Getting Tough on Sticky Problems
01 May 2006
The European food and beverage sector is a dynamic, well-invested, highly responsive industry offering world class manufacturing facilities. Yet it suffers one sticky problem which is evading the best of Europe's brains. It has problems getting rid of the persistent sticky labels used on crates and boxes for product and destination information when they come back to the factory at the end of the distribution cycle.
Billions of sticky labels are used in the European food sector every year. The labels come in every size and variety. They are fixed to the outbound crate or box which itself carries everything from fresh or cooked meat, fish and poultry to prepared dishes, drinks and bakery products. The labels carry essential consignment identification either in conventional text or bar-code format.
Whatever the type of label, they play a crucial role in ensuring the right products get delivered to the right place on time. But it's when the re-usable crate returns to the factory that they have become a major problem to food producers.
Technologists at brüel International in Denmark have come up with the optimum combination of automated washing solutions for label removal and it is set to save food producers a great deal of time, energy and money. As Dr Mark Hoffman of brüel explains, "It is often assumed that the basic crate washing process, or just applying extremely high pressure jets of water, will get rid of the troublesome labels but many crate washing systems simply don't stand up to the job. So food producers have had to put up with less than satisfactory label removal. Most importantly for food producers, traces of adhesive remaining on an otherwise clean crate can attract dirt and bacteriological contamination. Also, residual paper, pulp and adhesive make an ideal combination for clogging up the washing plant and reducing the effectiveness of the washing process. This means that a high performance water filtration system is also essential."
Brüel have installed more than 700 crate and box washing plants in food and beverage factories all over Europe and they say that time and again in customer surveys they came up against the "sticky label syndrome". So, using their washing technology experience and some sophisticated modelling of factors such as water temperature, volume, velocity, soak time and optimum jet nozzle diameter and orientation - they have introduced a methodology that should lick the label problem for good.
The brüel label removal system is powered by two high performance centrifugal pumps giving a jet pressure of up to 38 bar. The special spray nozzles have been designed to provide the largest possible drop size in the washing spray to increase the cleaning effect to a maximum. For the least stubborn labels, the system uses 'power-save'. This means that it is only necessary to couple in one pump, reducing electricity consumption by 50% and maintaining a spray pressure of 22 bar with unchanged water quantity.
The high efficiency of the system is enhanced by effective label and dirt soaking in the preceding dissolving section of the washing plant.
All water used in the label removal system is filtered through brüel's self - cleaning, rotary screw filter which prevents nozzle and filter blockage. Furthermore, all water in brüel washing plant is re-circulated and, depending on the crate design, overall water consumption can be as low as 0.2L per crate.
Brüel say's that the solution should be optimised for every crate or box shape, size and label position, and offer to carry out a free professional survey of the crate or box washing needs of any food and beverage company that is looking to invest in more efficient washing facilities.
