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?
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.
