The CyClean non contact web cleaner installed on a press
There are not many British manufacturers that are experiencing so much success that they are filling up floor space as soon as they acquire it, but Meech is one of them. Michal Lodej went to see how the company has capitalised commercially by combining its static bar and air flow technology.
Meech International has two manufacturing sites in the UK and approximately 50 distribution centres placed around the world stretching as far as China. From these centres, it keeps key accounts with customers involved in many different sectors, from beverage to automotive. Established in 1907, the company supplies and manufactures a range of industrial solutions, including web cleaning and static control.
Part of the company’s success is down to how quickly it can supply its customers around the world, but also to how well it protects its intellectual property.
‘There is still a global demand for British manufactured goods,’ said Donald Lewis, business development manager – systems. ‘Being an international company, we have to be aggressive with our trademarks and patents as we sell high quality British manufactured products all over the world.’
Web cleaning
A lot of the company’s employees have different backgrounds in manufacturing which when combined together at Meech creates an eclectic industry knowledge for the company to build on. It is one of the ways it has been able to grow into different markets.
It is the combination of different types of knowledge that has led to the most recent product, CyClean, a non-contact web cleaning system that utilises the company’s best technologies in both pressurised air and static control.
CyClean comprises of three main components: a powerful airflow, static control and an air filter. The unit works to remove contamination from the web without damaging the substrate and helps to prevent recontamination. As the web passes through the cleaning head, it is subjected to powerful blowing air on each side, removing any contamination from the surface. The contamination is then collected by two vacuum airflows. The airflow is powered by the Air Handling Unit (AHU), which collects the contaminated air and cleans it through a filter.
The head also incorporates four AC ionising bars, two on each side of the web. The bars neutralise any static charge that may be causing contamination to bind to the web before the airflow can remove it. The web passes through another set of ionising bars before leaving the cleaning head to prevent any contamination being attracted to it after cleaning.
At the bar
The ionising bars are crucial to the whole process and consist of a number of pins pointed at the web with an electric charge passed through them. The pins are made of titanium, a rather exotic alloy for a humble component, however, it possesses all the properties needed to make it perfect for the task at hand. Titanium is a very reactive metal and quickly forms an oxide layer on its surface, making it extremely hard. This means the tip of the pin does not wear down, keeping it as a sharp point, which creates a stronger electric field to produce more ions.
The field ionises the particles in the air by either removing or adding an electron to the particle. This gives the particle the same charge as the pin creating a repelling force which fires the charged particle towards the web, neutralising the static charge.
These bars are not just incorporated into products such as the CyClean, but are also available as standalone static control units and can be fitted with a host of extras depending on what environment they will be deployed in.
The Hyperion 929 is one such product. It is a compact pulsed DC ionising bar with an integrated power supply, which has proven very popular, helping Meech win new and high profile OEM business with companies such as Mark Andy.
Education on products for OEMs has improved for the company recently. Mr Lewis added, ‘It has been difficult to introduce our products to manufacturers as they tend to use what they know works rather than looking at other ways. However this is now changing as shown by Mark Andy’s adoption of the H929.’