Sunday, December 24, 2006

Anti-static system avoids packing downtime

A polyethylene bags and pouches maker had problems with packing toilet tissues, in that static build-up caused blockage on the packing line - since solved by an anti-static system.

At the Ilkeston site in Derbyshire, Skymark Packaging Solutions produces over 250,000 polyethylene bags and pouches for a wide range of applications including snack foods and specialist products for the personal hygiene market. Skymark works with its customers to ensure that they are providing the right products for a particular application. They have specific expertise in personal hygiene applications, producing bags for many international brands.

Static charge has always been a problem on bag making machines and Skymark has been using Meech static control solutions for many years.

Recently Skymark came up against a particular problem when working with one of its customers involved with the automated packaging of toilet tissue.

The bags, provided by Skymark, are placed on the packaging machine and the filling process begins.

However, due to the presence of static charge, the bag being filled attracted the next bag in line causing it to open prematurely.

A blockage would then result causing machine downtime while the problem was cleared.

Knowing the success in controlling static at Skymark's Ilkeston factory using Meech equipment, Skymark asked Meech to visit their customer and discuss the issue of static charge and how it was affecting the process.

Once they understood more, Skymark's customer realised that they also needed to do something to control static in their process.

By simply installing Meech 261 Flexinozzles and Model 977v3 Controller, static charge levels were significantly reduced and so too was downtime.

This ensured that the packaging line ran smoothly and efficiently, so improving the packaging process.

'Thanks to Meech, this particular problem was solved.' says Leon Bowler, conversion Manager at Skymark.

'We have always been delighted with how well their products work to reduce static at our factory and when our customer was experiencing difficulties, it was reassuring to be able to call on Meech, as a third party, to explain the problems static can cause on packaging processes.