Hot Melt Adhesive Application and Service Specialists

Before And After: Carton Erecting And Sealing Gun

 

Before And After: Carton Erecting And Sealing Gun cover

 

Hot melt adhesive equipment requires regular cleaning and maintenance in order to sustain its efficiency, as well as to prevent blockages and malfunctions. Well maintained equipment lasts longer and delivers a greater ROI, and also makes it easier for you to ensure consistent adhesive application quality.

The before and after images below are of a glue gun we recently stripped, cleaned, and reassembled for a customer, and as you can see, the equipment had gotten into quite a state.

What Caused The Issue?

This gun is used for carton erecting and sealing on a production line, and several faults could have occurred to lead to this condition. For example, the heater bar in the gun could have failed, the temperature sensor could have malfunctioned, or the module itself could have failed.

One of the results of any of these faults is that the glue sits in the module and cooks until it is degraded. The bleed hole then becomes full of solid glue, preventing internal components from moving easily. Problems then begin to mount up; for instance, the glue line then starts too late because of the blockage, and movement of the needle is restricted. This leads to the glue overspilling onto the machine and back onto the gun. Eventually, the glue travels up into the air section of the module, where it solidifies and damages the solenoid.

If they had caught the glue leaking sooner…

Of course, it’s easy to say after the event that such and such signs should have been noted and maintenance scheduled. However, the early signs of many of these faults aren’t always that easy to spot, and in many cases, a slight drop of efficiency or a small symptom are ignored because the problems caused by unscheduled downtime would be too great.

Nevertheless, this example does illustrate how quickly adhesive residue and charred materials can accumulate, restricting flow, interfering with your temperature and pressure settings, and contaminating fresh adhesive – which can not only reduce efficiency but also compromise product quality.

A regular cleaning and maintenance schedule can identify and address the causes of degraded adhesive before it escalates into a costly problem, removing degraded material and extending the life of components.

Here is another picture of the same equipment after we cleaned and maintained it – restored to full working efficiency.

Proactive cleaning and maintenance, as part of your PPM schedule, is the best and most cost-effective way for you to safeguard the performance of your equipment, reduce operational disruption, and also lower your lifetime cost of ownership.

Find Out More

To find out more about our services and keep your hot melt equipment looking like the ‘after shot’ for longer, please get in touch with The Adhesive Laundry today by clicking here.

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