Packaging Industry

Discover how you can apply Simco-ION products in your packaging manufacturing business

Applications for the Packaging Industry

Simco-ION offers solutions to control static electricity in the packaging industry. Processes on shrink-wrap-machines or like preventing bad seals due to product fine attraction in Form Fill and Seal machines or Vacuum Form Fill machines or rejects in Blow moulding processes due to static charges on the parison. Removing static electricity in labelling processes will ensure correct placement and will prevent production stops in Sleeve- Shrink operations. Static solutions can also be found in horizontal Flow Wrap machines and Palletizers.
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Shrink Sleeve Machine

 

Controlling static electricity on sleeve and shrinking machinery

A Sleeve/shrink labeller is a high-speed machine designed to apply shrink sleeve labels to a variety of bottles/containers. The shrink sleeve labeller can speed up to 800 products per minute with sleeves of printed thermal shrink film, after which the sleeves are shrunk to adhere to the bottles/containers. The machines are reliable, simple to use, flexible and they have an efficiency of almost 100%.

Printed shrink sleeves for decorating plastic (PET, PVC, PE) or glass bottles, offer an effective medium for advertising purposes and additional protection. The flat film is unwound and runs through a buffer-stack and is then pulled over a mandrel to form a tube. The sleeve is cut to size by knives in the cutting unit. The sleeve is then pushed down over the container and shrunk to fit the container contour in a heat tunnel.

The sleeve applicator machines are designed for full body and partial labeling.

Static electricity may cause the film to stick to the mandrel or, once cut, the sleeve is not properly positioned on the container. Anti static bars or static eliminators are placed at the indicated position to assure a correct functioning of the machine.

The Simco-Ion VicinION is an static elimination bar designed to neutralize electrostatically charged surfaces. This bar is the smallest sized 24V static eliminator on the market. The static eliminator is equipped with an integrated high-voltage power supply, Tungsten emitters and a status LED and is supplied with a 24V DC power supply via an M8 connector.

The VicinION is optimally used between a distance of 5 and 75 mm. The VicinION is available in effective lengths from 224 mm, in increments of 17,25 mm. Simco-Ion can help you solving any specific static problems resulting in high quality competitive packaging production including your sleeving process.
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Pallet Wrapping

 

Static free high speed (in-line) pallet wrapping

Manually placing boxes on pallets and wrapping them can be time consuming and expensive. For this reason this process is often completely automated. Automated pallet wrapping lines come in a wide variety and always have one thing in common: problems with static electricity on the stretch and/or the top foil.

Stretch wrapping machines are used to wrap stretch film around a loaded pallet. Stretch pallet wrapping is widely used in general, food, chemical and electronic industry. A highly stretchable plastic film, commonly made from Linear Low-Density PolyEthylene (LLDPE), is wrapped around items. The elastic recovery keeps the products tightly bound. Stretch film is used to wrap products on pallets and secure them to each other and to the pallet during transport and storing.

After palletising, a top-foil dispenser can apply a protective sheet over the products to protect them from environmental influences such as humidity and dust. Neutralising static charges directly after unwinding can prevent the protective film from “clinging” and not fully covering the products.

During wrapping of the pallet with a stretch-foil, static charges can create shocks (discharges) to operators, electronic parts or optical sensors and cause dust attraction to the foil. An ultra-compact VicinION 24V static eliminator, mounted on the rotary arm, can neutralise the static charge after unwinding of this stretch film.
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Prevent Air Inclusion

 

Static charge can be used to bond 2 materials together to prevent air entrapment
 
The Problem

Static charge can be used to bond 2 materials together to prevent air entrapment. Applications that benefit from this technique are:

  • During bagmaking, parts of the bag are held together to prevent air inclusion during finishing.
  • A roll of bags or film will be much tighter without air inclusion.
  • Sticking material to a cooling roller without air inclusion optimises the cooling process.
 
The Solution

The materials that need to be bonded have to pass a charging electrode. Opposite to the charging electrode a ground reference is positioned, e.g. an idle roller. A static charge can be applied ranging from 3 kV to 120 kV depending on the material thickness, speed and adhesion force required.

 

 
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Blow Film

 

Prevent static shocks on blown film lines

Blown film extrusion is used to produce packaging film, much of which is multi-layered. This is done to improve mechanical, transport, and thermal properties, as required by the food or medical industry. The height of the “bubble” of the blown film line is needed to cool down the material, before the nip rolls / top rolls. You can recognise static charges by experiencing shocks or seeing sparks as a discharging effect.

After the material passes the nip (top) rollers on the blown film line it is generating static electricity and building up high static charges. This due to friction by passing several rollers and temperature fluctuation because the material is cooling down. If the material passes a corona treater, a massive static charge is created on the material. Here an extra section of static eliminators, preferably with inline static measuring (Close Loop Feedback), is recommended.

On the final winder(s) long range static elimination bars are installed to neutralise the material during winding. Applying the ThunderION IQ static eliminator will guarantee that the complete material is neutralised. Starting as small diameter to end as large diameter rolls.

This will prevent dust-attraction, telescoping of the end roll and unpleasant static shocks to the operator. When winding double layer (tube) material, static elimination is essential to be able to open the material after unwinding. Sometimes discharging before winding is needed to reach a low static charge on the end roll. Normally 24V static eliminators are used for discharging here.

The pollution of the static eliminators is a critical issue. To avoid a drop in efficiency this level can constantly be monitored by the Manager IQ System.

If the efficiency drops below a pre-defined level, the operator/PLC receives a warning. Maintenance will be indicated on the polluted static bars.

For more intelligence, the Manager IQ System can be directly connected to the Blown film line via a Fieldbus connection. This is how all essential information is collected regarding the efficiency and required maintenance of the static equipment. Also the level of static charge on the material is collected and logged.

This all results in high quality, competitive production of blown film. 
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Bond Two Materials 

 
The Problem

Static charge between two surfaces can create enormous adhesion forces. These forces can also be used in a productive way in all kinds of production applications e.g.

  • Keep materials together to prevent shifting during cutting, punching, laminating or packaging
  • Position a label for In mould labeling or on a magazine prior to packaging
  • Keep extruded film on the cooling roller to prevent shrinking

The Solution

The materials need to be bonded have to pass a charging electrode. Opposite to the charging electrode a ground reference is positioned, e.g. an idle roller. A static charge can be applied ranging from 3 kV to 120 kV depending on the material thickness, speed and adhesion force required. Used equipment in this application:

  • HDR and CM5
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Slitting and Rewinding

 

Full electrostatic control on high speed slitting/rewinding machinery

Slitting/Rewinding is a process to cut different type of jumbo roll’s with various material-width to narrower sizes at (very) high speed. This technique is suitable for several materials like paper, plastic film, flexible packaging, fabric or textile. The web is unwound and run through the slitter/rewinder, passing adjustable cutting knives, before being rewound on one or more shafts to form narrower rolls.

Slitting/rewinding your foil is usual business nowadays, because of the high speed and the number of rollers (friction), static electricity can create major problems.

Immediately after the slitting operation and before the winder, 24V Performax (IQ) Easy Speed anti static bars will be installed. These static elimination bars will neutralise the static electricity generated during the previous unwinding and slitting process and will prevent:

  • New generated static during winding
  • Attraction of (cutting) dust
  • Employees getting shocks from static discharges
  • Telescoping effect on your slitted rolls

If a predefined low static level on the end-product is required, an in-line measurement system can offer this solution. To achieve this a Simco IQ Manager System can offer real-time managing and monitoring options with a full controlled Closed Loop Feedback system (CLFB).

This system monitors and controls all connected static eliminators and can be directly connected to the machine PLC via Fieldbus connection. This provides all information about efficiency and required maintenance of the static eliminators, as well as the static charge including alarms. In-line measuring and datalogging of electrostatic charge levels can be used in quality reporting.

These options contribute to increase static control of the process, operator safety and product quality, which all together results in high quality competitive slitting and rewinding. 

Simco-ION for your industry

Are you interested in learning more about how Simco-ION products are used across different industries? Browse the industries below for more insights, and feel free to contact us with any questions regarding our applications in the wood industry.
Maik Zimmer-1

Maik Zimmer, Technical Sales

“Static can disrupt packaging processes, from misfeeds to label errors. Simco-ION visits your facility to provide customized solutions that keep operations efficient.” 

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