Heat Press Introduction
What is a heat press?
A heat press is a machine that can transfer a design onto t-shirts, caps, mugs, and more. As the name of the machine suggests, it uses heat and pressure to apply the design onto a substrate. Ricoma’s signature heat presses allow you to set the time and temperature using a built-in LCD touchscreen panel or with an easy-to-use control panel on Ricoma’s iKonix line of machines. The pressure can be adjusted with a pressure adjustment knob on the top of the machine.
Heat presses are must-have items for any business that specializes in custom apparel and promotional products. Heat presses are used together with different transfer materials to create beautiful custom apparel and products. For example, you can use a heat press with digitally printed heat transfer paper, heat transfer vinyl, sublimation prints, embroidered patches, and much more!
Brands & Types

Brands & Types
Ricoma offers five main styles of heat presses: flat, cap, mug, plate, and a 4-in-1 multi-function heat press. Having this kind of variety is excellent for those wanting to start printing on a variety of products.
In addition to the styles of heat presses, we also offer two brands of heat presses: Ricoma and iKonix. Both brands have a variety of heat presses to choose from, but there are a few key differences. iKonix brand heat presses are more of a standard heat press and are more budget-friendly. Ricoma heat presses offer auto-open functionality and have more advanced touch screen features.
What to look for
If you’re thinking of buying a heat press for your business or for personal use, here are seven of the most important things to consider when shopping around for a new machine:
1. Even Heat Distribution
You want to make sure the heat press can provide even heat distribution across the platen. This will help to avoid cold spots, which can lead to misapplied transfers. Every Ricoma and iKonix heat press is capable of providing an adequate amount of heat across their platens, ensuring even heat distribution and a perfect application no matter which substrate you’re transferring onto.
2. Temperature Control
A heat press should allow you to control the temperature to ensure you’re using the right amount of heat for a job. Too little heat, and the adhesives needed to hold the graphic may not be activated. Too much heat, and the adhesives of a transfer may be pushed out from the edges of the image, leading to undesired results. Ricoma heat presses allow you to easily set the temperature by utilizing its built-in digital touch screen or the temperature control panel found on the iKonix heat presses. All heat presses even come equipped with a timer control to ensure you don’t underheat or overheat the transfer.
3. Even Pressure
Make sure the heat press allows you to adjust the pressure with ease in order to get an even application across the transfer. Every heat press from Ricoma and iKonix has an adjustable pressure knob that allows you to manually set the right amount of pressure depending on the thickness of the substrate. Also, their powerful clamp mechanism ensures complete end-to-end pressure and heating with minimal effort.
4. Safe & Effortless Garment Positioning
No one wants to burn their arms or hands trying to slide garments on and off a heat press, let alone damage the garments. So, a heat press should give you the ability to easily place and remove any substrate on its platen. Ricoma and iKonix heat presses are all designed with your safety in mind. Not only are they safe to use, but they are also manufactured with the user in mind, meaning you can position your substrates with almost no effort. Ricoma brand flat heat presses also offer a slide-out platen that allows you to place your garment outside of the heating element and then slide the garment back in place.
5. Easy to Open & Close
It’s no fun working with a heat press that requires a little elbow grease to get it to open and close. And the more you use it, the more relevant this feature becomes. You don’t have to worry about that with Ricoma heat presses as they have a convenient auto-open feature, which not only adds to the safety but also allows you to save time on high-volume printing tasks.
With all these factors in mind, let’s go over one of the most important features of all Ricoma and iKonix heat presses—the display panel.
The Display Panel
Every Ricoma and iKonix heat press either has a built-in digital display panel or an LCD display panel, which allows you to make adjustments with just a few taps for more accurate results. The iKonix display panel allows you to adjust the timer and temperature, whereas Ricoma’s advanced 5-inch digital touch screen offers even more functionalities. For example, with the panel, you can use the parameter settings option to preset temperatures and times for specific garments or materials for future projects. This means you can simply load your garment and start your project with the touch of a button, saving you time.
The Display Panel

You can also watch your project’s progress with the panel’s built-in timer and alter the timer length at any time in case of any last-minute changes.
Another great aspect of the digital display panel is the production statistics feature, which shows you the number of garments you’re able to produce in a fixed amount of time. This feature makes quoting a project for a customer more precise and gives you more control over your production timeline.
And lastly, the digital touchscreen allows you to access the settings menu in order to set your language, date, and time, change from Fahrenheit to Celsius, and view and log production statistics.