News release | August 2026

ZRAY has completed a high-humidity resilience certification program for its case erector range, validated through 1,200 hours of accelerated testing in a 85% RH / 32 °C wet-room environment. The certification confirms that the machines maintain rated erecting speed and case quality in the humid, condensing conditions typical of beverage bottling halls, dairy fill rooms, and washdown areas.

Why Humidity Is a Real Case Former Problem

In a bottling hall, condensation forms on machine surfaces, and corrugated blanks absorb moisture faster than most operators realize:

• Blank moisture pickup. A single-wall B-flute blank left in a humid magazine can gain 1–2% moisture by weight within an hour. Moisture softens the board, and the flap crease loses its memory — flaps come out half-folded, cases go out of square.
• Condensation on guides. Steel guide surfaces wet out quickly, increasing blank friction and causing mis-feeds.
• Pneumatic condensation. Compressed air saturated with water vapor condenses inside cylinders and valves, washing away lubricant and causing erratic cylinder speeds.
• Electrical risk. Condensing moisture inside control cabinets causes intermittent faults — the hardest kind to trace.

What the Certification Test Covered

The certification test ran on a single-piece case erector and a double-head high-speed case former in an environmental chamber at 85% RH, 32 °C for 1,200 hours (50 days), with normal production cycles throughout:

Design Changes That Made the Difference

The certification is not just a test badge — it reflects specific engineering changes now standard across the range:

1. Corrosion-resistant guide treatment. All steel guides and folding shoes receive a hard-anodized or stainless surface treatment, so condensation does not rust the working surfaces.
2. Sealed bearing options. All rotating points in the erecting area use sealed bearings with food-grade grease, eliminating washout in humid running.
3. Air dryer requirement documented. The manual now specifies a refrigerated air dryer with a dew point of ≤ 3 °C for wet-room installations, with a drain check added to the maintenance schedule.
4. Cabinet pressurization kit. An optional filtered positive-pressure kit keeps cabinet internals above ambient dew point, preventing condensation on PLC terminals.
5. Moisture-resistant blank feed. The magazine feed is tuned with a slower pick cycle in humid conditions via a PLC humidity-input setting, preventing double-feeds from slightly swollen blanks.

Recommended Maintenance in Humid Environments

For wet-room installations, ZRAY recommends this adjusted schedule:

Certification Documentation

Each machine supplied for a wet-room application ships with a humidity resilience certificate summarizing the test data, plus the specific maintenance addendum for the local maintenance team.

If your bottling hall runs above 70% RH for more than half the year, ask us about the wet-room specification before you order — it costs nothing to configure, and it prevents the most common cause of premature case former wear in beverage plants.

Request the humidity resilience datasheet or message us on WhatsApp at +86 13681839278.