Modern heat presses like this one from Stahls’ are well built and durable, and feature a variety of user-friendly features.

It would be easy to make the mistake of thinking that heat presses are one-dimensional, specialized equipment. After all, they go up, they go down to apply heat and pressure for a designated amount of time, and then they go right back up again. And then down again, up again, and so on for days, weeks, months, years and even decades. Sounds limited and monotonous, doesn’t it?

However, the product receiving all of that timed heat and pressure might one day be tile, the next a T-shirt, then a plaque, a plate and on and on. Anything with a flat surface is a candidate, and that’s just with clamshell and swing-away heat presses. Throw in the versatility of mug presses, hat presses, Cactus wraps and convection ovens—all available in a variety of sizes—and all of a sudden, the variety of products personalized by heat transfer is virtually limitless.

Those infinite possibilities got us thinking, wondering what purposes awards shops put their presses to work for. A&E called a few to ask, and this is what they had to say.

Margi Swett, Vermont Trophy & Engraving, Colchester, Vermont
Vermont Trophy & Engraving has been around since 1959, putting them in position to witness a great deal of development in this category.

“We have a George Knight heat press from 1976,” explains Swett. “I think the Xpres system was the first sublimation system, and we still have the heat press from that. I just cannot get the sucker to die so we can get a new one. It just keeps going and going. It’s phenomenal. I’ve even talked to the company about it, and they say those things are meant to last. It’s just an absolute workhorse.”

It is a clamshell style press, says Swett, 15 1/2” x 15 1/2”. In addition to their 34-year-old press, Vermont Trophy & Engraving has a mug press, also from George Knight, and a Cactus and Convection Oven from Marck & Associates that handles their wrap presses. Swett says the shop is using Cactus wraps more and more often.

“One of our best customers is the Vermont National Guard, and they are largely deployed right now. There was a lot of activity before they left, and as they’re coming home, we’re personalizing a lot of tankards for them. Those you really have to do in the convection oven,” says Swett.

Once upon a time, the shop had a ball-cap press as well, but Swett said they stopped using it years ago. The decision to stop using the ball-cap press went along with a decision to stop using sublimation for apparel in general. Swett says that she and her husband, Steve, made a decision to offer only high-end products, and unfortunately, their sublimation apparel did not make the cut. Specialty embroiderers and screen printers are located nearby, so it wasn’t a difficult decision to make.
 

With sublimation apparel out of the way, Vermont Trophy & Engraving was able to focus their sublimation efforts on a variety of other products, including plaques, plates and mugs. When sublimating new products, Swett says she enjoys watching David Gross’s how-to videos from Condé Systems, and one of them gave her the idea to add dog bowls to the shop’s lineup.

“We do a lot of work with the Vermont canine police, and they’re always looking for stuff for their dogs. Dogs aren’t interested in wearing medals for their bravery; they’d rather have a bowl. So, now we can put the dog’s picture on their bowl and engrave their name into it,” says Swett.

Applying more than one personalization process to a single award or gift has developed into a niche category for Vermont Trophy & Engraving. One of the products they are best known for are plaques that incorporate full-color images to complement the piece’s engraving.

“A growing part of our business is sublimated photographs that become a component of an engraved plaque. We did one for a police department that sent a lovely photograph of police gear with an American flag in the background. We put the photo onto a plaque along with an engraved name and badge, and they gave it to a retiring member of the force,” says Swett.

Once people see those awards, they catch on and turn into more orders, says Swett. She adds that much of the credit for the success of those awards goes to her daughter, who has begun working for the company since graduating from college.

John Scollo, Awards & Trophy Shop, Danville, Virginia
The Awards & Trophy Shop utilizes an Image Maker, a 294 Swinger, a George Knight model. They have had the press for seven years, and it still works great for them. Before purchasing their ImageMaker, the shop used a Stahls’ press.

“We had a small Stahls’ press, but it was old and getting to be unreliable, so we replaced it with the Geo Knight press,” says Scollo. He adds, “We use the press for sublimation, and we use it for lettering for sashes.”

Though Scollo says the Awards & Trophy Shop doesn’t use their press “a ton,” it is put to work on a regular basis. In fact, Scollo says he is considering the addition of a new mug press to increase his product selection.

With the magic combination of heat, pressure, and time, this heat press from Insta Graphic Systems can be used to personalize a variety of flat items.

Jaime Haynes, Custom Awards & Embroidery, Des Moines, Iowa
Custom Awards & Embroidery uses an Insta Graphics Heat Press. It is a swing-away model powered by an air compressor. They primarily use the press for plaque plates and T-shirts. They have had the press for 13 years.

“It has worked well and been durable for us,” says Haynes. “We just use the one press, but it handles a heavy-duty workload daily. It’s a profitable personalization process for us.”

Sarah Abramson, Halls Executive Gifts & Awards, Santa Rosa, California
Halls Executive Gifts & Awards uses a pneumatic Nova Chrome swing-away heat press. They brought the press, their only one, into the shop in 2003. Abramson says the 10”x13” swing-away press is put to work several times a week.

“We mainly use it for plaques and name badges. We do offer personalized apparel, but those are mostly screen printed or embroidered. We have tried to use sublimation for T-shirts, but that involves a lot of trial and error, and a lot of wasted product,” says Abramson.

She says the name badges they make are for their corporate clients to wear while attending shows, fairs and other events.

“We use it to make our own name badges, too, which we almost never wear,” laughs Abramson.

For the time being, Halls Executive Gifts & Awards has no plans to purchase another press. “The Nova Chrome really takes care of all our needs for now,” says Abramson. “It can actually pump out a lot of product very quickly all by itself.”

Steve Hall, Stateline Sporting Goods, Athens, Alabama
Both a Stahls’ heat press and an Insta Graphics heat press are used at Stateline Sporting Goods, a shop that has offered heat-transfer products since their business began. They are both manual, swing-away heat presses.

“We have had a heat press of some sort for 31 years. Our current presses are not that old; the Stahls’ is about seven years old, and the Insta Graphics press is 10 years old. But heat transfer has always been a solid part of our business, and we mostly use them for numbering and lettering athletic apparel. We also offer screen printing, embroidery and laser engraving, and heat transfer is a nice complement to those other processes,” says Hall.

It is a great complement to the rest of the store’s business, for, as their name implies, Stateline Sporting Goods sells a lot of sporting goods. It provides them an opportunity to provide a school or sports team’s athletic equipment, trophies and uniforms. With sublimation, Hall says he is able to put graphics as well as numbering and lettering on uniforms.

Looking down the road, Hall thinks that sublimated plaques are going to be great products. “I can really see that side of our business growing quite a bit.”

Press On
Heat presses are not new to the industry. They’ve been around longer than many of the computerized engraving, laser engraving, and sublimation systems we know today. Yet new developments for heat transfer continue to be introduced in the form of new products to personalize and better materials (paper, ink) to perform that personalization. And, as this article indicates, heat transfer can be used to complement other forms of personalization in ways that awards shops are just beginning to experiment with.

Take a look at the heat-transfer portion of your business. Are your equipment and materials up to date? Does your company utilize its complementary nature? If not, you are missing profitable opportunities, and in this economy, no company can afford to leave any money on the table. Make necessary adjustments, and take this opportunity to press on!