66.LOTTERY TICKET QUALITY CONTROL WITH AN AIR KNIFE

Unusual applications for compressed air are always fun. One such unusual application was at a facility printing lottery tickets. Printing lottery tickets is much like printing money as they need to be controlled to a high quality to prevent counterfeiting. This also applies to major event tickets such as football, soccer and baseball games.

In this application the lottery tickets were printed with UV Ink and the UV lighting would “set” the ink. But the ink was still not drying fast enough and the print quality was adversely affected. They placed a small compressed air operated air knife operating at a low pressure (of around 30 PSIG) so it consumed very little energy, and this was enough to provide the needed cooling effect to help set the ink and get a “perfect” lottery ticket.

So the next time you get a lottery ticket, you may wonder if they used an air knife in the process.