Static control solutions and compressed air technology
for printing, packaging, and converting industries in South Africa
Authorised Meech supplier
We know one thing for sure about your overall equipment effectiveness: you work hard to keep it as high as possible.
OEE is a major focus area in your industry. You need a partner who understands your area of expertise, one who will help solve the problems you encounter.
At StatAir, we partner with our clients to understand their challenges and needs regarding quality control, materials management, and overall equipment effectiveness.
We appreciate the importance of keeping a line running, whether you are printing, manufacturing wide-format webs, converting them, or in the final stages of packaging.
Your line speed is your profit, and static control is a crucial element in keeping it that way.
Our solutions focus on understanding your exact static control or compressed air needs. In partnership with you and our supplier, Meech, we implement the most appropriate set of products and settings to ensure what is installed is specific to your requirements.
We measure your exact static challenges with our static locators
We configure our static control bars to be set at the precise settings needed
We are backed by Meech: a world leader in static control and air technology
We help you:
Manage, control, or introduce static
Use air technologies to cool or run more efficiently
Our solutions
Static control
We supply Meech’s Hyperion range, their most advanced industrial static control product line. The range includes ionising bars and power supplies that provide anti-static and ESD protection and measurement, static generation, electrostatic control, and static elimination.
Compressed air technology
We supply Meech’s Air Efficiency and Vortex Cooling ranges. We know how expensive compressed air can be; these ranges reduce the amount of compressed air needed and use your existing compressed air to rapidly dry or cool products.
Static control and compressed air technology FAQs
How to reduce static electricity in packaging lines
One way to reduce static electricity on packaging lines is to slow production significantly, but that’s not ideal when time is money.
So in practice, the best and most cost effective solution is to install anti static or ionising systems. These are typically in the form of bars, blowers, or guns that are placed or used at specific locations where static is building up. These devices neutralise the static by emitting ions onto the surface of the material and machinery, thus reducing the static charges.
What causes static buildup in packaging materials?
The most common cause of static build-up in packaging materials is friction. This can be in the form of packaging material on the machinery, material moving through the air (the higher the speed, the more the friction), or material on material. It can also occur during contact and separation, for example during unwinding and rewinding.
What are the latest innovations in static control that are currently available?
The latest static control technology enables users to better control, manage, and monitor static and static products. Examples are the ability to set different ionising levels, have real-time alert monitoring and ionising emitter-pin alerts, predictive maintenance, and centralised control platforms where multiple ionising bars can be monitored and managed centrally through networked technology.
What are the main solutions in compressed air technology currently available?
The main solutions in compressed air technology are air efficiency solutions, which amplify compressed air, reducing the amount of air needed; and air cooling solutions based on the vortex cooling principle. This technology enables spot cooling, product cooling and even cabinet cooling, all simply with the use of compressed air and vortex-based solutions.
Why would I consider using compressed air efficiency solutions?
Compressed air is expensive, and yet used extensively. Using air efficiency products reduces the amount of compressed air needed to achieve the same result, and thus reduces compressed air costs.
Best products to enhance compressed air efficiency for manufacturing plants?
The best compressed air efficiency products for manufacturing plants are air amplifiers. These devices, which come in different forms such as air curtains, jets, and nozzles, use the principles of the Coanda effect and the Venturi effect to amplify airflow. This means you can use less compressed air to achieve the same result, and this reduces cost.
How do ionising bars work?
Ionising bars work by emitting charged ions into the atmosphere and onto the material and equipment that carries static charges. Different materials and polymers either gain extra electrons and become negative, or lose electrons and become positive. Ionising bars use high voltage to create a cloud of ions that migrate to the oppositely charged surfaces, thereby eliminating the static.
What is static generation and where would I use it?
Static generation is the process of generating and introducing static on a temporary basis into a production line. It is most commonly used to create a temporary bond between 2 or more materials, so that the materials are held in place during a production process. Once the materials are in their final state, an ionising bar is used to neutralise the static. Examples of the use of static pinning are in In-Mould Labelling (IML), in multi-layer bag making where more than one web of plastic needs to align during the sealing/welding process, and in cast film lines.
