How To Use A Round Heat Press Platen

The Hotronix Interchangeable Platen System is a series of 15 interchangeable platens compatible with all Hotronix heat presses. They've been designed with heat printing versatility in mind so that your heat press purchase is a purchase for life (not just for Christmas). As your heat printing business grows and you look into introducing new products and different garments to your business offering, Hotronix ensures that you can do that without having to shell out for a new heat press over and over again. 

The interchangeable platen range clips in and out of each Hotronix heat press. Look for the lever under the right-hand side of your lower platen, pull it out towards you, and you'll be able to slip your platen on or off. 

The platen range enables you to print a multitude of unique and high-value products such as shoes and caps. 

But today we're exploring the use of the 18cm round platen

Compatible with any size Hotronix heat press

You might be thinking, you just told me it's the Hotronix platen range, why are you telling me it's compatible? 

Because the Hotronix heat press range comes in many sizes. We offer heat presses with upper platens in sizes: 28x38cm, 40x40cm and 40x50cm. Unfortunately, if a heat press platen size is larger than your heat press heated platen size, when you bring your press down for a fuse, you risk parts of your garment not being under the heated platen. So while a large platen on a small heat press wouldn't be wholly incompatible, it does render their uses limited. Find out more about the Hotronix heat press range here.

How To Use The 18cm Round Heat Press Platen

You might be thinking, when would I ever need a round platen instead of a square one? The use of this platen more than anything else, comes down to personal preference.

It's great for logos and left chest designs that are bigger than the 10x10cm platen. It will isolate circle spaces on the front of tshirts and hoodies in the same way that a 10x10cm platen would. It's very likely to fit in the top half of a hoodie while still excluding the collar and the pocket from the platen. But it would likely be a little large to isolate a new label area easily. 

One super exciting use for this particular heat press platen is that it will isolate the circular end of most duffel or gym bags. As you can see, the stitching and the seams around the end of the bag, just fall off the side of the platen which is fantastic because bag stitching is super chunky and heavy duty. If you were to keep those obstructions on your platen while fusing, there would be absolutely no way your decoration could ever achieve the desired time, temperature or pressure.

This particular use would be a brilliant extra stream of revenue for your business because you can begin to offer custom branded bags to offices, workforces, sports clubs and schools.. the list goes on. Grab yourself a BagBase blank holdall for £9-12, pop a 50p heat transfer on there and you've got a premium product that you could be selling for £30 a piece. The profit margin is brilliant.

We have also used this platen to print the top of large bucket hats too. There are lots of really unique and profitable print placements you could introduce with this interchangeable platen.

Check out the other 14 platens in the Hotronix Interchangeable Platen range below: