The flexible packaging industry is a large and vast marketplace, often times there are different gas detection solutions depending on the particular process you are trying to monitor. Today we are goign to focus on rotogravure and flexographic printing presses that apply solvent borne inks to a variety of web materials including plastic, paper and foil.
The substrate is fed into the printing press from a roll. The image is printed as the substrate is pulled through a series of printing stations where different ink colors are applied. The inks are solvent based and consist of mixtures of Ethyl Alcohol, Ethyl Acetate, n-Propyl Acetate and Propyl Alcohol. These mixtures vary from color to color and job to job. After the ink has been applied the substrate runs through a dryer to evaporate the solvent off. This drying process occurs at every printing station. The presses also have inline adhesive lamination capabilities.
In this particular plant they were looking to install two new flexographic presses. They typically operate below 25%, but wanted to purchase LFL equipment for both safety and ventilation control in order to save energy; rather than using fixed ventilation air, which is costly.
The agreed upon solution was a very specifc type of infrared technology. One that can be used if the process is clean, low temperature and operates at or below 25% LFL. This Infrared Process Analyzer has a unique multiple-wavelength design, one that reduces the variation in reading different solvent types. Multiple infrared detectors at select wavelengths help convert concentration data into %LFL flammability readings with greater accuracy.
Read the entire flexible packaging case history to find out more details inlcuding how the analyzers were installed in the unique confines of a printing press.
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