Removing static from a fill line
August 2005
Electrical Power & Protection
A pharmaceutical company fills mouthwash bottles at a rate of 200 per minute. Friction with the conveyor belt and guide rails produced a static charge on the bottle surface that resulted in two problems. First, the static electricity sent false signals to an encoder responsible for monitoring material flow, causing it to shut the line down periodically. Second, the surface charge was so high that the liquid from the machine's fill spout would divert sideways down the side of the bottle instead of straight down into the mouth of the bottle.
The installation of a 305 mm EXAIR Super Ion air Knife and Power Supply at the entrance to the fill table eliminated these problems. The rapidly moving bottles passed under the sheet of ionised air and the surface static was completely neutralised.
Static electricity can bring production to a screeching halt as it did in this case. The speed of the filling operation required fast static decay over a large surface area - a situation a static bar alone could not remedy. The laminar airflow of the Super Ion Air Knife delivers a flood of static eliminating ions to any surface the air stream touches, making it ideal for oddly shaped parts like bottles, totes or trays as well as flat surfaces like webs, sheet stock or conveyors.
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