A pharmaceutical company needed to fill 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 flowing straight down into the mouth.
A solution was found in the form of a Model 111012 12' (30 cm) super ion air knife and Model 7901 power supply. These were installed at the entrance to the fill table. The rapidly moving bottles passed under the sheet of ionised air and the surface static was neutralised. The falsing problem was eliminated and the mouthwash went into the bottle where it belonged.
Static electricity can bring production to a halt, as it did here. The speed of the filling operation required fast static decay over a large surface area – a situation that 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 airstream touches, making it good for oddly shaped parts like bottles, totes or trays as well as flat surfaces like webs, sheet stock or conveyors.
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