Veteran screen-printer Ampro recently launched an enterprise-scale Heat Applied Graphics division after spending no less than six months building what the company describes as an “uncommon” capability among independent decorators: an in-house professional wash lab, the result of CEO Stephanie Shea’s direct experience with a “shirt in the wild.”
“A friend was wearing a company shirt we’d decorated for him years ago, something I’d seen dozens of times,” Shea says. “But one day the logo was puckering and distorted. It didn’t represent him well. I asked him to send it back.”
What followed was a deep dive into decoration durability, as the Ampro team re-ran the same artwork with different digitizing approaches, backing and construction methods, then tested heat-applied alternatives side-by-side.
“In this case, a heat-applied solution outperformed embroidery because of the design geometry: dense stitching, fine text and a big floating area of negative space,” Shea says. “That’s when we decided we needed wash testing that reflects real life. Life is not a lab.”
Systematic Testing of Apparel Decoration Methods
Rather than scaling heat applied graphics immediately, Ampro went on to invest in an Edro DynaWash system, the same lab-grade equipment used by independent textile testing labs.
“We built our wash testing around the person who wears the garment, not the person who approves the sample,” Shea says. “Real life is big loads, mixed colors, hot cycles and places to be. If it can’t survive that, it’s not ready.”
Bottom line: every heat applied graphic now undergoes aggressive testing for adhesion, stretching, crocking, dye migration, fibrillation, and dimensional stability before approval. With its testing infrastructure proven and fully online, Ampro has also since gone on to quadruple production capacity, retooling the heat seal equipment with a number of additional systems including:
- A Quatro 6-head DTF system running production volumes with extended color gamut
- A Silicone patch line now operating at what Shea calls “dizzying volumes” for enterprise uniform and promotional programs
- Multiple specialized heat press stations with top-heat, bottom-heat, and novelty pallets for difficult placements
- The addition of multiple other capabilities, including woven labels, sublimated patches, embroidered badges, and hybrid constructions that combine multiple decoration methods on a single garment
Proven DTF, Adhesives Technology
“We took our time getting here,” Shea says. “We waited for direct-to-film technology and adhesives to prove their durability before bringing heat-applied graphics to the same production scale as screen printing and embroidery. Our job isn’t to push a decoration method. It’s to choose the one that will last. Testing lets us evaluate logo geometry, wear conditions, and wash behavior, then prove the solution survives real life before it ships.”
A family-owned decorator and founded in 1973, Pennsylvania-based American Process Lettering Inc. (dba Ampro) specializes in bespoke screen printing, embroidery and heat applied graphics programs at scale. For more information, click here.
