Forming Archives - Greener Corporation

Fill Knowledge Gaps to Achieve Package Quality & Productivity Goals on Flow Wrappers & Vertical FFS Baggers

Michael Wojtech — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 15:53:30 +0000

A Tech Bite from Greener Vice-President & co-owner Matt Wojtech

Many packagers report high turnover rates with their mechanics and other technical staff. The resulting shortage of long-term, hands-on experience creates significant knowledge gaps.

This Greener Tech Bite outlines a series of essential questions that must be answered to successfully solve problems and achieve your package quality and productivity goals on flow wrappers and vertical FFS baggers.

If your technical staff does not have the experience to address some or all of these questions, Greener Corporation’s Technical Specialists can help you find the answers you need and provide training to expand your team’s knowledge base.

1. Flexible Packaging Material

Do the capabilities of your flexible packaging material match both your product’s protection needs and your production throughput requirements?

Product Protection Requirements

Your product may require hermetic seals, but your material’s structure may not be capable of producing this level of seal integrity.

Or you may be using an expensive material structure capable of hermetic seals when your product does not require that level of protection.

Seal Testing Methods

Do your seal testing methods appropriately measure your seal integrity requirements?

Machine Speed / Throughput

Is your flexible packaging material capable of producing the seal integrity you require at the machine speeds needed to reach your throughput levels?

The material’s manufacturing seal range should be determined to answer this question.

2. Scrap

It is also important to understand the impact of scrap on your packaging process.

Scrap Rate & Cost

What is the current scrap rate, and what is the cost?

Causes & Solutions

What causes scrap, and what needs to change to reduce the scrap rate?

3. Machine Speed & Efficiency

The setup of your flow wrapper or vertical bagger is also crucial. Do your current setup and adjustments fully optimize machine speed and efficiency?

These include mechanical settings, such as sealing jaw serration alignment and knife adjustment; dwell or pause adjustments; temperature settings; and sealing pressure adjustments.

4. Product Presentation

Looking upstream from the wrapper or bagger, is the presentation of the product accurate and consistent?

Vertical Form Fill Seal Baggers

On vertical baggers, are charges of product accurately measured by the scale? Do they stay compact and flow consistently into the bag forming process?

Horizontal Flow Wrappers

Is the product feed into your flow wrapper accurately synchronized with the wrapping process?

Add Experience to Fill Knowledge Gaps

With over 60 years of experience, Greener Corporation can help you fill knowledge gaps that prevent you from achieving your package quality and productivity goals.

Our Technical Specialists will evaluate your whole process, from product production and infeed to finished packages, and help you:

Recognize problems and opportunities
Find solutions
Train and increase the knowledge base of your technical staff

Contact Greener Corporation to get the broad-based, technical service and training you need. We provide integrated parts and technical services worldwide.

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How Product Issues Cause Forming and Sealing Problems on Flow Wrappers

Michael Wojtech — Tue, 26 May 2026 17:35:36 +0000

A Tech Bite from Greener Technical Service Manger Jeff Fouche

When you’re troubleshooting problems on flow wrappers, it’s important to evaluate the whole production process, including those that occur upstream from the wrapper.

This Greener Tech Bite presents examples where product production issues caused package forming and sealing problems.

Fractured End Seals

On a flow wrapper that packaged on edge slugs of crackers, a client reported that the sealing jaws had begun to fracture the seals.

The fracturing was intermittent, on some but not all packages, and occurred mostly at the edge of the seal closest to the product.

What Has Changed?

A Greener Technical Specialist visited the client to help resolve the problem. He began by searching for changes on the packaging line that could be causing the fracturing.

Flexible Packaging Material?

The flexible packaging material remained the same.

Sealing Jaw Design?

The sealing jaws had been producing good seals before the problem appeared.

Sealing Jaw Condition, Alignment, or Clearance?

Carbon impressions didn’t indicate worn or damaged serrations that would split the seals, and they confirmed that alignment and clearance were adjusted accurately.

Package Formation?

On fractured and unfractured packages, the tightness of the tube, fin seal width, and the size and location of the gussets were similar. But although the packages were all the same overall length, the fractured packages had more crackers in them than those that weren’t fractured.

Product?

During the sealing process, there was not enough space between the slugs with extra crackers. and the tube was suspended too tightly between them. As the sealing jaws rotated together and compressed the tube, they were fracturing the package.

Why did some packages have extra crackers? We looked upstream, to the product production process, for answers.

An oil sprayer was malfunctioning. Crackers that didn’t receive enough oil weighed less than usual, and additional crackers were automatically being added to some slugs to reach the correct package weight.

Solution

When the oiler was fixed, the number of crackers in each slug remained consistent and the fracturing problem was eliminated.

Product Feed and Seal Integrity Problems

Another client was experiencing chronic problems with product feed and poor seal integrity on a line that wrapped extruded snack bars. Sometimes the snacks hesitated and didn’t feed cleanly through the forming box, creating wrinkles in the packages that caused channel leakers.

El ancho del sellado de aleta era inconsistente y, a menudo, demasiado estrecho; por consiguiente, el material de envasado no se guiaba correctamente y la aleta se soltaba con frecuencia de las discos de aleta.

Los snacks fuera de centro con respecto a su longitud y marca de la fotocelda fueron frecuentemente cortados por las mordazas al rotar conjuntamente.

In this case, product size was the inconsistent variable; the product feed and seal integrity issues occurred when snack bars were oversized.

Refinements to the portioning process made product size more consistent and alleviated the chronic problems.

More Product Issues

We’ve seen similar product feed and seal integrity issues that were caused by a sticky, chocolate enrobed product that wasn’t cooled properly, by a snack cake that was too gummy because the batter wasn’t mixed thoroughly enough, and by many other product related issues.

Problem Resolution

Effective problem resolution on flow wrappers must consider the full range of product production, product feed, and packaging processes.

Comprehensive training for mechanics and machine operators is an essential part of this integrated approach, especially with the high turnover rates and shortage of long-term experience that many packagers are facing.

When you need help with Problem Resolution and Training, contact Greener Corporation. We provide integrated parts and technical services worldwide.

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Maintain Efficiency on Flow Wrappers with Systematic Preventative Maintenance

Michael Wojtech — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 16:46:06 +0000

A Tech Bite from Greener Technical Service Manger Jeff Fouche

Due to production demands and a shortage of experienced mechanics, maintenance on flow wrappers is often reduced to immediate problem solving. In the rush to restore production, this reactive maintenance relies on short-term fixes that don’t fully resolve the underlying cause of the problem and fail to restore peak efficiency. Repeat problems require additional quick fixes and further erode efficiency.

This Greener Tech Bite details systematic preventative maintenance practices for flow wrappers that sustain peak efficiency and production levels.

If you and your team don’t have the required time or experience to implement preventative maintenance, Greener’s Technical Specialists can provide regularly scheduled onsite visits to perform line evaluations, make necessary updates, and provide training on these procedures.

Systematic Preventative Maintenance

The following flow wrapper components and adjustments—from the product feed through to the package discharge—should be evaluated and updated at least every three months.

Product Infeed

On the product infeed, stretched or worn components cause product misalignment and create timing problems. Replace worn or stretched infeed flight chains. Inspect the belts—even those with automatic tensioners—and replace them if they are stretched, worn, or frayed and can’t hold the proper tension.

The product infeed should be level and aligned with the flow wrapper.

Rails – Deck Plates – Forming Box

Check the rails, deck plates, and the forming box for misalignment or damage and readjust, repair, or replace them as needed.

When not level, smooth, or properly positioned, these components inhibit movement of the product and packaging material, causing malformed packages that delay production.

Packaging Material Unwind

Replace the bearings of shafts and rollers on the packaging material unwind that don’t spin freely; they create excess tension that causes tracking problems.

Adjust rollers to create the proper tension on the packaging material as it moves throught he forming process.

Fin Wheels

Fin wheel issues can cause slippage, poor tracking, and seal problems. Make sure that the tension between the fin wheels is correct and adjust their tilt to prevent slippage and create tighter packages.

Replace fin wheels that are worn, damaged, or have sharp edges. Check the condition of the fin wheel bearings and replace them if needed.

Cutting and Sealing Head

The cutting and sealing head requires frequent inspection and updating.

Backlash

Check for and remove backlash between the upper and lower sealing jaws.

Gears

Inspect the gears and replace them if necessary.

Springs or Compression Washers

Assess the condition of the springs or compression washers and adjust or replace them as needed.

Bearings

Worn bearings cause chronic problems that can be difficult to diagnose. To determine if new bearings are needed, follow this bearing evaluation process.

Carbon Impression

Next, remove the knives and anvils and, with the sealing jaws at operating temperature, run carbon impressions to evaluate their condition and setup.

Sealing Jaws and Adjustments

Replace worn or damaged sealing jaws. Check and, if needed, readjust the clearance, phasing, serration alignment, and pressure.

Clean the slots to ensure that knives and anvils can be firmly and accurately seated. To prevent cutting problems, always replace the anvil when installing a new knife.

After adjusting the knife with shims or adjustment screws, re-check your sealing setup with another carbon impression.

Cleaning

At any point in the packaging process, insufficient cleaning can degrade efficiency.

Clean components such as belts, formers, deck plates, fin wheels, and both the upper and lower sealing jaws during scheduled production breaks and whenever time allows—before problems occur.

Regularly Scheduled Preventative Maintenance with Greener Corporation

Relying on reactive maintenance erodes package quality and output levels.

If you don’t have a systematic preventative maintenance program for your flow wrappers, consider partnering with Greener Corporation for regularly scheduled Technical Service visits. Our Technical Specialists will perform line evaluations, make necessary updates, and provide training to keep your flow wrappers running at peak efficiency.

To learn more contact Greener Corporation. We provide integrated parts and technical service solutions worldwide.

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QUICK TIPS: Troubleshooting Forming Problems on Vertical FFS Baggers

Michael Wojtech — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 16:13:42 +0000

A Tech Bite from Greener Vice-President & co-owner Matt Wojtech

This Greener Tech Bite, in partnership with Kenray Forming, provides QUICK TIPS for troubleshooting three common forming problems on vertical baggers: torn or broken packaging material, wrinkled and scored packages, and open back seals.

Former Design and Precision

Both proper design and consistently precise fabrication of formers are critical to their proper function.

Shoulder Geometry

Incorrect shoulder geometry can tear or break the packaging material, create wrinkles, and cause open back seals.

Crossover Point

Tearing and breakage are also caused by sharp edges or by inadequate clearance at the crossover point on the former.

If the crossover point is mispositioned, open back seals can result.

Clearance Between the Tube and Shoulder

The clearance between the forming tube and forming shoulder must be the proper dimension and must remain consistent around this intersection.

Improper clearance, often created by imprecise former geometry and misalignment between the tube and shoulder, is a common cause of chronic forming issues.

Pinch points where this clearance is too narrow create excess tension that can tear or break the packaging material.

These pinch points also create score marks that degrade package appearance and can reduce the material’s barrier capacity.

Kenray’s unique manufacturing process allows them to fabricate formers with precise, constant clearance between the shoulder and the tube, so they can provide narrower clearance widths, without pinch points, that produce more accurate, consistent bag sizes.

Formers without Kenray’s unique level of precision must have wider clearance between the tube and shoulder to avoid pinch points, which can result in more variable bag sizes, wrinkles, and other issues.

Former Condition

Former condition is also important. Over time, the packaging material wears the lip of the forming shoulder as it moves across it and can eventually create an uneven edge, often referred to as shark’s teeth.

This rough edge creases the material and creates jagged score marks down the outside surface of the package.

Formers should be regularly inspected and replaced or refurbished when the shoulder begins to wear.

Former Adjustment

Former misadjustments are another cause of forming problems.

Rollers that are adjusted too far back can cause score marks on the inside and outside of the bag.

Formers that are not correctly positioned can cause open back seals.

Troubleshooting Forming Problems on Vertical FFS Baggers

The design, precision, condition, and adjustment of the formers on your vertical baggers—even the seemingly smallest details—can have a big impact on package quality and productivity.

Do you need to troubleshoot forming problems on your vertical baggers? Contact Greener Corporation and Kenray Forming. We provide integrated parts and technical service solutions worldwide.

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Align Flow Wrapper Packaging Processes on the Centerline

Michael Wojtech — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 09:34:35 +0000

A Tech Bite from Greener Technical Service Specialist Jeff Fouche

As product moves along the infeed and through your flow wrapper, each packaging process should accurately align on the centerline. This Greener Tech Bite explains how to detect and fix even small, seemingly insignificant misalignment of flow wrapper packaging processes that degrade package quality and delay production.

Symptoms of Misalignment

Symptoms of centerline misalignment include loosely wrapped packages, uneven fin seals that easily pull free from the fin wheels, and package wrinkles and pleats that cause sealing problems.

Assess Your Alignment

1. Align the Product Feed

First, make sure the product infeed is inline with your wrapper. Infeeds often get moved out of position and deliver the product at an angle, causing a number of chronic problems.

2. Center the Forming Box

Forming box adjustments can often be improved, especially if they have been moved off-center to compensate for product entering the wrapper at an angle. Ensure that the forming box is level, centered, and aligned with the product feed.

The packaging material tube should form evenly around the product, without wrinkles or gaps, and should help maintain the inline spacing between products to prevent them from interfering with the cutting and sealing process.

3. Center the Fin Wheels

Also make sure each pair of fin wheels is on the centerline.

Misaligned fin wheels create loosely wrapped, wrinkled packages that are more difficult to cut and seal.

4. Center the Sealing Jaws

On some flow wrappers the shafts have multiple mounting hole options. Make sure both the upper and lower sealing jaws are installed on center in relation to the package.

5. Center the Packaging Material Roll

Now check the packaging material roll and align it on center. The material may have been mounted off center to compensate for misalignments in other areas of the packaging process.

Once the first four processes and the packaging material roll are centered, the edges of the fin seal should meet evenly and create a clean, parallel edge.

6. Center the Product Rails

With the material on the center line, you can center the product rails so that they guide the product correctly into the forming box.

Remember to align flow wrapper packaging processes on the centerline as part of your preventative maintenance program and to resolve packaging problems.

If you have questions about preventative maintenance or packaging problems on your flow wrappers or vertical baggers, contact Greener Corporation. We provide integrated parts and technical service solutions worldwide.

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Forming on Flow Wrappers: Adjusting Flexible Packaging Material Tension

Michael Wojtech — Mon, 26 May 2025 07:40:17 +0000

A Tech Bite from Greener Technical Service Specialist Jeff Fouche

Problems with the forming process on flow wrappers have a big impact on package appearance and seal quality. This Greener Tech Bite explains how to adjust the tension on your flexible packaging material as it moves through the forming process to produce tightly wrapped, well sealed packages that are free from stretch marks and wrinkles.

Adjusting Flexible Packaging Material Tension

This tension can be adjusted by changing the position of the final, “dance” roller, which controls the angle at which the material enters the forming box. The rollers that come before the dance roller are also important and should not be bypassed—they help prevent the tension from fluctuating during production.

A lower angle creates less tension on the material and tightens the wrap. Higher angles create more tension and loosen the wrap.

Inspect the quality of your packages to determine if you have too much or not enough tension.

Not Enough Tension

Problems with tracking, uneven fin seals, and end seal wrinkles occur when there is not enough tension on the packaging material as it moves through the forming process,

Raise the dance roller to increase the angle of entry and the tension on the packaging material until these symptoms dissipate.

Too Much Tension

Too much tension causes loosely wrapped packages, stretch marks or wrinkles in the fin seal, and narrow, undersized fin seals that pull out of the fin wheels and require downtime for the material to be rethreaded.

When these symptoms occur, lower the dance roller to decrease the angle of entry and the tension.

Optimal Tension Level

The optimal tension level on the material as it moves through the forming process depends on your product, forming box design, and the structure of your flexible packaging material.

A new material may have a different thickness, stiffness, or other characteristics that alter its performance.

Structures with more stretch require the angle of entry to be reduced, to decrease tension.

Materials with less stretch often need a higher angle that increases tension.

When conditions change, evaluate trial packages and adjust the dance roller as needed.

If you’d like recommendations for improving the package formation process on your flow wrappers, send us sample packages or photos.

Greener Corporation provides integrated parts and technical service solutions worldwide.

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Preventative Maintenance Quick Tips for Flow Wrappers and Vertical FFS Baggers

Michael Wojtech — Sun, 27 Oct 2024 12:20:59 +0000

Many simple, easily implemented setup and preventative maintenance steps on flow wrappers and vertical baggers can have an outsized effect on package quality and productivity.

This Greener Tech Bite presents a series of Quick Tips that prevent cutting, sealing, and forming problems and help you troubleshoot issues when they do occur.

Cutting

Clean Knife and Anvil Slots

The value of cleaning on a regular schedule, instead of waiting until product contamination causes problems, can’t be overstated.

To clean knife and anvil slots on rotary sealing jaws, cut a piece of scouring pad and push it down into the slot with a hex wrench. And don’t neglect to clean the anvil slot, even though it can be more challenging to access.

Product buildup in the slot creates an unstable base that can cause intermittent cutting problems and knife failure.

Sealing

Clean Sealing Jaws Regularly

Clean sealing jaws regularly, but don’t use stiff, coarse bristled brushes—they damage the serrations and cause sealing problems.

Brushes with finer, softer bristles are more forgiving. They can be trimmed in length to clean more effectively and to keep them from splaying out.

After cleaning the jaws, run a carbon impression to check the current set up so that you can make any necessary corrective adjustments before resuming production.

Install Sealing Jaws with New Bolts and Washers

Install sealing jaws with new mounting bolts and washers. Worn, damaged bolts and washers, which can easily go unnoticed, cause inaccurate mounting and make jaws difficult to remove in the future.

To ensure accurate setup and to prevent the jaws from shifting out of alignment, use hardened, flat washers to mount jaws on flat surfaces.

Spherical washers or, if they are not available, split washers are best for mounting jaws on round shafts.

Replace All Rotary Sealing Jaws at the Same Time

Replace all rotary sealing jaws on a machine at the same time, and make sure all the jaws come from the same supplier.

You may be tempted to replace only one jaw, or just one of multiple pairs, to save time or reduce costs. But inaccurate setup caused by sealing jaws with different wear levels and designs creates sealing problems.

Check Sealing Jaw Temperatures with a Pyrometer

Sealing jaws are often hotter in the middle than at the ends, where heat dissipates more quickly. The controller, however, does not reveal this variability, since it usually only indicates the temperature at one point within the jaw.

Use a pyrometer to regularly check multiple points across the functional length of the sealing face, to make sure temperatures remain within the seal range for your flexible packaging material and conditions.

Ongoing issues with inconsistent sealing temperatures can be solved with updated heater and sealing jaw designs.

Forming

Vertical Baggers: Maintain Proper Roller Adjustment

On vertical baggers, adjust the rollers to create even, consistent contact between the material and the forming collar wing—between positions 1 and 2 in the diagram.

Too much, too little, or uneven tension, demonstrated by positions 3 and 4, can cause wrinkles and creases that degrade package appearance and cause sealing problems.

Flow Wrappers: Adjust & Tighten Guide Rails & Deck Plates

On flow wrappers, make sure the product guide rails and deck plates are adjusted and tightened properly, and exercise care when removing and reinstalling deck plates—they can be easily bent or otherwise damaged.

Misadjusted rails or deck plates that are not level and smooth can inhibit the movement of the product and packaging material and cause malformed packages that delay production.

Also make sure the forming box is square and level.

Preventative Maintenance Quick Tips

By investing a relatively small amount of consistent time and effort, preventative maintenance can help you decrease problems that delay production and reduce package quality.

To learn more about solutions for improving package quality and productivity on flow wrappers and vertical baggers, visit our Technical Resource Blog and contact Greener Corporation.

We provide integrated parts and technical services worldwide.

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Flexible Packaging Materials Consulting

Michael Wojtech — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 17:10:52 +0000

Greener Corporation provides a broad range of Flexible Packaging Materials Consulting resources for flow wrappers and vertical baggers.

Whether you need to assess your current material or evaluate new structures, our materials and machinery experts can help you Establish Objectives, Identify Options, Run Trials, and to Select and Implement the material that best meets your objectives.

Integrated Solutions

Greener’s integrated approach considers how the design and condition of your flow wrappers or vertical baggers will affect results and determines what machine adjustments or component updates may be needed.

Early Involvement & Collaboration

The earlier in your selection project that we work with you, and the more we collaborate with packagers, machinery OEMs, and materials suppliers, the more effectively we can integrate four essential elements of your process to produce optimal, timely results.

1. Establish Packaging Objectives

Greener can help you establish clear packaging objectives, based on the requirements of your product, distribution channel, and other criteria, that provide important standards for evaluating a material’s performance.

Barrier Properties

Barrier Properties protect against the transfer of odors, gases, or moisture.

Seal Integrity

Seal Integrity should correlate with your barrier requirements.

Sustainability

Sustainable recyclable and compostable materials must meet specific compositional and structural guidelines.

Machinability

Machinability testing indicates how a material’s thickness, stiffness, coefficient of friction, thermal conductivity, and other properties affect the packaging process.

Cost

Per-package material cost and the anticipated costs of machine downtime and scrap rates must also be considered.

2. Identify New Material Options

If you are unable to meet your objectives with your current material, we can help determine a list of new material options—perhaps even suggesting materials you may not have considered.

3. Trials and Evaluations

To help narrow your initial list down to the most promising options, Greener can assist with preliminary machine trials at your facility or run these trials in our Packaging Lab.

We can then help you run more extensive trials with this refined list of materials.

Adjustments and Part Designs

Before you run trials, Greener can assess the characteristics of these materials and recommend machine adjustments or updates to former, sealing jaw, and other part designs that are needed to optimize results and get a truer picture of each material’s potential.

A new material that meets your objectives for sustainability, for instance, might require higher seal initiation temperatures and be more easily damaged by excess pressure.

Package Testing

To evaluate machine trial results, we’ll help you establish criteria and determine the best package testing methods. For example, if your product does not require a material with a strong oxygen barrier, then seal integrity does not need to be hermetic.

Packages can be tested at your facility or in our Packaging Lab.

4. Select and Implement New Material

Well executed machine trials and testing can be used to determine which flexible packaging material best meets your objectives in a production setting.

We will help you implement changes to adjustment procedures and component designs, along with any necessary training, on the wrappers or baggers that will run the new material and ensure consistent results across different makes or models of machinery and at multiple facilities.

Greener’s Flexible Packaging Materials Consulting provides an additional resource to help you integrate and improve all aspects of your packaging process.

To learn more about solutions for improving package quality and productivity on flow wrappers and vertical baggers, contact Greener Corporation. We provide integrated parts and technical services worldwide.

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Sustainable Packaging 3: Running Paper-Based Materials on Flow Wrappers and Vertical FFS Baggers

Michael Wojtech — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 11:28:21 +0000

Paper-based flexible packaging is increasingly considered as a sustainable alternative to polymer-based flexible packaging solutions.

Segment 3 in Greener’s Sustainability Series explores potential obstacles to forming and sealing paper-based materials on flow wrappers and vertical baggers and presents solutions for maintaining package quality and productivity with these new structures.

Paper-Based Flexible Packaging Materials

Characteristics

Four characteristics of paper affect its performance.

1. Sealability

First, paper is not sealable by itself. To be utilized in flexible packaging, paper must also include a cold seal adhesive or heat activated sealant layer.

Paper is also less thermally conductive than most polymer-based materials which may led to sealing problems.

2. Barrier

Paper alone does not provide adequate barrier protection and requires additional treatments to contain the product’s aroma and flavor and protect against outside contaminates.

3. Recyclability

To be considered recyclable, paper-based flexible packaging must contain at least 70-90% paper, depending on regional or national requirements.

This criterion limits the thickness of additional sealant and barrier layers and can affect their functionality.

4. Thickness and Stiffness

Paper-based materials also tend to be thicker and stiffer than traditional materials, with significantly less capacity for elongation.

Forming Issues

The characteristics of paper-based flexible packaging materials can make forming more difficult.

These thicker, stiffer materials require extra tension to draw them through the wrapper or bagger and can be easily buckled, wrinkled, and damaged by standard forming components, causing sealing problems and fractures to sealant and barrier coatings that leave them less effective.

These forming issues may not be readily apparent, so packages should be regularly tested.

Forming Solutions

Specialized Formers

Specialized formers designed for paper-based flexible packaging are often required to maintain even, consistent tracking that alleviates excess stress and damage.

Greener Corporation partners with Kenray Forming to provide these specialized forming solutions.

Power Film Drive

Wrappers and baggers without a power film drive may need this feature added, since relying exclusively on fin wheels or belts can magnify forming problems with paper-based materials.

Fin Wheels

On flow wrappers, customized fin wheel designs such as gripper grooves and Dura-Therm material may be needed to draw the thicker and stiffer material and prevent slippage.

Sealing Issues

Heat Sealing Problem

As explained in our previous Tech Bite, the effective seal range of a packaging material is defined as the difference between the seal initiation temperature and the distortion temperature.

With all materials, machine speeds are limited by the need to fit normal sealing jaw temperature cycles within the seal range.

Paper-based structures, with greater thickness, stiffness, lower thermal conductivity, and potentially thinner sealant layers, can require longer dwell times for heat from the sealing jaws to reach and activate the sealant. This reduces their seal range and may lead to sealing problems.

Reductions to machine speed may be necessary to seal the package and caulk off leaks.

Pressure

The heat transfer limitations of paper-based materials, along with their extra thickness and stiffness, can make it difficult to apply the sealing pressure required to produce quality seals—especially across gaps at the corners and at the fin or lap seal.

Sealing jaw setup and design become especially critical. The serrations must apply enough pressure to activate and help move the limited amounts of sealant into gaps to caulk off leaks, yet not exert excess pressure that crushes or splits these more easily damaged structures.

Sealing Solutions

Setup and Adjustments

Adjustments that work with traditional materials may need to be checked with carbon impressions and refined for greater accuracy.

Dura-Therm Sealing Jaws

Sealing Jaws made from Greener’s proprietary Dura-Therm alloy provide more responsive and consistent thermal conductivity to reduce temperature cycle fluctuations, helping to keep them within the paper-based material’s seal range and to maintain production speeds.

Sealing Jaw Serration Pattern

To provide the even, consistent heat transfer and sealing pressure that paper-based structures require, your sealing jaw serration pattern should be custom designed for your specific material, machinery, and conditions.

Easy Seal™️ FLEX Jaws

And Greener’s Easy Seal™️ FLEX Jaws further optimize sealing pressure by compensating for the extra layers of material at the fin seal.

Collaboration

Collaboration is a key component for successfully running paper-based flexible packaging materials.

Greener Corporation works with packagers, machine manufacturers, and material suppliers to provide material evaluations, setup and procedural changes, customized components, and technical service solutions.

Paper-based flexible packaging materials have been most widely implemented on cold seal applications for products with less stringent barrier requirements, such as some candy, and on secondary packaging for multi-packs of previously packaged items.

The ultimate goal is to enable the use of these and other sustainable materials for a wider variety of applications without sacrificing seal quality or productivity.

To learn more about running sustainable materials on flow wrappers and vertical baggers, contact Greener Corporation. We provide integrated parts and technical services worldwide.

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Forming Packages on Flow Wrappers: Problems and Solutions

Michael Wojtech — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 14:30:19 +0000

Package formation is the foundation for producing quality packaging on flow wrappers; it affects everything from package appearance and seal quality to scrap rates and downtime.

This Greener Tech Bite presents methods to improve the forming process on flow wrappers that optimize package quality, save time, and decrease packaging material costs.

Forming Packages on Flow Wrappers

Formers are not standard components—their design and precision have a big impact that often goes unrecognized.

As the former shapes the packaging material into a tube around the product, it must create even contact and tension with the material to accurately maintain tube size and proper tracking as the fin wheels pull the tube forward and seal the longitudinal fin seal.

Forming Problems

Excessive or inadequate contact and tension between the former and the packaging material at any point in the forming process creates four types of packaging problems:

1. Scored, Creased Packages

Score marks or creases make packages visually unappealing, and this damage can reduce the material’s barrier properties.

2. Wrinkles and Pleats

Wrinkles and pleats make it difficult to seal off leaks at the intersection of these additional cross-sectional layers while avoiding excess pressure that crushes or splits the seal.

3. Fin Seal Issues

Poorly performing formers can cause the fin seals to be uneven, and create loosely wrapped packages with narrow fin seals that pull free from the fin wheels and halt production while the material is reset.

4. Torn, Broken Packaging Material

Inadequately performing formers can also tear or break the packaging material and require time-consuming re-threading.

Forming Solutions: Kenray Horizontal Forming Tool

Kenray Forming, a packaging problem solutions partner with Greener Corporation, has developed a new Horizontal Forming Tool that mitigates these four forming problems and provides additional benefits.

With their innovative design and consistent high precision, these formers maintain even contact with the packaging material to provide more consistent tracking and help you:

Minimize the Occurrence of Scored, Creased Packages

Eliminate Wrinkles and Pleats that can Cause Seal Problems

Solve Fin Seal Issues That Delay Production

Prevent Torn, Broken Flexible Packaging Material

Run Traditional and New Sustainable Packaging Materials

Kenray’s Horizontal Forming Tool solves forming problems with new sustainable films and paper-based packaging materials that prevent them from running properly with standard formers.

Make Fewer Adjustments and Reduce Downtime

The Horizontal Forming Tool optimizes performance with a wider range of flexible packaging materials and conditions to reduce downtime due to machine adjustments to solve forming problems or during changeovers.

Maintain Precise Angle of Entry

Kenray’s former also solves problems by incorporating the the final unwind roller into the former.

The roller position is pre-set for your packaging conditions, so the material consistently enters the former at the correct angle. Adjustment variations that cause poor performance are eliminated.

Reduce Fin Seal Width to Decrease Material Costs

With standard formers the fin seals on packages are typically designed wider than is required for seal integrity, to prevent the fin from pulling free from the fin wheels when typical tracking variations occur.

Kenray’s new Horizontal Forming Tool mitigates these tracking variations, so fin seal widths can be reduced to decrease per package material costs while maintaining quality and avoiding production delays.

An integrated approach to optimizing package quality and productivity on flow wrappers begins with package formation.

To learn how optimally designed and adjusted formers, knives, and sealing jaws can improve your packaging results, contact Greener Corporation and Kenray Forming. We provide package quality and productivity solutions worldwide.

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