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Product/Tool focus: Industrial heat press
Nov. 27th, 2006 12:21 pmIn the safety course i'm taking (Principles of Industrial Health and Safety for the Entertainment Industry), we have recently conducted formal hazard assessments for various tools and equipment commonly--or not-so-commonly!--found in our shops. We were encouraged to choose either a tool currently owned by the shop that might present particular safety issues, or a tool that we would like to purchase for the shop but not currently available.
I thought i'd share my overview here, both in terms of discussing costume craftwork applications for the tool i chose (an industrial heat press) and to present a framework you might choose to adopt or adapt, should you find yourself in a position to be documenting tool hazard assessments for your own facility.
The particular products i chose were these heat presses by Geo Knight & Co., designed for light usage. I chose the light-usage press because even with frequent use in a theatrical costuming context, they don't need to stand up to the sheer volume of usage that, say, a t-shirt manufacturing house might put them through, setting thousands of transfers per day, all day every day. They also fall into the range of being fairly affordable--$279 and $495 respectively.
The obvious use for the professional costumer is in transfer applications--it's very effective with the various "iron-on" printer papers, hobby and industrial heat-transfers, iron-on fabric applique techniques, and in quickly processing the application of a large amount of fusible interfacings and the like. It is also helpful in heat-setting textile paints and screenprinting inks, and can be used to stiffen up Fosshape thermoformable felt as well. These presses are fairly straightforward and simple to operate, and not very hazardous providing the user has been properly trained in their use.
I last worked with a heat press of this sort in the craft shop of the Los Angeles Opera, where we used it for a variety of craft and millinery applications, and boy, have i been starved for one here at my current employer! My dyeing and painting students have been heat-setting various class projects using a standard industrial iron, which allows for a much higher margin of operator error than these presses do. Instead of trying to get a uniform coverage and uniform temperature/time application by moving a hand-iron over an area, the presses allow you to accurately set the temperature of the heat surface (called the "platen") and the duration for which the press will engage.
Note: Usages above require the guarding of the platen with a presscloth or other barrier. Melting plastics and inks to the platen is hazardous and may also damage the press.
Also! I do not recommend the use of these types of presses to apply dimensional heat-transfer products such as heat-set rhinestones and nailheads. There are better tools for applying these products, such as jewel-setting irons.
So, what does an "official" tool hazard assessment of this piece of equipment look like?
( This! )
Ideally, you would create these kinds hazard assessments for all the equipment in your shop. You would keep these on file in your record library and use them to determine proper operating and training procedures.
I thought i'd share my overview here, both in terms of discussing costume craftwork applications for the tool i chose (an industrial heat press) and to present a framework you might choose to adopt or adapt, should you find yourself in a position to be documenting tool hazard assessments for your own facility.
The particular products i chose were these heat presses by Geo Knight & Co., designed for light usage. I chose the light-usage press because even with frequent use in a theatrical costuming context, they don't need to stand up to the sheer volume of usage that, say, a t-shirt manufacturing house might put them through, setting thousands of transfers per day, all day every day. They also fall into the range of being fairly affordable--$279 and $495 respectively.
The obvious use for the professional costumer is in transfer applications--it's very effective with the various "iron-on" printer papers, hobby and industrial heat-transfers, iron-on fabric applique techniques, and in quickly processing the application of a large amount of fusible interfacings and the like. It is also helpful in heat-setting textile paints and screenprinting inks, and can be used to stiffen up Fosshape thermoformable felt as well. These presses are fairly straightforward and simple to operate, and not very hazardous providing the user has been properly trained in their use.
I last worked with a heat press of this sort in the craft shop of the Los Angeles Opera, where we used it for a variety of craft and millinery applications, and boy, have i been starved for one here at my current employer! My dyeing and painting students have been heat-setting various class projects using a standard industrial iron, which allows for a much higher margin of operator error than these presses do. Instead of trying to get a uniform coverage and uniform temperature/time application by moving a hand-iron over an area, the presses allow you to accurately set the temperature of the heat surface (called the "platen") and the duration for which the press will engage.
Note: Usages above require the guarding of the platen with a presscloth or other barrier. Melting plastics and inks to the platen is hazardous and may also damage the press.
Also! I do not recommend the use of these types of presses to apply dimensional heat-transfer products such as heat-set rhinestones and nailheads. There are better tools for applying these products, such as jewel-setting irons.
So, what does an "official" tool hazard assessment of this piece of equipment look like?
( This! )
Ideally, you would create these kinds hazard assessments for all the equipment in your shop. You would keep these on file in your record library and use them to determine proper operating and training procedures.
