When printing on sensitive fabrics, you need to know all your options.
There are so many wonderful fabrics available today but the problem is, many of them are very heat sensitive. It is possible to heat print on heat sensitive fabrics, but you will need to become familiar with what you can print and which types of graphics to use. In mid-December we started shipping our Hotronix Heated Lower Platen, which is the ultimate solution for preventing scorch marks when printing on sensitive fabrics. Since it heats from below, you get excellent application results with no heat press marks. However, if you aren’t able to purchase a Heated Lower Platen at this time, there are still things you can do to prevent scorch marks when printing on performance wear. It starts by using graphics that are designed for application on performance wear, such as Elasti Prints® screen printed transfers from Transfer Express, Stahls’ CAD-CUT ® Premium Plus™ heat transfer vinyl, or Stahls’ CAD-PRINTZ® SuperTEK™ Opaque. You will also want to test the garments before printing, so it is a good idea to have an extra garment on which to do testing. This process may sound time-consuming, but it’s worth it to be able to know what you can offer your customers. This video from StahlsTV walks you through the testing process.