Why? Why do you plan for failure? When I have some piece of equipment or another I plan on it working. It it fails to work I deal with it, but I never waste time planning for failure.
Eventually things with moving and/or electrical parts fail. How quickly they do or do not depends on a few factors, some can be deterred by us, some are just the nature of the product.
How many heat presses have you been around? I'm at the end of my 7th decade on the planet, have been in and around this business for well over half a century, and I can count the number of heat presses I've encountered on the fingers of one hand. We must travel in vastly different circles.
You have to remember that the thrust of my business is apparel decorating. That means rhinestones and studs, heat transfers, sublimation, and patches (both sublimation and embroidered patches). All of those I use the heat press for. With embroidered patches not only do I use the heat press for some applications (usually not greater then a 100mm x 100mm size), but I also use it in the production of patches as well.
The heat presses that I have are perhaps one of the most used and useful tools in my shop.
I deal with a lot of people in the same industry, that's a lot of heat presses. Certainly more then I can count with just one hand.
A mechanical wind-up timer and a simple mechanical temperature gauge are all that's needed. A digital display for either of these is beyond ridiculous.
Depends on the size of the shop. The lower number you have, the more you are able to get away with a manual application. It get's harder when you have multiple running with different products. Thermostat not so much, but all the little egg timers, yea, it can get a little out there at times.
When I started everything was manual and no display other then a knob that had a notch and a sticker that had temps on it. Great for the time that it was used, but not something I would advocate for serious use.
Mostly the temperature variance is down, not up. Due to the natural cooling of actually using the thing. Heating an external mass is not free.
You are right, on a normal working machine the variance is down, not up. But that is on a normal working machine where you will find that typical behavior. Certainly though, not 10%. That variance is just too high.
When my heat press is just sitting there idling I look for a temperature a bit higher than the specs for whatever I'm using. When the press goes into action the temperature can easily drop 10% while it's being used. That's why I have the initial setting just a taste higher than specs. Know your equipment.
Yes, that is true about idling it will be hotter. However, I don't agree with your 10% drop. In sublimation that would translate to a 40°f drop. I have seen drops range anywhere from 6 to 9°f, but not very very long before it starts to go back up and "recover". 40 is just too much. The transfer won't work.
That's my biggest thing with what you are saying. Is that range that you are giving. Way too much. If you are really seeing that much of a drop, then that has got to be indicative of what you are using to press.
Let's do one of the lower temp ones that I use. I do about 325°F for cut vinyl on nylon or other heat sensitive materials. You are looking at about a 32°F drop using your equipment. Easily, according to you.
That has got to be related to the quality of equipment that you are using or if it wasn't always like that, then something is going on with it.
I've never seen anything burn, ever. I have encountered those odd times where, because of temperature drop, the media did not transfer properly and had to be stuffed back into the press for a second round.
I've never seen a million dollars in cold hard cash, but I would like to think that it still exists.
I have seen burns, not usually in normal operations, usually it's when the heat platen has developed hot spots in some areas (equipment failure in other words) and it just burns.
