Heat
Commercially heated vaccum ironing boards and tables are used for several purposes.
The vacuum helps hold items being ironed in place, like another set of hands if one will, so one can smooth out material and it will say that way, making for better and faster ironing.
Vacuum also pulls steam from the iron through the fabric,giving a professional and longer lasting finish.
Blow-up feature allows one to iron delicate fabrics and or wools, and velvets without causing damage or shine. Because one is ironing on a "cushion of air" so to speak.
Heated function is to keep the ironing board/table, padding and cover dry, by evaporating the moisture from steam ironing, and or just ironing large number of items on the same board for a long period.
Vaccum boards were invented for commercial laundries and dry cleaners who use steam irons that produce much more steam/moisture than home irons. Professional gravity, steam boiler, and or steam generator irons produce so much heat and steam that the ironing surface, padding and such would quickly become saturated with water, regardless of if the board/table had holes underneath or not.
Because the aforementioned moisture would interfere with good ironing/pressing results, the heated function keeps everything dry, which by the way prevents the rust, mould and such one sees on plain ironing boards/tables.
IIRC, the Laurastar owner's manual, which can be found on site, tells when one is supposed to use air up or vacuum.
