Small pellets in soft bags

A processing and combination packaging manufacturer has developed new packaging solutions for manufacturers specializing in the production of small dry products, from traditional paper bags and boxes to strong, flexible, consumer-friendly soft bag packaging. The brand image has been greatly improved.

Seven years ago, Flex Pack USA, Inc., a US-based film processor in Florida, began experimenting with the introduction of flexible, flexible film bag technology, and found that there was a lot of room for growth in this market. At the time, there was already a supplier of industrial low-density polyethylene film products on the market, and Flex Pack initially provided its customers with soft bags from its UK production site. Soon, the company began to use semi-automatic filling equipment to provide packaged packaging business. In 2003, when “flexible and convenient” became the trend of the market, the company boldly invested 5 million US dollars to obtain the production capacity of film production and packaging bag manufacturers.

Mr. Rod Ali, Sales Manager of Flex Pack, said: “About two years ago, we installed an extruder, a printing press, a laminator, a slit rewinder, and a soft bag maker. As well as a fully automated filling machine, we built this line in the United States because many customers are reluctant to purchase soft bag packaging from foreign suppliers, and they are reluctant to spend so much round-trip time. There is a production facility for soft bags, so the best way to control production time and efficiency is to complete all processes by yourself."

Film soft bag has obvious advantages

Flex Pack specializes in the production and filling of soft bags for dry, small grain products, mainly sugar products. The company's business scope also includes other foods such as salt, pepper and snack foods, as well as non-food products such as horticultural and pet products, pharmaceuticals Epsom salt. Ali explained: "This is due to the construction of our equipment. We can fill a variety of dry, small-grained products."

As Flex Pack describes, the advantages of using soft-bag packaging for dry, small-grained products are obvious. Ali described a typical application for PD Magazine. This is a recent project that requires the processing of 10-pound paper packages into convenient packages for suppliers of sugar products. “Our customers are looking for a way to differentiate themselves in a wide range of sugar commodities, and the packaging must also be strong and durable to reduce the rate of return due to package breakage. They currently use a 10-pound bag. The problem is that the packaging material is paper. The paper packaging has relatively narrow application conditions and is not strong, so customers often face packaging damage and returns. Therefore, it is a natural choice for them to turn to flexible packaging."

“We just used the original packaging design. We changed the packaging from four-sided paper bags to two-sided film bags.” The bags were stamped with anti-printed 12-micron polyester and 125-micron linear LDPE material. Made. LDPE is a mixture of three layers of material that satisfies the soft bag's ten-pound load-bearing strength requirements.

Ali said that the choice of flexible film bag packaging also because of its excellent isolation characteristics. He further explained: "The air permeability of paper bags is very good, so when sugar is put in paper bags, the sugar becomes very hard. And the soft bags we use have very good isolation effect, so there is no oxygen at all. Circulation. If the sugar really hardens, you can squeeze the bag out of the bag without breaking the bag itself."

Another advantage of using a flexible film bag is that it has a smooth surface and a beautiful appearance. The bag is lightly printed with four colors, and its stand-up bag bottom allows the bag to stand on the shelf. This has a better market effect. In addition, Presto Products' Fresh-Lock® zipper, which can be used for re-encapsulation, allows the user to store the sugar in the original package without pouring it into another container. Ali said: "Every time a user takes sugar from a cupboard, they will see the product's name, which also strengthens the brand effect of the product."

Film soft bag processing

Because Flex Pack has the capability of double-sided processing and in-house packaging, Flex Pack can process products approximately four weeks after the processor contacts the business. Ali said: "A typical processor does not have to set up the drawing department. Usually, all he has to do is buy films, print and press. Because we have everything ready, we only need four to four steps from drawing to finishing. Six weeks.” This is mainly the time it takes the processor to purchase the film and deliver it. In fact, the typical situation is that the task can be completed in two weeks, from where we get orders, produce soft bags and fill until the product is shipped.

Flex Pack's bag manufacturing equipment is housed in a 75,000 square foot facility along with the processing department. The factory has 100 employees. The filling process was completed in another separate 45,000-square-foot building - the company's third building since the supply of soft bags - with 50 employees. Ken Dorey, Flex Pack’s vice president of operations, said: “In business terms, we actually see them as two separate production lines. One is for processing and the other is for combined packaging of granular products. In practice, It is impossible for these two devices to co-exist in the same set of facilities."

On the manufacturing side, Flex Pack uses two Ro-An Industries Freedom Series RSU-30 soft bag makers to produce this flexible, flexible bag. The 30-in. wide machine is servo-driven and can produce soft bags with bottom or three-side closures at speeds up to 4800 per hour. The standard features of the device include a touch screen interface and job setup functions. The job data is stored in memory and can be restarted at any time. The Flex-Pack utilizes the machine's gapless punches and dies to produce hand-held soft bags, and can also be zippered online. Off-line, Flex Pack can add nozzle equipment designed and assembled.

Filling/packaging with high precision and speed

For packaging, Flex Pack uses two AMS A100 semi-automatic volumetric screw fillers that were purchased shortly after the company began supplying flexible, flexible bag products. The AMS filling system is used for rapid packaging of non-white sugar products and its production speed is 30 bags/minute. Dorey said: "AMS, we have always been good, the service provided to our customers is also very good. The device is very user-friendly, friendly operation, our staff had a very good understanding of the machine within a week. ”

According to AMS, the filling accuracy of the system is about ±1%, and it is very flexible. It can fill soft bags with capacities from 100 mg to 50 pounds. The Flex Pack uses this device to fill 14 to 25 pounds of product and then seals the bag with MPS 6000 and MPS 7000 sealers from Emplex. The pouch will then be printed with one of two printers, the Domino A100 and Domino A200 series printers, all from Domino Amjet.

The latest Flex Pack filling machine is an automatic prefabricated bag filling and sealing machine from a private company. The machine can accommodate flexible bags ranging in size from 6.3x11.4 to 4.7x16.9 inches. As Dorey said, it also adds some custom-made elements so that it can fill 2 to 10 pound bags. The maximum speed of the equipment is 50/min, depending on the size of the packaging bag; for a packaging capacity of 10 pounds, the average speed is 22/min.

Another advantage of using a flexible film bag is that it has a smooth surface and a beautiful appearance. The bag is lightly printed with four colors, and its stand-up bag bottom allows the bag to stand on the shelf.

Ali said that Flex Pack took a while to adapt to the use of automated machines, but it is worth it. He said: "Using this automated equipment in this industry is very unusual." He also explained: "We are not the only company filling a soft bag of sugar, many other companies use molding / filling / Sealing integrated equipment, and our company's machines only use pre-formed soft bags, so we do not have to spend too much time to care about every aspect of the filling production process. This is produced from the perspective of package integrity. The quality of the soft bag will be better, because it is done on one device, not on a production line, and there will be no problem of contamination and dust in the sealed area during filling.

Currently, this filling/packaging device is used only on 10 pound bags and runs on Flexpack when it receives 50,000 pounds of sugar per day. Every day, three trucks of white sugar are brought in. These sugars are placed alongside Flex Pack's equipment. They are then piped through the roof to the silo. The filling machine must then suck the sugar from the silo into the funnel above the machine, and then the sugar enters the filling machine by gravity. Dorey said: "The only manual operation required for this machine is to send empty soft bags, and the machine does not need to rest."

The weighing station for filling/packaging equipment is computer controlled and CAM driven so that the operator can adjust weight, package temperature and other free parameters. When the bag is delivered to the machine, the suction machine secures the bag and inflates it to hold the bag to maximum. After the bag is filled, a data code is received at the bottom of the stand bag. A sensor on the machine will remind the screw filler that the bag has been filled.

Once the pouch is filled, the jaws of the machine close the pouch and hold it in place to hold the pouch so that the seal can effectively complete the seal. The sealed pouch is fed out of the machine through a delivery device.

Source: Packaging Expo