The Customer

The company is a worldwide manufacturer of flexible and rigid packaging including plastic film, aluminum foil, metallized film and paper with specialty coating. They serve both the consumer and industrial marketplace in such industries as snack, confectionary, baked goods, cereal, tissue and paper towels.

The Process

The company uses flexographic and rotogravure printing to apply solvent based inks in different colors and patterns to paper, plastic, film and foil substrates. Ovens are employed to evaporate off the solvents leaving the finished product. The solvent flammability concentrations can vary from 5% LFL to 40% LFL. PrevEx Flammability analyzers monitor the %LFL of the varying solvent levels in the ovens in order to stay safe.

The Problem

The company was going through an expansion and wanted to achieve maximum efficiency of their printing operation as well as maintain safety. With their wide variation of solvent loads they realized that by automating damper control they could reduce their product cost and be as competitive as possible in the demanding marketplace.

The Solution

Since the company already had PrevEx LFL analyzers in place for safety, the NFPA-86 Standard for Ovens and Furnaces allowed for additional solvent vapor analyzers to be installed onto the process to specifically control damper positions. By adding the additional analyzers to safely automate the dampers, they were able to minimize the amount of ventilation air needed to maintain a safe LEL level in the ovens thus saving money on heated air costs. As the solvent vapor concentrations varied from one production run to another, they were able to control the ventilation rate accordingly.

After this successful installation, the Company has been adding redundant analyzers in their plants worldwide.

SIC Codes

  • 3081: Unsupported plastics film and sheet
  • 2673: Bags: plastic, laminated, and coated

NAICS

  • 326112: Plastics Packaging Film and Sheet (including Laminated) Manufacturing
  • 322215: Nonfolding Sanitary Food Container Manufacturing