The Customer
The Company manufactures labeling products for the food, beverage, dairy, home & personal care and pharmaceutical industries.
The Process
State of the art rotogravure printing presses are utilized to apply solvent based inks to film. The inks consist of mixtures of alcohols, acetates, plasticizers and resins. Gas-fired dryers are employed to evaporate off the solvents. The drying process occurs at every printing station. The Company was using PrevEx Flammability Analyzers on one print line and infrared detectors on another to continuously monitor the % LFL of the varying solvent levels in the dryers in order to maintain safety.
The Problem
Infrared detectors are narrow-band instruments. They can usually discriminate between the substance of interest and background gases but do not respond to gases outside of their narrow range of vision or mixtures of different gases and vapors. The Company was experiencing inconsistent readings with the infrared detectors, leading to a loss of confidence in the detection method.
The Solution
The Company worked with their OEM and made the decision to remove the IR detectors and replace them with PrevEx Flammability Analyzers, similar to the ones they had on print line one. The analyzers give consistent and reliable readings. Unlike the infrared detectors, they accurately measure mixtures of solvents and are not susceptible to fouling, coating or poisoning by resins or any other plasticizer or silicones. The analyzers feature fast response, failsafe operation, low maintenance and easy servicing.
After some time the Company went through an expansion and needed to add two lines to its process. They worked with their OEM exclusively for a turnkey solution—installation, start-up and maintenance. The new lines were equipped with PrevEx Flammability Analyzers.
SIC Code:
- 50851002: Seals, industrial
NAICS
- 423840: Industrial supplies merchant wholesalers