The center pin is common to the tab or back if I get your question right. 
		
		
	
	
		 
	
About the heat sink, I believe that having it will make your vv more efficient and consume less power to give more life to your battery. I experience using it also without heat sink and it shut off on me as I do some prolonged vaping, so I really recommend some heat sink there or use ptw to get away from the problem of heat sinking. I believe the possibility of melting the plastic due to not using a heatsink is far as you vape the manner you said , and if you vape it heavily without heatsink it will shut off so melting the plastic is not most likely. I'm also using 1/4 resistor and its good up to now. About your voltage under load, I believe that it is odd because my voltage dropped under load, but if your voltage is not dropping and even gaining a little then your regulator must be gifted or your setup is better than mine or something . I have not tested it that much yet about voltage drop under load though.
Congrats again, and good luck on your mass production!
	
		
			
		
		
	
			
			 
	About the heat sink, I believe that having it will make your vv more efficient and consume less power to give more life to your battery. I experience using it also without heat sink and it shut off on me as I do some prolonged vaping, so I really recommend some heat sink there or use ptw to get away from the problem of heat sinking. I believe the possibility of melting the plastic due to not using a heatsink is far as you vape the manner you said , and if you vape it heavily without heatsink it will shut off so melting the plastic is not most likely. I'm also using 1/4 resistor and its good up to now. About your voltage under load, I believe that it is odd because my voltage dropped under load, but if your voltage is not dropping and even gaining a little then your regulator must be gifted or your setup is better than mine or something . I have not tested it that much yet about voltage drop under load though.
Congrats again, and good luck on your mass production!
			
				Last edited: 
				
		
	
										
										
											
	
		
			
		
		
	
	
	
		
			
		
		
	
										
									
								 
				
		 
 
		 
 
		 
 
		 
 
		 
 
		 
 
		 
 
		 
 
		