and other crises that customers have will go a long way in establishing customer loyalty to you.

6.  Price Point Options – While embroidery is perceived to be the high end means of embellishment, not everyone can afford to pay the price of a 50,000 stitch design, but they still would like to have their image displayed on themselves.  Cad-cut films will allow you to offer affordable alternatives to them.

7.  Special Effects- No other means of decorating can give you the ability to provide such a vast array of effects in print.  There are many levels of “bling” available with glitters, metallics and foils as well as reflectives, flock and even glow-in-the-dark materials.

8.  Customization- Many customers can grow tired of stock, off the rack styles of personalization.  While it can be a little more affordable to buy pre-cut letters and numbers, the ability to customize fonts and styles will go along way to make your customer feel that you have created something special for them…not to mention the fact that you can custom size designs to fit any size or style of garment.

9.  Independence/Control – Let’s face it, most of us have a little bit (or a lot in my case) of control freak in us.  Nobody wants to be at the mercy of someone else when it comes to servicing our customers.  We need the assurance that the job is going to be done on time and done correctly.  The only way that I know to have that peace of mind is to do it myself.

10.  Profitability- As gratifying and emotionally rewarding as this type of business is, we are mainly in this business to make money.  Because of the versatility of this equipment, the  expanded markets you can reach and the relatively small investment, the vinyl cutter brings unmatched profitability to your business almost immediately and continues to bring in revenue for years.  I don’t think that I have ever heard a person say that they made a mistake in buying a vinyl cutter.

11.  Chicks dig guys with vinyl cutters - need I say more…?

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What’s this all about?

Posted on January 4, 2009 by bobrobinson

The garment decoration industry, although it can be a very lucrative way to make a living or supplement an income, it also can be confusing and somewhat frustrating at times.  The reason is that there really aren’t many resources available to get the information you need to do it right.  My goal here is to offer that help. 

I don’t claim to have all the answers and I doubt that I change your life, but I hope to occasionally throw out tips and tricks as well as general guidance that may help speed up your success in apparel/accessory embellishment.  That being said, I welcome your comments  and direct questions, so drop me an email and if I feel I am qualified, I’ll give you my two cents.

peace

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