When Does a Sublimation Business Need a Second Heat Press?
Author : Edi Jiang | Published On : 23 Sep 2026
Starting a sublimation business rarely begins with a production line.
More often, there is one sublimation printer, one heat press and a few boxes of blanks. The setup might be in a spare room, garage or small workshop. If orders are still modest, that single press can handle almost everything without causing much trouble.
The situation changes as the business grows.
A few mugs become larger mug orders. T-shirts are added. Then come coasters, photo panels, cushions or other sublimation products. Suddenly, the same heat press is being asked to handle several completely different jobs throughout the day.
That is when a question usually appears:
Do I actually need a second heat press, or do I just need a better workflow?
There is no universal answer. In many cases, improving the workflow should come first. But once pressing becomes the point where orders are regularly waiting, another machine can turn from an unnecessary expense into a sensible production investment.
Look for the bottleneck before buying equipment
A busy sublimation workspace can feel inefficient for several different reasons.
Perhaps artwork is taking too long to prepare. Maybe the printer cannot keep up with demand. Blanks are not being prepared in advance, or finished products are sitting around waiting to be checked and packed.
The heat press may not be the problem at all.
Before buying another machine, spend a few days observing where your time actually goes. Record how long you spend printing, preparing transfers, setting the press, pressing products, checking them and packing orders.
This simple exercise can reveal something that is easy to miss when you are working in the middle of a busy day.
If the press is sitting idle while you prepare artwork or wait for prints, another machine will not solve much.
If the press is running almost continuously while other work queues up behind it, that is a different story.
One heat press can be surprisingly productive
There is a tendency to assume that growing means adding more equipment immediately. It does not.
A single good heat press can support a considerable amount of production when the workflow is organised properly.
Batching is particularly useful.
Instead of pressing one mug, changing settings for a T-shirt, returning to a mug and then switching again for a coaster, group similar products together. Prepare the artwork and transfers in advance, bring the required blanks to the workstation and work through a complete batch before changing the setup.
The difference can be surprisingly noticeable.
It is not only about saving a few seconds each time. Fewer interruptions also make the process easier to control. When the same product is being produced repeatedly, there is less opportunity to forget a temperature, pressure or dwell-time setting.
A tidy workspace helps too. Keep frequently used materials within easy reach and arrange the production area so that the press operator is not constantly walking back and forth.
These changes cost little or nothing.
They are worth doing whether you eventually buy a second heat press or not.
The problem with constant setting changes
Different sublimation products do not necessarily want the same treatment.
A mug, polyester garment and hard substrate can require different combinations of temperature, pressure and pressing time. Even within the same product category, the recommended settings can vary according to the blank and transfer system being used.
Constantly changing between them creates friction in the production process.
Imagine an order containing 30 T-shirts followed by 20 mugs. The T-shirts are already prepared, so the press is running smoothly. Once that batch is finished, you have to change the setup, prepare the mug press attachment or reposition the equipment, check the settings and start again.
The actual change might take only a few minutes.
Do that repeatedly throughout a week, and those minutes become hours.
There is another issue that matters even more: consistency.
When production becomes rushed, it is easier to use the wrong setting or start pressing before checking whether the machine is configured for the product in front of you. The result could be a poorly transferred image, uneven colour, ghosting or another defect that requires the product to be made again.
That failed item has a cost beyond the blank itself.
You have already used ink, paper, electricity and labour. If the order is time-sensitive, you also lose some of your available production capacity.
A second heat press changes the workflow, not just the output
The biggest benefit of a second heat press is not necessarily that you can make twice as many products.
It is the ability to separate jobs.
For example, one machine might handle apparel while another is used for hard substrates. A business producing a lot of mugs could dedicate equipment to that part of the workflow while keeping another press available for garments or flat products.
The exact arrangement depends on what you sell most often.
The principle is simple: reduce unnecessary switching.
Once each machine has a clearer role, production becomes easier to organise. A large T-shirt batch does not have to stop simply because a smaller coaster order has arrived. Likewise, a change in one product line does not automatically interrupt everything else.
Think of the machines as separate production lanes rather than two copies of the same piece of equipment.
That is where a second heat press can make a noticeable difference.
Do not assume a second machine will double production
This is an important reality check.
Adding another heat press only increases capacity if pressing is actually limiting your production.
Suppose your printer takes 40 minutes to produce the transfers required for a particular batch. If the press currently finishes its work in 20 minutes and then waits for the printer, adding another press will not suddenly double your output.
The same applies if packaging is taking longer than pressing.
A second machine cannot fix every bottleneck.
This is why measuring the whole workflow matters. The goal is not to own more equipment. The goal is to remove the constraint that is stopping the business from producing efficiently.
Calculate the cost of waiting
This is where the decision becomes much more practical.
Instead of asking whether a second heat press is expensive, calculate what your current setup is costing you.
Start with lost production time.
Suppose changing between products, checking settings and running occasional test presses takes 25 minutes per working day. Across 22 working days, that is more than nine hours of production time.
Now consider rework.
If inconsistent production causes several products each week to be remade, calculate the material cost and the labour required to produce them again. Do not forget the time spent checking the original order, repacking the replacement and dealing with any resulting delay.
There may also be missed sales.
If you regularly receive larger orders but cannot comfortably fit them into your existing production schedule, your available capacity has a business value.
This gives you a more useful way to think about the investment.
Use payback rather than guesswork
A straightforward calculation can help.
Second heat press cost ÷ additional daily profit = estimated payback period
For example, if a second machine costs £800 and genuinely creates an additional £40 of profit per working day, the basic payback period would be:
£800 ÷ £40 = 20 working days
The important word here is profit.
Do not use an extra £40 of sales revenue unless that is genuinely the additional profit available after the associated costs.
Your estimate should be based on realistic demand. There is little value in calculating the return based on a theoretical production capacity that you are unlikely to use.
It is also worth considering labour time and reduced rework separately. They may not appear as additional sales, but they still have an economic value.
When your product range starts working against you
A second heat press becomes particularly useful when your product range has become diverse enough to create constant interruptions.
A business producing one main product may not benefit much from having two machines. If the same settings are used throughout most of the day, changing between products is not a major issue.
The calculation changes when the production mix becomes more complicated.
A typical day might involve:
- Mugs with one set of requirements
- T-shirts needing another setup
- Coasters and photo panels using different pressing conditions
- Small personalised orders appearing between larger batches
The more frequently you move between these jobs, the more valuable separate production capacity becomes.
This is especially relevant for businesses that have moved beyond occasional custom orders and now have a reasonably steady flow of work.
Watch what happens during your busiest periods
Your average working day is not necessarily the best measure.
A heat press might cope perfectly well during a quiet Tuesday but become a serious bottleneck every Friday or during seasonal peaks.
Look at your busiest periods.
How long are orders waiting to be pressed? Are you extending your working hours just to clear the queue? Do larger orders interfere with smaller ones? Are you turning away work because you cannot confidently meet the required turnaround time?
These are much stronger indicators than simply saying, "I have more orders now."
If the machine only causes a problem occasionally, better scheduling may be enough.
If the same problem appears week after week, you may have reached a genuine capacity limit.
Keep production lanes simple
There is no need to create an elaborate factory-style system in a small sublimation workshop.
A simple division can be enough.
One press could handle garments most of the day, while the second handles mugs and flat products. Alternatively, dedicate one machine to the product category that generates the highest volume, and keep the other flexible for everything else.
The important thing is that the arrangement matches your actual orders.
Do not dedicate a machine to a product simply because it sounds organised. Base the decision on production volume and how often you need to change settings.
A useful production lane is one that removes interruptions.
Consider consistency as part of the return
Production speed is easy to measure.
Consistency is harder to put into a spreadsheet, but it matters.
When the same machine is repeatedly used for the same type of product, it becomes easier to establish a reliable routine. The operator knows which settings are normally used, the materials are prepared in the same way, and the process becomes more predictable.
That can reduce the temptation to make rushed adjustments.
It also makes training easier if another person joins the business. Instead of explaining a constantly changing setup, you can establish clearer processes for each production lane.
This does not guarantee perfect results, of course. Sublimation still depends on the correct blank, artwork, transfer, temperature, pressure and timing.
It simply removes some unnecessary variables from a busy workflow.
A second heat press is not always the next investment
There is another side to the decision that is worth mentioning.
If your printer is already struggling to keep up, buying another press first may simply move the bottleneck somewhere else.
The same applies to a business with limited workspace.
Two machines can improve production, but only if there is enough room to operate them safely and efficiently. If adding another press makes the workspace cramped, the practical benefit may be smaller than expected.
Storage, electrical capacity, ventilation, operator movement, and the time needed to prepare blanks all deserve consideration.
Equipment should fit the workflow rather than forcing the workflow to fit the equipment.
A simple test before you commit
If you are unsure, try measuring your production for two weeks.
Record:
- How many products you complete each day
- How often you change press settings
- How much time those changes take
- How many products require rework
- How long orders wait before pressing
- How much additional work you could realistically accept
- Which product categories cause the most interruptions
You do not need complicated software.
A basic spreadsheet or notebook is enough.
After two weeks, look for patterns rather than isolated bad days. If the same bottleneck keeps appearing and the heat press is consistently at the centre of it, you have much stronger evidence for buying another machine.
So, when does a sublimation business need a second heat press?
There is no magic number of orders that applies to every business.
The better signal is the relationship between demand and available pressing capacity.
A second heat press is worth serious consideration when your existing machine is regularly running close to capacity, product changes are taking noticeable time, orders are waiting to be pressed, and there is enough consistent demand to use the additional capacity.
It becomes an even stronger case when the extra machine allows you to separate product categories, reduce rework and recover productive hours that are currently being lost to constant setup changes.
On the other hand, if the machine spends a large part of the day waiting for transfers, blanks or other stages of production, another press may not solve the real problem.
The decision should come from the numbers, not from the feeling that your workspace has become too busy.
A good sublimation setup is not necessarily the one with the most equipment. It is the one where each part of the process supports the next without unnecessary waiting, switching and rework.
Sometimes that means reorganising the workflow.
Sometimes it means improving another stage of production first.
And when the heat press genuinely becomes the limiting factor, adding a second production lane can be the practical next step.
