WHAT’S IN A PLATEN?
For most people, the lower platen is the least
of their worries when purchasing
a press.
It is always the upper platen, the one with the
heating mechanisms,
that is the star of the
show. But the bottom platen also plays a role
in making
heat printing more productive.
When choosing a press, you should consider
how the lower platen will perform for you
in the long run. It is a good idea
to know
what the lower platen is made of. How is
it attached to the base?
Are there interchangeable
shapes available? How easy is
it to remove the
lower platen? What shapes
and sizes of lower platens are available? Are
there any other platen accessories available
that can help your investment
last longer?
You will be surprised how many choices
there are and decisions
there are to be made.
It is well worth the extra research though; the
right
lower platen can save you a lot of time,
frustration and, yes, money.
LOWER PLATEN CONSTRUCTION
The lower platen needs to be made of a sturdy
material, robust enough
to withstand high
pressure without bowing or bending. If the
material is
too weak, your transfer might not
adhere to the substrate due to unevenly
distributed pressure and/or cold spots. In
addition, the platen should be
light enough
so it can be easily handled. Aluminium is a
popular raw
material used to make lower
platens. Steel for small platens is also an
option. If you are looking for a heat press that
can travel with you to shows
and sporting
events, make sure you consider the make-up
of the platen
(and heat press) since it will
have an effect on the overall weight. You
don’t
want to have to rely on an army of helpers if
you don’t have to.
-> Download full article
-> Custom Heat Press Platens
STAHLS’ was asked to be on site at this year’s NFL Draft
again and produce a custom Nike jersey for each NFL draft
pick as soon as the name was announced.
It is quite a
process: once the announcement is made, each First Round
Draft Pick’s name is cut using a CAD-CUT® heat transfer material
and heat printed on the respective jersey within 90 seconds.
No, they aren’t informed of picks in advance! We have to wait to
hear the name called out before we can start heat printing.
Of
course we have to do some (a lot of!) organizing before the event.
Weeks of preparation all come together when the lights come on
in Radio City Hall: garments, heat transfer material, accessories,
the Hotronix® heat press … all need to be lined up and ready to go!
Once the jersey is printed, it is handed over to NFL Commissioner
Roger Goodell, who then hands it to the new NFL player.
Jerseys
can be order on the NFL shop website and are available to customization.
-> New York Times Article
2012 RANK: 3
Ted Stahl was recently honored with the number one rank
in the Stitches 2013 Powerlist. Among 75 industry leaders,
Stahl was nominated for influencing the decorating industry,
now and in the future.
Stahl is humbled and thankful for the recognition and explains,
“Without our hard working team, we wouldn’t be able to build
upon many of the great opportunities that came our way. The
award really belongs to everyone at GroupeSTAHL and to all
our loyal customers—without our customers we’re nothing!”
What started more than 81 years ago as a manufacturer
and supplier of die-cut letters and numbers has now grown
into a global organization dedicated to excellence in heat-print
and digital technologies.
Today, Stahls' is the industry's only complete source for heat
printing decorating systems-equipment, materials, full color
graphics, heat transfer vinyl and more.
Sporting goods dealers, screen printers, embroiderers,
promotional product distributors, and heat printing specialists
of all kinds have been calling on Stahls' since 1932 to solve their
apparel personalization challenges.
-> Download Article
-> Ted Stahls' Blog
So you have the perfect heat press, cutter,
and direct-to-garment printer?
You have
studied all there is to know about the many
heat-printing
materials – films, flocks, bling
and other special effect vinyls? You
have
researched digital media? You are eager to
get started and
produce the most amazing
personalised textiles the world has ever
seen
– only to discover this is not as easy as you
thought it would be.
Heat printing actually is still the fastest,
easiest way to decorate just
about any
garment, but as is true with so many things
in life –
P6 = Proper, Prior, Preparation,
Prevents Poor Performance!
A colleague of mine coined this ‘formula’
during a webinar last year
and it sums it up
perfectly. Know what you need to know
before
you start and you’ll save yourself
a lot of headaches, not to mention
hard
earned cash.
Here is a summary of “I wish I would
have known this before” about
the usefulness
of heat printing accessories. You’ll find that
the right
accessory can make your heat
printing job so much more efficient,
and
maybe even a little more fun.
-> Download full article
-> Heat Press Accessories
A few weeks back some of my colleagues
from the marketing department here at
Stahls’ met for a brainstorming session to
get ready for upcoming product launches
and trade shows.
I like these brainstorming sessions a lot.
In these sessions, we share and discuss,
collaborate, enticing one another to look at
things differently and hopefully becoming
better marketers. In the end we become
more efficient in marketing our products
and services.
There is so much information about
marketing available today and I continuously
see it is very hard, if not impossible, to keep
track of all the many available tools which
inspired me to choose my topic today.
Most of us know our businesses well.
We know our industry, we know what we are
offering, and we know our limits. In addition,
we also know who are customers are, how we
want our products to be promoted. But the
question still remains - are we reaching them?
Are our marketing efforts paying off? Is our
ROI (return on investment)
satisfactory or
even exceeding expectations? Do we have all
the tools in place that
can help achieve our
sales goals – efficiently?
-> Download full article
The world is getting smaller. If something happens in one place of the world
the information is distributed – instantaneously – to millions of people with the
push of the send/receive button on your computer. “Going viral” no longer instills
fear but is something that, thanks to the power of social media, is something we
hope will occur when we launch our latest innovational product.
And while Westerners would like to think that their innovations will continue to
be launched in the West, reality shows this is no longer the case. With an
apparent shift in buying power, companies are paying much closer attention
to the East and are deciding to use this part of the world as their launching pad.
Apple, HP (Hewlett-Packard) and GM, to name a few, have very successfully
chosen China as their launching pad for their latest innovations in the most recent past.
What makes product launches successful in Asia and beyond?
What do companies that are not Apple or GM have to watch out for to be able to gain a foothold in the foreign markets?
-> Download full article
A few weeks ago I had to work from home to prevent infecting the entire office with a bad case of the flu. Although I don’t like being housebound due to illness, after two days I came to the realization that there is really no “need” to leave the house anymore: with a simple click we are connected to the outside world.
Work: I am connected to our office, have access to all my drives there via VPN, I can log in to my desk phone, my cell phone is glued to my ears anyway … in short: I can work from home and no one will ever know the difference.
Food: online I find the grocer who offers home-delivery (in my neighborhood there is even an organic home delivery company that has recipes on their www, taking out any guesswork about what’s for dinner), fill your virtual shopping cart, pay at the virtual check-out and a few hours later all gets delivered to your door.
Socializing, dating, living life: TV is showing us one “reality show” after the next so we don’t have to deal with or
create our own. I know more couples who communicate via short text messaging than face-to-face. The singles population
appears to prefer dating in the virtual world rather than meeting someone in the real one. We appear to become semi-immune
to the on-going atrocities occurring in front of our doors and across the globe as we become inundated with information and
images via the various channels available to us.
Could this mean the renaissance of the troglodytes?
-> Download full article
Do You Want Fries With That?The art of the up-sell is set out by Ulrike AndréPublished in: Specialist Printing Worldwide, Issue One, 2012 |
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By asking a simple question at the moment we were trying to satisfy our quench for deep fried pommes de terre, McDonald’s was adding instant sales (profit) and making us believe they were merely being observant and making sure our culinary needs and desires were being met. This begs the question: can we adopt this theory of offering French fries or even increasing the ordered size of fries—to our industry? The simple answer is "mais oui"! Start With the Basics A customer who comes into your shop and inquires about your products and services will often have a pretty good idea about what they need. They might even have a specific t-shirt, hoodie, or other promotional item in mind and they often have the design they want to see applied onto it ready in hand or on a flash drive. Sounds fairly cut and dry you might think. After all, who’s to question a determined and prepared customer? -> Download full article |
Spotlight On YOU!Creating Your Own Runway Designs with Heat PrintingPublished in: Specialist Printing Worldwide, Issue Four, 2011 |
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How up-to-date is your heat press?Ulrike André takes a closer look at the most sought after features in these unitsPublished in: Specialist Printing Worldwide, Issue Three, 2011 |
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