Line speed boosted

An important part of the production process is the application of a silicon backing to the label strips. Silicone is applied with adhesive to the label strip backing and the adhesive is dried and cured. This had previously been carried out by a 20 year old infra-red and warm air oven system but increased demand meant an increase in line speed and the existing infra-red oven was incapable of meeting requirements.

Having had previous success with a carbon infra-red (CIR) system on another line, Smith & Mclaurin engineers contacted Heraeus. A 192kW CIR oven was retrofitted immediately before the existing warm air oven. The CIR system consists of two 96kW modules, fitted over the line, each with 15 medium wave emitters in 10 controllable zones, allowing the power to be increased from 0 to 192kW in 10 equal steps to meet specific requirements.

"The success of this second infra-red installation further increases our confidence in the technology,” comments Iain McCourty, engineering manager at the Renfrewshire site. "The ability of the Carbonmedium wave system to provide heat instantaneously and uniformly through the applied coatings has ensured that we can now increase line speed. At the same time, the controllability of the system means that we are obtaining a much more reliable, and hence better quality, adhesive cure.”