U.S. Biscuits Corp. launched a Mini Hula Hoops Shoks series of casual biscuit products in a flexible cube. Since then, more and more companies have begun to look for the market advantage of the added value of vertical form-fill-seal bags. The Mini Hula Hoops Shoks series has created a new peak in bag technology and design. Over the past five years, improvement of the packaging machinery has created pockets that can be reclosed, and refreshing four-cornered standing pouches. It was invented by Rovema in the mid-1990s.
In fact, the combination of these two forms of packaging is often seen in the market for re-sealable four-corner sealed bags for products such as biscuits. Rovema's Stabilo four-cornered pocket lays the foundation for United Biscuits' Shoks collection. The original intention of Rovema to develop this technology was to save materials. At the International Packaging Conference hosted by the German Packaging Research Institute, the material saving prize was awarded to Rovema.
The purpose of Stabilo's four-corner closure pockets is clear: a square-shaped base pocket, four-corner heat-sealed, 5 to 7 mm wide, is more sturdy and aesthetically pleasing, making powdery dessert-like products unnecessary for carton packs. The vertical seal is done at one corner so it does not interfere with the printing of the entire pattern. Because of the neat stacking, the Stabilo bag takes up 13% less space than traditional pillow-type bags, saving transportation and shelf space.
The Rovema VPI bagging machine makes the bag in an intermittent motion, refills it, and opens it into the empty slot of the SBS machine. Here, after a series of operations, seal, fold, and seal on the wall of the bag to form a square. The original two corners form a base to erect the bag. The bag opening is very easy to open because it uses a special polyethylene film from Exxon Mobil. It does not tear as hard as it used to.
The Rovema company's Stabilo bags have been equipped for six years. These machines can produce a variety of bags of different sizes. However, the rectangular molding tubes used in the past cannot uniformly fill diagonally portions. In order to solve this problem, Rovema invented the circular shaped tube to produce Stabilo bags, which make the diagonal part full. The round tube increases the bagging speed to the same speed as the pillow bag and also prevents wrinkling of the bag. Circular molding tubes are particularly suitable for powdered products because they can be dispensed with larger diameter screw drills to increase speed and reduce bag breakage.
At the same time, the vertical filling and sealing machine provided by the machine manufacturer can produce four-corner sealed bags. For example, Snack Factory purchased Sandiacre's TG320-LDQ bagging machine, which can produce square-edged, spired Quad Pack-type bags for foods such as rows of forks, Indian scones, and corn crisps. Although Snack Factory's current bag styles are within Sandiacre's Quad Pack package style, the bagging machine can produce other styles and sizes of pockets using standard exchange parts.
Sandiacre's Quad Pack was exhibited at the World Packaging Conference. The seal width of each corner can be adjusted between 4 and 12 mm. The seal can be on the back of the bag or on a fin corner. You can also choose to make only two corners finned, which can increase the fastness. , improve the appearance.
Bosch introduced its SVE 2510 QR bag angle sealer, which can be as small as 2mm, which saves material. However, it can also increase the width of the sealing angle to 8 mm in order to increase the sealing strength according to customer needs. The continuous motion SVE 2510 QR is able to produce angle seals at very low heights, which will reduce the rate of breakage of the product and make it easy to match existing equipment. The device can easily switch between corner seals and pillows, the maximum speed of 80 per minute, 80% higher than the speed of ordinary intermittent operation equipment.
At the Ipack-Ima International Packaging, Material Handling, Food Processing and Machinery Exhibition in Milan, Quattro Seal exhibited the latest developments in four-corner closures. Quattro Seal's accessories can be installed on any Ricciarelli bagging machine, making switching time-saving, simple and without much technical operation. The previous system needed to set the details of all four corners, and the Ricciarelli system installed four corner-sealing elements on the forming tube, and simply changed the setting of the plug of the separate coupling. Once the setup is complete, the capping system starts working immediately.
Re-sealable pocket packaging to mature
At the same time, in the past 4 to 5 years, there have been breakthroughs in the manufacture of re-sealing machines for vertical form-fill-seal machines. They use Zippers, stickers or pressure-sensitive labels. These developments have led to an increase in the number of re-sealable bags, which has allowed them to reach 30% market share.
Different technology zipper bags
Zipper zipper bags first appeared in the early 1990s and used to grind cheese and candy. In the early days of this form of packaging, the forming tube on the machine was rotated ninety degrees to attach a zip at the fin seal, which became the top of the bag. This means that the width of the bag when it is laid flat on one side is longer than when the bag is actually full, so the zipper material used is more than necessary.
Bosch's Trans-Zip sealable pouches are mounted on its SVK 3600 vertical forming-filling-sealing machine. This part is cut from a shaft of a suitable length of the mother-size zipper, pre-press it on the film, and then the film into the host's molding shoulder is made into a bag, then filled with bags, sealing, zip closure.
In general, the zipper is usually mounted on the long side, that is, on the mouth of the bag. In contrast, Bosch's zipper has many advantages. First of all, because the zipper is mounted on the short side of the bag, many materials can be saved, and at the same time, the position of the security is narrower, which also saves a certain percentage of packaging materials. In addition, this also means that the bag with the corner closure and square bottom can also be zippered like a flat bag.
Bosch also announced that they have developed a heat-sealing technology that automatically controls the temperature so that self-adhesive materials can be used and an easy-to-open-and-close seal can be added to the zipper. When it is not necessary to seal repeatedly, the main machine can be switched to the conventional bag-making method, only need to replace a different molding shoulder, this process can be completed in 15 to 20 minutes.
Since 1998, most of the bagging machines supplied by major bagging machine manufacturers have zipper mounting accessories. In fact, the modular construction of the latest machines and servo drives enable manufacturers to attach zipper mounters as accessories to conventional bag machines, which can also be used for other types of bags.
Line Equipment of the UK has introduced a horizontal zipper mounting system that can interface with a vertical form-fill-seal machine at a very low cost. The Reseal 360X can be fitted with the cheaper, narrower Keyseal zipper manufactured by Supreme Plastics. This device has a multi-slot rotating drum that cuts material, presses both ends, and press-welds at different stages. This drum replaces the original position of the printer and is located close to the molding shoulder, reducing the pull on the plastic film and ensuring accuracy. On the side is the material shaft. Underneath the transverse seal, there is a pair of jaws that press the zipper against the plastic film. This film can be used as a modified atmosphere laminated composite film for products such as cheese, or as a single layer frozen food polyethylene film. Only one signal is needed at work to allow the host to start a re-sealable packaging operation.
More secure adhesive seal pockets
Zippers are not the only way to open and close repeatedly. Although zippers are becoming narrower and cheaper, self-adhesive and labeling machinery suppliers still insist that their products can save more.
For example, Fuji's vertical forming-filling-sealing machine is equipped with easy-to-open and sticky film parts that are cheap to stick and can be made into bags of any width as required. The Re-Seal It system installed on the Fuji FW-77 vertical bagging machine opens and seals bags of snacks, pastas, candies and other loose products, as well as free-flowing products such as tea and coffee, to prevent spillage, moisture or Aroma loss. Unlike other methods of repeated sealing, this system does not increase the cost of using plastic materials. The most important thing is to increase the safety of use of the customer. It does not need to use scissors or knife openings. The pockets for snacks can be opened like envelopes and consume less material. The Re-Seal It system first punches a conventional wrapping film to create a closure cap that is held in place by a number of small grooves. Then, a film label with a peelable sticker is attached to the closure cap and secured. . Fuji FW-77 bagging machine can reach a maximum speed of 100 per minute, the size of the bag can be 70mm ~ 250mm wide, 50mm ~ 350mm long.
Another example of adhesive seal pockets is PFM. Their vertical form-fill-seal machines produce easy-to-open, new EasyPack bags, including stand-up pouches. The EasyPack bag is sealed due to inflation, but it can be easily opened without shearing or tearing. Simply remove a sticky tape. When the strip was removed, a piece of waxed paper was exposed. Underneath the waxed paper was a self-adhesive material that could be used to close the bag.
Source: Sugar and Alcohol News
