I know I sure don’t.  Imagine opening up a package of those familiar chewy, fruit-flavored ring-shaped candies and finding most of them smashed, or in partial pieces.  It’s not the most appetizing sight.  If the package itself appears intact, then the packaging system they came from is the most likely culprit. 

A food conveyor manufacturer called me recently, looking to avoid this very problem in their own machines.  They have sheet metal gates that will periodically come down and seal off sections of the conveyor for various reasons, such as when production exceeds the capacity of the packaging process, or when there is an unexpected shutdown of the packaging process. 

If the area directly below the gate is not clear of the chewy candy, the pieces will either be smashed or cut by the gates.  Because of the chewy nature of the candy, they will also tend to stick to the gate.  So, when the conveyor is started up again, the stuck pieces will sometimes end up mixed in with the good pieces, and packaged right along with them, ending up on consumer shelves. 

They needed a quick and effective way to clear off the conveyor area underneath the gates just before they were to come down.  The conveyor was just under 9″ wide.  So, our model 110009SS, 9″ Stainless Steel Super Air Knife, could be mounted across the width of the conveyor and create a curtain of air to sweep away any interfering candies and allow the gates to cleanly come down and meet the conveyor surface.  This virtually eliminated any smashed or partial candy pieces ending up in the final product mix. 

Emily Mortimer
Application Engineer
emilymortimer@exair.com