Fried ground wire in screen printing flash cure dryer

[Lestat777]

I have a flash cure dryer that I use as a screen printer. (It's basically a box with heat elements in it that hovers above the shirts to dry them - like this). It was brand new and about 3 hours into using it, one of the heating elements went out. I opened it up today, pulled back the insulation, and found that the ground was fried causing the wire going to the heating element to break off. I need to replace the ground.

What could be causing this? Overload? If I replace the ground wire will it just happen again? Do you think I need to replace the whole heating element as well? I'm certainly no expert here. I just don't want this thing to become a fire hazard. I'll be happy if I can get it working again but I plan to get a better dryer and only keep this one as a back up since it's obviously not the best quality.

The plug is a 20 amp, going to a 20 amp socket, going to a 20 amp breaker. The circuit is properly grounded and good.

Thanks for any advice you can offer!!

Inside the dryer.

Close up of the bad connection.

 

[Jraef]

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