heat press; band-aid or tool?

[Shanarchy]

I sometimes use the heat press to help fix/salvage bad prints. Usually hoodies with a rough print in the winter. The heat press has worked a lot of magic beyond it's regular call of duty to save me hind quarters on many of occasion.

Today I printed a run of 50 tees with a large halftoned skeleton. I was very happy with the way they came out. I heat pressed one for the heck of it. It really improved the print. Smoother half tone blends, smoother print, nicer feel.

Do any shops actually use the heat press for a tool to improve print quality even though it obviously adds time to the job? Or is this a band-aid that better technique should be improving?

Don't read this the wrong way, our print quality is not bad. But we're also not going to be winning awards anytime soon.

[Frog]

I sometimes use the heat press to help fix/salvage bad prints. Usually hoodies with a rough print in the winter. The heat press has worked a lot of magic beyond it's regular call of duty to save me hind quarters on many of occasion.

Today I printed a run of 50 tees with a large halftoned skeleton. I was very happy with the way they came out. I heat pressed one for the heck of it. It really improved the print. Smoother half tone blends, smoother print, nicer feel.

Do any shops actually use the heat press for a tool to improve print quality even though it obviously adds time to the job? Or is this a band-aid that better technique should be improving?

Don't read this the wrong way, our print quality is not bad. But we're also not going to be winning awards anytime soon.

The problem with using a heat press is that it is an extra time consuming step.
The result however is positive enough that it lead to the use of a roller and a smoothing screen after a flash station. Check out the product from Action Engineering in action (so to speak) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTw9cgAzJdM

[Shanarchy]

I'm planning on investing in this Frog. If it can really do what it says, I think it would be great.

I see the extra time added to a job as a killer. Even this small run of 50 probably took me an extra 30 minutes. Not a big deal for a little guy like me on a dead day, but not a realistic option for most days.  It it did have me wondering if in other countries wear labor is so cheap...

But I'm very excited by the possibilities of the roller.

[JBLUE]

You can make your own. For years before the Action unit was available thats what we did. A screen with non curable reducer and a teflon sheet taped to the bottom of a screen works great. I just got sick of changing out the reducer when it got bogged down with lint. Thats why we went to a roller. It takes an ok print to another level. When your print is already good it makes it that much better.

What it wont do is fix a crappy print that is super rough and really fibrillated. Those problems need to be addressed before the smoothing screen. Over flashing can also counter act the smoothing screen so you still have to watch that. Overall you will not go wrong picking one up. It can only help you take the print to another level.

[mk162]

we love our smoothing screen.  I need a new screen though, after a year the teflon is separating.  Oh well, still better than curable reducer leaking through onto shirts or curing in the screen.

It's worth the money...especially when you get prints in your shop from down the street and yours blow them away.

[mooseman]

We use the heat press, not all the time but most of the time. Yes it takes time and adds expense but like we all know it improves the quality of the print.
Ideally this process should not be required but it only makes sense to incorporate any element that improves the quality of the work. Post print heat pressing, Action's roller, or any other print improving element in the process stream like S mesh, controlling EOM, re-ten frames and so on should be incorporated if it improves product.

We have actually drawn up a plan or two to mount a heat press element in one print head station (Vastex manual V2000 press) which will allow is to post flash press right on the pallet to further smooth and improve our prints especially on hoodies.
At the end of the day my customers don't care if I print with a magic wand or have to jump through flaming hoops to get a good print onto their backs. Screwing things up is EASY, getting things right is much harder and requires sensible application talent , technique and effort.

A happy customer pays the bills.
mooseman

[TCred]

Has anyone tried the ROQ integrated heat press?

http://roqinternational.com/product/accessories/roqpress-iron/

[lrsbranding]

And here I thought I was committing a screen printer sin by heat pressing. I used the heat press to fix crappy prints when I started out but stuck with it because I like the way it makes the print feel. The biggest help to my prints was when I started using a Teflon covered smoothing screen after the first flash.  I'm on a manual press and it was tough finding the flash sweet spot with the ir flash. Now that I use a quartz flash its much easier to get it timed to where it smooths out great.

[mimosatexas]

I heat press occasionally.  It can knock down gloss (with kraft paper) on some inks, smooth super fibrated materials, soften stiff prints, etc.  I only use it on small jobs and only when necessary.

[alan802]

I know people make take this the wrong way but I'm getting too old and lazy to beat around the bush.  I'll concede a few points of the argument in that it's apparent that it CAN help with the "print quality" but you truly don't need those tools to get a world class print.  If you have to use it then go ahead, but I'd be trying to figure out WHY you need it and work towards printing high quality at high production speed.  Just by saying you'll add that much time to the printing of a single shirt tells me you'll do crazy (don't take that the wrong way) things to insure high print quality, and perfecting the print process is actually much more efficient and once you reach a certain quality level you'll find that you really won't be using the other tools.  Even if you're heat pressing for an hour or two per week now you'll feel the benefits by not needing it any longer.   

I've known for years that many shops use the heat press so at times I've taken a print I didn't really like and I've tried heat pressing, and what comes out has never been anything I would have considered a better print than before it went in.  We're not good at using that tool so I wouldn't put too much stock in our results.

[californiadreamin]

I have a Tas Inline Heat press with Automatic Foil Attachment In Stock.
It does the Job!
It is Used In Excellent Cond.
Winston

Check out listing in commercial classified

[Maff]

I try to avoid using the heat press after a print unless it's absolutely necessary.  On some fleece materials that are very loose to begin with and difficult to get the fibers to mat down nicely, I may have to heat press after. But I'd rather try to fix the situation before hand with tighter mesh or higher mesh count or adjusting my print stroke, but I'm all manual so sometimes it's not that easy.

[IntegrityShirts]

Any rough print I've ever had was due to too thick/stiff white ink sometimes compounded by using a 110 screen instead of an S thread 150. Once I switched to a decent flowing white, all roughness went away.  In winter I keep the whites in a heated closet.

[nvenda]

Has anyone tried the ROQ integrated heat press?

http://roqinternational.com/product/accessories/roqpress-iron/

Hi to everyone!!

Answering TCred's question in first person: no, no one has tried it yet.
We are making the oficial launch of the ROQpress Iron at ITMA 2015 in Milan.
Before that we won't ship them .

This is the only novelty for ITMA that we made public. We will be presenting a ton of innovations but we will leave that for the 12th of November to the 19th in Milan
If you happen to be in the show, please stop by booth A 101 in Hall 18. I will be there and will gladly give you a tour of the ROQpress Iron, the ROQfog (presented in FESPA last May, does wonders with water based inks) and, there, ill show you the rest of our surprising goodies

If anyone ever has any question about ROQ, feel free to contact me through post, personal message, whatever is easier.

Keep on ROQing!

Nuno Venda