News release | Updated: August 2026

ZRAY has completed a full upgrade of its pneumatic case former series, with a redesigned air circuit that cuts compressed air consumption by an average of 20% across the range — and by up to 32% on machines running at low utilization.

For plants that run case erectors on three shifts, compressed air is not a free utility. A typical 15 kW screw compressor delivering 2.5 m³/min at 0.6 MPa can draw close to USD 21,000–28,000 in electricity per year, and an inefficient pneumatic circuit on an erector quietly adds to that bill every hour.

What Changed in the Pneumatic Circuit

The upgrade touches four areas on every new single-piece case erector and double-head high-speed case former:

1. Low-power valve islands — new 5/2 solenoid valves with a response time under 15 ms replace the previous spring-return valves, eliminating a continuous pilot-air bleed.
2. Fast exhaust valves on return strokes — cylinder return strokes now dump exhaust air directly to atmosphere instead of pushing it back through the valve bank, cutting the volume of air actually compressed per cycle.
3. Idle air-off logic in the PLC — when the photo-eye detects no blank in the magazine for 3 seconds, the PLC closes the main air supply through a pressure-reducing shut-off valve; the machine wakes in under 0.5 s when the next blank arrives.
4. Adjustable flow controls — cylinder speeds are now tuned per corrugated board grade, so a heavy BC-flute double-wall blank no longer needs the same aggressive air burst as a lightweight E-flute blank.

Measured Savings: Before vs. After

Field data from three beverage plants and one e-commerce fulfillment center, measured with a calibrated flow meter over 30-day runs:

The savings scale with runtime: at typical industrial electricity tariffs, one double-head former running 20 h/day pays back the retrofit cost in 7–9 months.

Operator Notes

• Set the idle air-off delay in the PLC menu (Maintenance → Air Management); 3 s suits most lines, but extend it to 5 s on lines with intermittent blank feeding.
• Check the fast exhaust valves for condensation every 1,000 h in humid climates — a blocked muffler defeats the whole circuit.
• Re-tune flow controls after any change in board grade; settings are saved per recipe on machines with 10-recipe memory.

Full Range Retrofittable

The new circuit is standard on all machines shipped after July 2026 and is available as a retrofit kit for existing ZRAY pneumatic case formers installed since 2022.

If your compressed-air bill is climbing faster than your case output, send us your machine model and monthly air usage — we will calculate what the 20% reduction is worth on your line. Request a pneumatic upgrade assessment or reach our engineers directly on WhatsApp at +86 13681839278.