Another recent application I’ve worked with from our Peruvian Distributor involved mitigating static on the outside of plastic shrink wrap. The customer manufactures a variety of different containers which after produced are then palletized for shipment to the end-users. They must ensure that the containers are adequately wrapped so that any dust/debris from the environment doesn’t come into contact with them and pose a contamination issue. This static charge would also at times cause the roll to jam up in the machine, and if left unnoticed for any length of time created quite a mess to untangle and fix. In addition, that static build-up that was occurring also manifested into painful shocks to the operators.

To wrap them, they’re using an automatic plastic wrapping machine. They wanted some type of a solution that could be permanently affixed to the machine and eliminate the static on the film as it was unrolled. As two non-conductive layers of material are separated (in this case two layers of plastic wrap), a strong static charge is produced. Mounting an Ion Bar on the outside of the stretch film provided an excellent solution for them as they didn’t have to have an operator standing by keeping an eye on it. They weren’t concerned about static on the underside of the material as much as this also allowed for the plastic to adhere better to itself as its wrapped around the pallet. Typically, we’d recommend an Ion Bar or other Static Eliminator on either side of the material, but in this case the static charge there was wanted.

Since we were able to mount the bar within 2” (50mm), it didn’t require a supply of compressed air to carry the ions to the surface of the plastic. As an extra layer of precaution, they also purchased an Ion Air Gun that was used to treat the outsides of the pallets again as they’re removed from the machine. Doing so has now prevented them from having to inspect and re-wrap pallets as needed. Since some runs may span over several days, there were times that they had to re-wrap products more than once as the dust build up was not acceptable to their customer. They estimated that 40-50% of the pallets had to be re-wrapped at least once, taking anywhere from 5-10 mins each after accounting for removing the old wrap, placing it back into the machine and re-wrapping.

With a wide variety of Static Eliminators available from stock, both with and without a compressed air requirement, EXAIR has a solution for your static problems. As we move into the cooler and dryer months of the year (If this hot summer ever ends), static becomes much more of an issue. Don’t wait until it becomes a serious problem and get in touch with an Application Engineer today!

Tyler Daniel
Application Engineer
E-mail: TylerDaniel@exir.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_TD