# Safety Vest Heat transfer



## georgeorwell (Aug 3, 2008)

Hi All 


I have been printing safety vest for over a year now. I have burned a few and I was wondering if I should just heat transfer them I have about 20 clients I work with and they are always ordering about 45 days apart 40-100 vest on each order. I have never printed my own transfers before. I have a 4 color 4 station press is it hard to print them or should I order 1000 transfers from a dealer. What is the avg price of a 2 color design if I order 500-1000 of each or should I print my own


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## wormil (Jan 7, 2008)

Plastisol transfers are very easy to print. The only tricky part is finding the right speed setting for your dryer so that the transfers are dry to the touch but not cured, this usually take some experimentation. 

Here is a link to F&M's pricing:
Spot | Custom Screen Printed Heat Transfers
If the transfers are small, you can place two or more per sheet and save money.

If the vests are made of nylon it is probably better to print the transfers yourself or just keep direct printing them. Some companies will print transfers for nylon if you send them a sample of the substrate.


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## studog79 (Jul 13, 2006)

Why not screen print them. We screen print 1000's each month. If the design is a repeat then look to saving the screen. Possibly and some hardener to the emulsion and make it permenant. Depends on costs and how ofter you prin the design.


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## Flint54 (Oct 16, 2008)

We also do safety vests, @ 65-75k per year. Not being a position due to space limitations, govt mandates on chemicals we do not screen print. We do 10+ styles for 20+ customers. All ours with lettering/logos are now done via plastisol heat transfers. This saves us 1/2 - 2/3 the cost of having the screen printing done for us. One of the biggest advantages of heat transfers is that there is no setup time nor cleanup time compared to screen printing. We have our designs in storage and keep a quantity of each on hand with a low limit. With the quick turn around time on repeat orders we always have on hand what we require.


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## studog79 (Jul 13, 2006)

If you are doig that many your labor costs must be big. If you heat press the logos it would take at least 15 seconds a piece and that would be 240 per hour tops. We screen print over 500 per hour. Yes we have 2 minute setup on multiple colors. If we only have a few I would think heat press would work but not when you do volume.


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## Flint54 (Oct 16, 2008)

We also make the vests, start to finish to shipping. Labor cost is low but if you could imagine the headache that we would have dealing with chemicals. I supervise a plant within a prison and the federal mandates/state procedures require that anything hazardous/dangerous needs to be weighed on checkout, weighed on checking in and the multiple logs filled out as to what/where/why the amount used for everything.
Heat Transfers for us are the way to go.


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## studog79 (Jul 13, 2006)

Flint54 said:


> We also make the vests, start to finish to shipping. Labor cost is low but if you could imagine the headache that we would have dealing with chemicals. I supervise a plant within a prison and the federal mandates/state procedures require that anything hazardous/dangerous needs to be weighed on checkout, weighed on checking in and the multiple logs filled out as to what/where/why the amount used for everything.
> Heat Transfers for us are the way to go.


Are you telling me that we now compete against the US Govt. or State Govt. in our business. I just love our Govt.

A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government. 
*Thomas Jefferson*


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## wormil (Jan 7, 2008)

Unfortunately this happens all the time. With my last print shop there was a state sponsored facility a few miles away that offered the same services but at or below cost. The upside was that they took twice as long. I was always honest with my customers, "They don't have to make a profit because the state pays them regardless. But I do have to make a profit so that I can pay my employees and keep the doors open." Honestly I don't think we lost much business to them. While it does suck, I can understand the need to keep the prisoners busy. The last thing you want are prisons full of people with nothing to do.


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## Flint54 (Oct 16, 2008)

For everyone's benefit check out your home state's Department of Correction. I believe that every state has a division within it's DOC that manufactures many products. From vehicle tags, highway signs, inmate clothing, office products, janitorial products, textile goods (Heat Transfers, Embroidery etc.) food products (fresh/canned etc.) upholstery, woodworking and several others.

I can only state that ours can only sell products to Tax Supported Agencies and State Employees (certain authorized products). This means that they cannot sell to the public. NC has been doing this since 1900 to relieve the burden on the taxpayer. Our division is self supporting, uses no tax dollars and returns any profits to the state. We provide viable work and training for the inmate population and have many Apprenticeship Programs in various trades that inmates can take part in. These programs are monitored and authorized by the State Department of Labor. Link to article about Indiana ( IBJ.com - Indianapolis Business Journal - Story Detail )Most inmates within any state are not under a life + sentence and will be returning back into society, the last thing that society wants is to have a non-productive individual being dumped back onto the street and the same is true within the prison. Idle inmates are the worst thing you can imagine, idleness is a recipe for major problems! Additionally, if inmates are kept busy you can manage prisons with less staff and that is a major savings to the tax paying public.

Some links: Virginia Correctional Enterprises Site - Welcome To OPI - Michigan State Industries - History of Michigan Prison Industries - State of California, Prison Industry Authority - Maryland Correctional Enterprises - Correction Enterprises - Texas Correctional Industries ( TCI ) - Oregon Corrections Enterprises

Anyway, I'm not trying to convert anyone just trying to enlighten a little on the subject.


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## dgarcia (Sep 25, 2014)

If you're heat transferring on safety vests what temp and pressure setting are you using to not burn the material. We are new to this business and have clients who have asked us about safety vest printing. Can small volume orders use vinyl heat transfers and look just as nice?

Any help would be great.


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