Drying Crates Following A Washing Operation

The Problem

A bottling plant places their filled bottles into plastic crates as a final step of their process. When the empty plastic crates are returned from the various retail markets, they must first be washed and sanitised prior to using them again. When the bottler put the crates through the washer, they exited the final rinse dripping wet. Bottles placed in the wet crates were eventually covered with water spots and many product labels were ruined.

The Solution

The company installed (3) Model 110018 18″ (457mm) Super Air Knives to completely surround and blowoff the crates. Each Super Air Knife was placed on an angle with the sheet of air blowing against the travel of the crates and directing the water downward toward the floor. The crates were dried and the bottles could be loaded immediately.

Comment

Super Air Knives were the best choice for this application. The uniform sheet of laminar airflow provided complete coverage so there were no dead spots when blowing across the inside and outside surfaces of the crate. The mounting made it easy to rearrange and adjust the Super Air Knife depending on the size of the crate. Other companies have used a similar arrangement of the Super Air Knives to blowoff car batteries, blocks of cheese, milk cartons, buckets, and more.