A stick pack machine is becoming more and more popular among businesses as the food and beverage sector pushes toward automation. While multilane packing machines are used in various industries for packaging liquids and powders today.
Today consumers like single-serve goods packaged in stick packs because of the products’ portability, convenience, and ease of usage. Making Stick pack equipment highly well-liked among manufacturers and co-packers. They can provide high throughput while preserving valuable industrial floor space, another reason for this.
The following will take you through the seven steps of a stick pack machine’s operation and its many uses.
The operation of a stick pack machine is quite similar to that of a single-lane vertical form-fill-seal machine. First, the film is rolled out and cut into numerous different-sized and shaped stick packs. Next, the bags are sealed vertically at speeds of up to 80 per minute per lane after loading goods. Stick pack machines with up to 8 lanes can produce 320 packs per minute. However, most only use 2-4 lanes. That’s the equivalent of about 40 sticks each second!
The 7-Step Process
◎ Transporting and Unwinding Film
Stick pack machines use roll stock, which is a single sheet of film material wrapped around a core. The moving film is unwound from the film reel in the rear of the machine.
The cross-seal jaws carry out the process of unwinding the film at the front of the stick pack machine. Cross-seal jaws, also known as grippers, act by grabbing the film’s edges and pulling them vertically toward the machine’s end.
◎ Printing
The film goes around an alignment roller if the machine has date-stamping hardware attached. This makes it easier to accurately register where the date stamp should be placed in relation to the horizontal seal on the products.
While the sensor thread the film, the sensor checks for the presence of eye marks. It adjusts the location of the horizontal seal according to the printing on the film.
◎ Film Tension
The following process involves running the film through a row of nip rollers. Nip rollers provide even pressure to the film, which aids in keeping the film taut and, in turn, keeps the dancer’s arm in its proper working posture.
Unwinding involves removing the film from the roll and passing it over a dancer’s arm, a heavy pivot arm located at the rear of the stick pack machine.
Several spots along the arm now include rollers. To keep the film taut and prevent it from shifting side to side during transport, an arm moves up and down as the film move.
◎ Film Cutting
After going through the nip rollers, the film reaches the cutting section. Strips are snipped off a massive roll of packing film. The number of lanes on a stick pack machine dictates the width of the strips that can be cut from the roll. These strips then serve as the foundation for the individual stick packs.
In order to complete this step, cutting disk knives are used, which are not driven by motors. The film passes through the blades while they are in contact with a roller that is made especially for the procedure, keeping the strain on the film constant throughout. The film is divided into distinct stick packs while pulled through this assembly and subsequently packed.
◎ Bag/Stick Making
Here, the film flows into a series of forming tubes, one for each of the lanes. When the film is cut to the collar (shoulder) of each forming tube, it is wrapped around the tube to create a stick pack, with the two outer sides of the film overlapping. This occurs when the film reaches the top of each tube.
The forming tubes may create either a lap seal or a fin seal, according to the way they are set up. When the two outside edges of the film overlap to form a flat seal, this is called a lap seal. But when the insides of the two outer edges of the film join together to form a seal that protrudes like a fin from the film, this is called a fin seal.
The common perception is that a lap seal looks better and uses less material than a fin seal.
◎ Filling and Sealing
When the film finally stops moving, a series of vertical sealer bars, one for each lane, will move forward until they touch the film’s vertical overlapping.
The vertical seal forms when the hot bar that makes it presses on the forming tube. Each stick pack is sealed by a single horizontal sealing jaw that meets at the top and bottom.
When the sealing jaws are closed, the product is placed into the center of the forming tubes, and as it passes through the machine, it fills each bag.
A filling system, such as a volumetric filler, liquid pump, or auger filler, is responsible for precisely measuring and dispensing discrete product quantities into each stick.
◎ Stick Pack Discharge
Following dispensing the product into each stick pack, the knife advances and cuts the pouch, or a notch cut through the horizontal seal directly below the jaw that creates the horizontal seal.
A programmable flap on the outfeed chute opens and closes at regular intervals to receive the finished stick packs. Either an outfeed conveyor or a collecting point may receive the bags at this stage.
Users may control and guide the outflow of stick packs using individual outfeed chutes, which are an available accessory.
Once filled, bags may be put into downstream gear like check weighers, x-ray units, cases, or carton packing equipment.
Which products are suitable for stick-pack packaging?
The following products may be packaged using a stick pack machine:
- Nuts
- Mints
- Sauces
- Mustard
- Ketchup
- Candy bars
- Coffee sticks
- Granola bars
- Detergent pods
Conclusion
A stick pack machine is capable of packing a broad range of products. Stick pouches are an excellent packaging choice for the pharmaceutical and food sectors. Powdered foods and medicines, including instant coffee and powdered medications, are stored safely. To maximize your production, you need pouch packaging equipment like the kind we provide at MAKWELL.