High Production Heat Pressing - Shuttle v. Standalone

[ZooCity]

For those of you that do mid-high volume transfer work do you find it more efficient to use multiple, standalone units or a shuttle type system?

For instance, you have to press 500+ caps, let's say with dye sub transfers, the longest transfer time of the bunch at 50-90s.  Would you ideally want a dual or tri platen system with a shuttling heat element or 3-4 auto open cap presses in a row?  The idea in either case is the operator moves down the line, applying the transfers and starting the heat cycle, does the same on the next as the first presses and so on.  Ideally the setup would have enough stations so that, on the longest transfer times, when the first it done the op is just getting back down the row. 

I'm leaning toward just buying 3-4 auto open cap presses for the simplicity and redundancy but we have precious few amps left to spare here and I like the idea of the shuttle having one element and also that it uses comp air to fine tune pressure.  In any case I want to do whatever maxes out our production abilities with 1 or, as needed, 2 ops.  I imagine the overall footprint will be about the same in either case.

 

[LuckyFlyinROUSH]

Seperate.

1. What if one dies? You have another

2. You can load the second while the first is pressing...

[mimosatexas]

At 90s of pressing time you are going to need 4 or 5 to keep someone busy.  Only takes 10-15 seconds to reset a hat press when you're in the groove.  I would go with multiple presses so you can have multiple pressing at once with as little down time as possible.  So at a 90s press time you should have 3-4 pressing at once all the time.  Hat presses only use like 6 amps max so 2 standard plugs should be plenty to handle the load.

[ZooCity]

We concluded the same - takes abt 10-15s to set the next item up and clamp down.   And I agree I like multiple presses v. the shuttle just because it's easy, gives us redundancy and expandability not to mention flexibility.  We also use cap presses for doing private label transfers and set of 4 auto opens would really make that fly, allowing us to add an operator if needed to speed it all up.  Plastisol trans run much, much faster and a shuttle could be used there however.

I watch this vid of the stahl's auto open cap.  Good lord the thing literally jumps on the table when it opens.  On our stahl's cap we find you need to open very gently at first.  Anyone have some feedback on auto openers?   This is where I saw air as a good thing, provided the air pressurized unit allow you to adjust how it let the pressure off.

@ 1:28
https://youtu.be/iznqZ73zTFo?t=1m28s

[ericheartsu]

We concluded the same - takes abt 10-15s to set the next item up and clamp down.   And I agree I like multiple presses v. the shuttle just because it's easy, gives us redundancy and expandability not to mention flexibility.  We also use cap presses for doing private label transfers and set of 4 auto opens would really make that fly, allowing us to add an operator if needed to speed it all up.  Plastisol trans run much, much faster and a shuttle could be used there however.

I watch this vid of the stahl's auto open cap.  Good lord the thing literally jumps on the table when it opens.  On our stahl's cap we find you need to open very gently at first.  Anyone have some feedback on auto openers?   This is where I saw air as a good thing, provided the air pressurized unit allow you to adjust how it let the pressure off.

@ 1:28
https://youtu.be/iznqZ73zTFo?t=1m28s

We have a stahls auto open. It jumps slightly, but it's honestly never an issue, if all your settings are dialed in.

great thing about stahls caps is they have a platten set you can get as well for different size hats and neck labels!

[Sbrem]

I like the individual idea as well. We have a Hotronix single, and a Knight double, it holds 2 hats and the head swivels...

Steve

[Croft]

A company I worked for used to do a lot , I had 4 custom tables made , low long and narrow with 5 heat presses bolted to them , the girls were good at loading them and ironing 5 at a time. The average orders were 15-50 and they could crank lots of them out in a day.

[ZooCity]

Thx for all the replies, went with 3x of the Hotronix auto open cap presses.

[Sbrem]

Hotronix makes a great product, I think...

Steve

[ZooCity]

Hotronix makes a great product, I think...

Steve

We have a 90s vint hotronix cap and it's been very solid.  I think they're a bit overpriced for what they are but they have warranty, parts, support and are readily available.