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How a VFFS Machine Seals a Bag: Jaws and Film
Thomas Bornemann, Director Sales & Marketing at Hastamat, explains that a vertical form-fill-seal machine seals film with temperature in combination with pressure, applied by the cross jaws, and that jaw design has a big impact on seam quality and bag tightness. Dennis Feldbusch, Area Sales Manager, says Hastamat tests the customer's own film in its test center, and that film choice can affect speed.
Key takeaways
- Thomas Bornemann explains that the film is sealed by temperature in combination with pressure, and that laminates and mono materials require different sealing systems.
- Cross jaw design has a big impact on seam quality and bag tightness, and Thomas Bornemann says jaws are designed specifically for the application.
- Dennis Feldbusch says Hastamat tests the customer's film in its test center as a standard procedure, and that film choice, especially paper-based film, can affect speed.
Common questions
- How does a vertical form-fill-seal machine seal the bag?
- According to Thomas Bornemann of Hastamat, the film is sealed by temperature in combination with pressure, applied by the cross jaws. Different packaging materials, such as laminates and mono materials, require different kinds of sealing or welding systems.
- How does sealing jaw design affect seal quality?
- Thomas Bornemann of Hastamat says the type or style of the sealing jaws has a big impact on the quality of the seam and the tightness of the bag. Hastamat has different cross jaw designs for different films, designed specifically for the application.
- How are sealing settings determined for a new packaging film?
- According to Dennis Feldbusch of Hastamat, testing is a standard procedure, especially with new customers. Hastamat gets the customer's film up front and tests it in its test center, for example at 130 or 150 degrees, to see whether the bag is closed, sealed, tight and watertight, depending on the request for the bag. Experience helps, but the test with the customer's film decides.
Transcript
Tom Rougeux, President, Piepenbrock Packaging
Tell us about how a bag is sealed. How does a form fill and seal system actually work? Walk us through where the product comes from, how the bag is closed, and how these continuous product machines actually work.
Thomas Bornemann, Director Sales & Marketing, Hastamat
I mean, in general, we have a sealing or a material, a packaging material, with different characteristics. So that means we can handle different materials. So it means one type of material is a laminate, and the second type of material is a mono material.
Yeah, and this material requires different kind of sealing or welding systems, yeah.
Tom Rougeux
So how do you, what physically seals the film?
Thomas Bornemann
It's a temperature.
Tom Rougeux
Temperature?
Thomas Bornemann
Yes, temperature in combination with pressure.
Tom Rougeux
What's the apparatus called that seals that? Is it a special machine, or is it a part of the machine? What's it called?
The jaws?
Thomas Bornemann
Yeah, the cross jaws, yes.
Tom Rougeux
Cross jaws, sealing jaws?
Thomas Bornemann
Yeah, that's one part of the system, yeah.
Tom Rougeux
Okay. So how does that, how does jaw design, sealing jaw design, film structure, that kind of thing, how does that affect whether a package will seal correctly? How do you ensure that the package is going to seal?
Thomas Bornemann
I mean, the type or style of the cross, or in general, of the sealing jaws have a big impact to the quality of the seam, and the tightness of the bag at the end. So that means we have for different films also different designs of cross jaws, yeah.
Tom Rougeux
Are they all designed specific to the application?
Thomas Bornemann
Yes.
Tom Rougeux
Okay. And is there a right temperature? Is there a right dwelling time?
Is there a right pressure? How do you determine that for a film that you've not seen before?
Dennis Feldbusch, Area Sales Manager, Hastamat
Like we said at the beginning, we will test it before. So this is normally a standard procedure, especially with new customers. When they already have a film they're using, we will get the film in upfront, and we will test it in our test center.
And then we can see at 130 degrees, at 150 degrees, the bag is closed, it's sealed, it's tight, it's watertight. So depending also on the request for the bag. So for sure we have some experience, but at the end it's a test, or testing with a film the customer will use.
Tom Rougeux
Does the customer's choice of film make any difference to you? How fast the machine runs? Does it all run the same speed?
Or how does film choice make a difference?
Dennis Feldbusch
It makes a difference for sure, yeah.
So not every film is the same, especially now or today when we're talking about paper-based film, yeah. So that's a completely different story, which can for sure impact the speed at the end, yeah. But you cannot say we can run with this film always 150 bags per minute, so it's really depending on the layers on the film, how thick it is, so there are different points we have to take care of.
