By MiRiCal

How Does Pro-Con Do This?

First, it must be understood how a typical heat seal machine operates. Machines are designed to affix labels to garments by applying a combination of temperature, time, and pressure/ Any garment label supplier will provide sealing instructions that in effect will state: 400°F, 912 second, 80# psi. The instructions suggest that the label will be exposed to the correct temperature for successful application if the heat seal machine is set at 400°F and the platen and label are brought into contact with a suitable fabric of 9-12 seconds. However, things are rarely that straightforward.

In actuality, the temperature to which the label is exposed will vary dramatically dependent upon a number of factors including the surface temperature of the platens, garment temperature, type and weight of fabric and moisture content of fabric. As the machine is being used platen temperatures will rise. To compensate for this variation in temperature, time or pressure must be adjusted.

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Figure 1 illustrates how surface temperature varies over consecutive applications. At the end of the theird application (X) the temperature fails to reach 400°.

Pro-Con is a simple but effective device developed to address this very issue. The device controls the dwell time byt having applied temperature the goal rather than the time. When the temperature goal is reached, Pro-Con ends the dwell time. Pro-Con, which can be factory built into new machines or retro fitted into most existing machines in a couple of minutes (see photo at right), overcomes the deficiency of the machine andheat seal process (see figure 2). It also provides and on-going digitally displayed check on its operators to ensure successful applications every time.

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Figure 2 illustrates how Pro-Con achieves this.

In this example, Pro-Con controls the process such that the first application (A) is completed in 20 seconds, the second (B) is completed in 12 seconds; and the third application (C) is approximately 7-8 seconds, where a temperature of 395° is required. The immediate benefit of this type of operation is that each application exposes the product to optimal heat sealing conditions. There is also an associated benefit, in that shorter dwll times can be used as the production run progresses. On a long run, you can take advantage of time savings of 2-3 seconds per application, when compareed with a “catch all” dwell time of 9-12 seconds.

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