Stewart Gordon-Smith: With the development and high demand for clear-on-clear labelling, shrink sleeving is revealing itself to be a growing market. However, this also leads to static related issues during packaging and labelling applications, in which production speeds are reduced to compensate for static alignment issues.
Static will not only cause contamination to stick to packaging and labels (where clear-on-clear labelling is present, this impacts on the products’ presentation and can account for potential loss of sales), but also labels to stick to the bottle wall, preventing the label from sitting in the correct alignment (which also impacts on presentation).
Using the correct ionising systems to suit the application will reduce reject rates, while also increasing production speeds and even profit margins.
Stewart Gordon-Smith: Higher competition and brand loyalty is resulting in demands for higher quality labelling and product presentation. As a result, Meech offers high quality solutions used for bottle manufacture, packaging and labelling, providing benefits to the whole manufacturing supply chain.
The IonRinse is a sustainable ionised air rinsing system, ideal for can rinsing and cleaning, while for in-mould labelling we have the 994 Hydra, a miniaturised pinning system specifically designed for moulding small containers.
Stewart Gordon-Smith: The need to understand the cause of static and the way different materials will react when contacting each other is of fundamental importance. It is then a question of selecting the correct ionising system to solve the problem, and installing it in the correct area. Only then will the operator be able to run the machine at the required manufacturing speed.
Stewart Gordon-Smith: We work with a number of machine manufacturers during the prototype stage, into development and production, to ensure modern material handling and machine speeds are not compromised, by installing the right static control systems in the correct place.
Too many times, machine manufacturers are not adequately informed on the materials that are being used, with static related issues being raised only during beta trials or at the sign-off stage, when the machine does not reach the expected production speeds.
In addition to the manufacturing of packaging, more emphasis is being placed on recycling. The mixing of plastics, glues or the use of paper labels adds cost or prevents recycling. Packaging that can be easily recycled is seen as more environmentally friendly, which obviously adds to the perceived value of the goods and the brand loyalty.
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