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Bag Formats and Changeovers on a VFFS Line
Dennis Feldbusch, Area Sales Manager at Hastamat, says a multihead weigher runs many products without changes, and a bag-size changeover on a weigher, transfer system and bagger combination takes no more than 20 minutes. Hastamat's vertical form-fill-seal machines produce pillow, gusset, block bottom, four corner seal and doy style bags. Thomas Bornemann, Director Sales & Marketing, describes intermittent, continuous motion and vertical-horizontal bagging systems.
Key takeaways
- Dennis Feldbusch says a multihead weigher can run many different products with the same setup, and the transfer system is designed for quick, tool-less changeover.
- On a multihead weigher, transfer system and bagger combination, Dennis Feldbusch says changing to another bag size takes no more than 20 minutes.
- Thomas Bornemann describes three bagging systems: intermittent for slower speeds, continuous motion for higher speeds, and a vertical-horizontal combination for special top seam shapes.
Common questions
- How long does a bag size changeover take on a VFFS line?
- According to Dennis Feldbusch of Hastamat, on a multihead weigher, transfer system and bagger combination, changing the format to another bag size takes no more than 20 minutes. The transfer system is designed for quick, easy, tool-less changeover, and the multihead weigher itself can run many products without changing anything.
- What types of vertical baggers are there?
- Thomas Bornemann of Hastamat describes three kinds of bagging systems: intermittent machines, which are more for slower speeds; continuous motion machines, designed for higher speeds; and a combination of vertical and horizontal systems to produce very special kinds of top seam shapes.
- What bag styles can a vertical form-fill-seal machine produce?
- Dennis Feldbusch of Hastamat says their vertical form-fill-seal machine can produce pillow bags, gusset bags, block bottom bags, four corner seal bags and doy style bags on the same bagger system. Changing bag style means changing some size parts, with some adaptations for four corner seal or quad seal.
Transcript
Tom Rougeux, President, Piepenbrock Packaging
Can a single line handle multiple SKUs, flavors and bag sizes without excessive changeover time, or how is the changeover made? Is there anything that you can do to save time in changeover?
Dennis Feldbusch, Area Sales Manager, Hastamat
I would say in general, when we start with a multihead weigher, the multihead weigher is very flexible, and so you can run with the same setup, with the same design, a lot of different kind of products without changing anything. And when we're talking about the bagger beneath, for sure we have format parts, size parts, to have another bag style, to have another bag size, and also the transfer system between the multihead weigher and the bagger. We design in a way that you can have a very quick changeover, very easy, tool-less, so very convenient for the operator. And I would say for a multi-head bagger, transfer system, multihead weigher, transfer system, bagger combination, if you change the format to another bag size, you will not need more than 20 minutes.
Tom Rougeux
Then beneath the transfer system you mentioned bagging system. So what kind of bagging systems, and basically how do they work in simple terms?
Thomas Bornemann, Director Sales & Marketing, Hastamat
So we have especially three different kind of packaging or bagging system. Let's say one is the intermittent machine, which is more for slower speeds. Then we have the continuous motion machine, which is designed for higher speeds. And then we have a combination of a vertical and the horizontal systems to produce very special kind of top seam shapes.
Tom Rougeux
Okay, so you can fill, the bagger system is, the product goes into the bag, and how that bag is made depends on what kind of bagger is involved, is that correct?
Dennis Feldbusch
Yes. What kind of bag style the customer wants.
Tom Rougeux
I see. And briefly, what kind of bags do you specialize in, or do you use? What's the range?
Dennis Feldbusch
So what we can do with our vertical form-fill-seal machine, our bagger, is starting from a normal pillow bag, gusseting bags, block bottom bags, also four corner seal bags, and also, we call it, doy style bag. So you can do it on the same bagger system, with some adaptions for sure when you're talking about four corner seal or quad seal, but in general there are some size parts you have to change to run another bag style I mentioned before.
