01. What is a heat press? A heat press is a machine that presses a transfer onto an imprintable substrate. The transfer is permanently embedded into the product, using high temperature and heavy pressure from the heat press. 02. Can I use a regular iron instead? Heat presses are recommended in achieving professional and satisfying results simply because home hand irons can not get even near the temperatures required for a reliable transfer. Standard transfers require anywhere from 375 degrees to 425 degrees F and demand serious force in pressing often from 40-80psi. These temperatures and pressures are not possible with hand held irons. 03.What are the different types of presses? We are offering four different presses. a. XtremePress Mug Heatpress – for use with coated mugs and coated sports bottles and other cylindrical shaped materials b. XtremePress Cap Heatpress – for use in caps and other concave surfaced materials c. XtremePress Flatbed Heatpress – for use with T-shirts, mousepads, coasters, puzzles and other flat surfaced materials d. XtremePress PlatePress - for use with coated plates 04. What are the typical life cycles of the heat transfer press heating elements? It depends on how often the machine is used. It can last from 3 to 5 years with proper normal use of 8 hours a day 5 days a week. 05. Are there any special considerations as to where the machine should be installed in our production plant? We recommend that the machine not be located right against a wall. Room is needed around the machine for servicing and removing of the element cage. Four or five feet off a wall should be good. You will also want to have room in front of the machine for loading and in back for unloading. The press should also be located where there are noticeable drafts which can affect its proper operation. No special venting is required. 06. What items can be heat pressed? The most common items are: T-shirts, mousepads, coasters, puzzles, caps, mugs, sports bottles ceramic plates, ceramic tiles, tote bags,and other fabrics and materials. 07. What are the components of a transfer? A transfer consists of carrier papers and inks. The inks are first transferred in an inactive state to a transfer paper using a refilled compatible Epson Printer. Then , using a heat transfer press, the printed image is heat transferred to the final substrate. When heated to a certain temperature and pressed with a significant amount of pressure for a certain amount of time, the transfer inks are passed over to the imprintable materials. 08. Can I buy any mug or material for dye sublimation? The important factor to consider is to be sure that the material has the proper polyester synthetic coating, as well as a UV coating if protection from the sun and other rays is an issue. For this reason, it is best to get the materials pre-coated. 09. How does dye sublimation work? Dye sublimation process works by applying an image onto an item which has a polymer content or coating, by using heat & pressure (with a heat press) to change solid particles of dye into gas, this bonds with the polymers in the fabric/garment, or in the coating on the surface of the item, and changes back into a solid, and thus the image is dyed onto the substrate. This may sound complicated, but it’s really very simple: You use an Epson desktop inkjet printer with dye sublimation inks, to print your image into sublimation paper then use a heat press to apply the image onto the product. 10. What are some of the usage of dye sublimation and polyester? Sublimation is very popular with sports wear manufacturers – many printed uniforms (cycle wear, soccer, basketball and lacross) on the market today are done via sublimation. Unlike screen printing, where the ink lays on top of the garment, the sublimation process produces permanent images that will not crack or fade. Also, sublimation infuses the image into the thread of the fabric so that it does not affect the breathability of the garment. Most athletes prefer sublimated jerseys versus screen printed jerseys. Dye sublimation is also cost efficient and very popular for short-run customization of fabrics. Special logos, pictures and designs can easily be created or scanned into the computer. Transfer paper can be generated and custom prints finish in a matter of minutes. 11. Can I use sublimation inks on darker substrates / materials? Sublimation inks generally do not transfer well to colored materials. Sublimation inks use dye to permeate the material and typically transfer better to white colored materials. 12. Will sublimation work on cotton surfaces? The sublimation inks are designed to bond to any polymer coated material, and will not bond to cotton surfaces. 13. Can I sublimate on blended fabric with polyester and cotton? How much ppolyester is required? We are often asked this question. Generally speaking, the higher the percentage the polyester in the fabric the better the sublimation results. At minimum, we recommend a blend of 60% polyester or in other words, the majority of the fabric should include polyester. 14. What support can I expect? Real time product support including: telephone / web / fax based technical and usage support. Application tips and training on machine usage and maintenance. Product limited warranty. Full customer support and service. 15. What are the different ink types for heat press, their difference and use? There are two inks used – pigment and dye sublimation inks. Transfers can be heat pressed onto fabrics using pigment inks. Pigment inks are adhered and embedded to the surface of the material. For substrates with hard surfaces like mugs, coated bottles, mousepads, coasters, puzzles, ceramics and polyester type cloths require sublimation inks. Sublimation inks permeate the coating of the material. Please note that pigment and dye sublimation inks use different paper types.. 16. What factors do I consider in preparing substrates? An obvious, but sometimes overlooked tip is to make sure your substrate is clean and damage free – check for any nicks or cuts before each heat transfer. Sometimes the surface of your substrate may have a protective coating – remember to remove any coating. It’s generally a good idea to add a bleed to your images / artwork before printing. A bleed can be created by enlarging the image background so that it is approximately 1/8” larger than your substrate. Depending on your image type, it may also be useful to employ a gradient fade when enlarging your image. Ideally your original image size should equal the print size. Resizing a bitmap image in a graphics program like photoshop results in a loss of image quality since the graphics program must add additional pixels to the image. On the other hand, vector images are resolution independent and can be resized without any loss of image quality. Unfortunately vector image are not suitable for photo realistic images.