For plastic-film converters, controlling static charges has long been a challenge to production quality and output. For most, the common static-control equipment remains a conventional static eliminator without diagnostic capabilities. Recently, however, new static control technology has surfaced, and converters are discovering its benefits.

M&M Printed Bag, Inc., Chino, CA, is one such converting company that has benefited from improved productivity due to a new static controller. Since 1988, M&M has produced custom-printed plastic bags, including zip-lock type bags, for a diversified group of customers. M&M also converts rollstock used in automated wrapping machinery.

“We're always looking for ways to increase productivity on the machines we run, though most improvements have historically come from other areas of the operation, like packaging and shipping,” says Ernie Taylor, owner and chief operating officer of M&M. “It was only after talking to an industry acquaintance that I learned about their success with a new static-control system. We quickly scheduled the manufacturer's rep to come and show us more about the product.”

Joe Sanders, plant manager with M&M, who is responsible for all machinery and equipment installation, maintenance and operation, was called on to evaluate the new static-control system.

M&M's previous equipment was a standard gold bar that came with the bagmaking machinery. Presently, M&M runs nine Ro-An Industries Corp. 9000 plastic bagmaking machines (www.roan.com). “These systems just plugged into a 120-volt power supply, but you had no idea if they were working or not,” Sanders explains. “Even when the bars were cleaned, you could not tell the difference.” To determine if the system was working, M&M operators would grab hold of the power cord to detect a slight vibration of flowing current.

Uncontrolled static can wreak havoc with production. “We don't operate in a controlled environment,” he says. “When it's 120 deg outside, it's 120-plus inside. On those hot and dry days, we'll suffer a drop of 15 to 20 percent in productivity—that's running slower speeds as well as incurring increased scrap.”

After years of not benefiting from a static-control system, Sanders was skeptical about the MKS, Ion Industrial (www.ion.com) equipment that Taylor discovered. Sanders had grown up in the converting industry and had pretty much seen the limitations of this equipment repeatedly over the years. His perspective, however, was about to make an about-face.

“We set up a trial installation on one bag machine with the previous systems still in place,” Sanders says. “In this manner, each system could be turned on and off to compare any differences.”

The change was immediate. “Within the first stack of bags tested, we saw a tremendous difference where the bags laid down perfectly,” Sanders recalls. “We turned each system on and off a number of times. The difference was as significant as night and day.”

The demonstration of the new static-control equipment was enough to convince both Sanders and Taylor. Even though the Ion Industrial product was quite a bit more expensive than alternative systems, it would clearly pay for itself with improved productivity and quality, he says.

M&M has since installed Ion's Virtual AC Intelligent Static Neutralizers on all bagmaking machines near the wicketer and stacking end. According to Sanders, the investment has paid off big time: “We've seen a good 10 to 15 percent increase in efficiency, since installing the new static control system—especially on the bigger 1-mil bags. Typically, we run 0.0009- to 1.5-gauge polyethylene and polypropylene film. Static charges can be a real issue on the larger bags with face areas of 10, 12 and 14 inches.”

This past July, several weeks of 110-deg weather put the new static-control system to the ultimate test as high-static conditions set in. “Before we were losing 20 percent when hot weather came along,” Taylor says. “We had to slow down the equipment, and we lost product to scrap. With the new system in place, we didn't lose material. We didn't even slow the machinery down one bit.”

Sanders also notes improvements to finished bag stacks where electrostatic charges can cause bags to lay haphazardly in the stack or even miss the stacking pins. Previously, operators would have to vigorously shake finished stacks in an attempt to get “bad” bags to fall free or lie properly together. “Now, stacks are much easier for operators to handle,” Sanders says. “Bags fall very uniformly and independently of one another. We just give the stack a little shake—and it's ready to be boxed.”

Almost all of M&M's printed bags end up running on automated bagfilling machinery, and Sanders notes that loose bags in a stack can cause problems within customer packaging operations. M&M customers have noticed the positive change in their stacks since the converter installed the new static-control system. “Our bags seem to now hold their anti-static condition all the way from the [bagmaker] to the end user,” he adds.

According to Sanders, the new system also makes the bagmaking operator's job easier. Previously, operators had to constantly clean contaminating dust off of static bars so the electrodes' neutralizing ability wasn't impeded. With the new system, a small communication module displays the real-time status of ion output, neutralizing efficiency of the bar, system diagnostics and more. “I've got those modules mounted right on the operator panel where my people can easily monitor static control and clean the bars only when the module indicates it needs cleaning.”

Installation was also a breeze. “Running the low-voltage wiring was a snap,” Sanders says. “I had each system installed within an hour per machine—and that was even with making my own brackets.”

Taylor and Sanders are certainly pleased with their new static-control system. “With most of our plastic bagmaking machines being less than six years old, we pretty much felt we were running at maximum productivity with modern machinery,” Taylor says. “Still, we never stopped looking for ways to improve performance.” And the new equipment certainly met Taylor's directive of heightened productivity.

More photos of M&M Printed Bag are at www.convertingmagazine.com