Removal of Pallet Labels using High Pressure Water

The removal of labels from re-usable containers used in the food and other industries can be a time consuming and difficult process. A customer that specialises in the supply of cleaned, re-usable containers, such as totes, crates and pallets, contacted Cat Pumps to tackle a difficult problem they had with the removal of latex labels from plastic crates, used for meat and fish products.

Labels applied to crates designate details of the crate contents and need to be removed in preparation for new product details. Adhesive labels can be paper or latex paper material and need to be completely removed during the cleaning process along with any residual adhesive. Problems that occur regarding label removal include:

• Partial removal of the label
• Adhesive remaining on the crates surface and made 'sticky' in a hot water wash

In both of the above cases, additional and usually manual intervention is required to fully remove the label and adhesive at the end of the cleaning process. This slows down the cleaning process causing 'bottlenecks' and is time consuming and costly to the business.

Cat Pumps in partnership with a specialist manufacturer of factory cleaning equipment carried out tests with varying water pressure, flows and spray nozzle arrangements and successfully demonstrated the complete removal of the labels using high pressure cold water. The Cat Pumps pump/motor engineered package was then integrated into the automated washing production line, eliminated the 'bottleneck' and freeing up labour previously used to remove the labels by hand.

 Application Specification

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