Category: Induction and Heat Sealing Machines

Below is an example of a Turnkey solution for filling and packing creamed honey.

A three Lane Piston Filler and Heat Sealing machine was combined for packing creamed honey.

 Watch our Filler and Heat Sealer Machine in action:

 

 

Fully Automated Filling Machine Features

1. The machine feeds empty tubs into three lanes of an indexing (Start-Stop) conveyor on the machine.
2. PLCs of the Filler and Heat Sealer talk to each other to time when filling takes place.
3. Sensors on the Machine check that tubs are loaded properly and that tubs are present when they are under the filling stations.
4. An accurate three head piston filler fills the tubs.

Heat Sealing Machine Process

1. The Filled Tubs are indexed to underneath a Heat Sealing Station.
2. Heat Sealing Foil has been indexed into place above the tubs and infront of a cutting and sealing mould. The mould has heating elements carefully temperature controlled and the mould descends to press the film onto the tubs.
3. The Sealed Tubs are then indexed underneath the Lid Denester.
4. A rotating Cylinder and suction cups take 3 lids from the bottom of the lid stacks and rotate to gently place the lids on top of the sealed tubs. At this stage the lids are not firmly pressed into place.
5. ‎The tubs with loosely fitted lids are indexed under a pressing station to firmly place the lids into place.
6. A roller after this stage is the final assurance measure to make sure the lids are pressed firmly into place.
7. ‎Finally, the filled tubs with lids are lifted from the conveyor where they are positively slid onto an awaiting finished product conveyor.

Filling and Sealing Machine Speed

The filling and sealing Speed of this three lane system is designed for up to 40 Tubs per minute. Less viscous product could be filled faster. Higher speeds are of course possible with wider equipment fitted with more lanes.

Our SealerOn fully automatic filler and heat sealer equipment calls for minimal operator intervention. Normally, operators only need re-supply packaging components simply by loading supply hoppers and also taking away completed cartons.

Be among our satisfied clients around the globe who are proud owners of SealerOn brand production machinery.  Contact us today for your production requirements.

On cases where the foil sits further than 4mm from the cap’s top surface, tunnel induction sealing head will allow you to seal it. Usually, this is the scenario with twist top spouts, flip top lids, sports drink caps, sipper caps or shaker caps.

When a coil shaped elongated coil generates high, rotating magnetic field, induction sealing occurs. The coil that carries a magnetic field is generated as well as, shift course several thousand times a second.

This magnetic field can pass through plastic or air. If it comes across metal, then it will work on producing current in the metal parallel to the coils that made the magnetic field.

A magnetic field produced from a “point” dissipates with the cube of its distance from that point. Generally, the magnetic field of an induction sealing machine ought to be within 5mm or ¼ inch from the sealing foil to have significant production speeds.

A number of cap variety do not match the standard flat top profile which presents a challenge to bring the magnetic field of the heat sealing equipment to within 5mm or ¼ inch from the sealing foil.

These types of specialty caps require an adaption from your standard flat coil sealing head to a tunnel sealing head. The Coils are designed to pass within the tunnel. The tunnel permits the protruding feature of the specialty caps to pass through the machine without moving the plane of the magnetic field farther away from the sealing foil within the bottle cap.

On the SealerOn webpage there is a youtube icon that will link you to videos showing SealerOn™ heat sealing or more accurately induction heat sealing using a tunnel sealing head.

Relying on the combination of cap and foil, the SealerOn™500 with a sealing tunnel installation has a speed capable of up to 10 meters per minute or 30 feet per minute.

The MeRo adjustable tunnel sealing machines are designed for faster induction sealing. These machines have the added and unique feature of having an adjustable width sealing head. This feature allows for higher concentrating and focussing of the induction field for increased sealing speed. A MeRo 2Kw unit is capable of sealing at sealing speed up to 30 Meters per Minute or 90 feet per minute depending on the cap and foil combination.

Less time required beneath the sealing head defines efficient cap sealing, which lead to higher production speed.

Flat profile sealing head allow an increased variety of cap sizes and permits the sealing head to be positioned at an angle over the product’s route to receive a sealing of cap diameters which are even wider than the coil winding pattern within the sealing head. Potentially a flat profile sealing head can seal caps from 30mm to 110mm wide. Not being able to seal specialty caps and lower speed throughput are the trade-offs for the flexibility of this profile.

Because there are unseen factors that can significantly affect the sealing performance of an induction it is always recommended to have induction sealing process validation.

The sealing machine may be bumped on a small angle, a slight height adjustment might have been made, large bottle height variations, and conveyor speed variations can all significantly impact on the induction sealing results.

Visual Inspections Process Validation for Induction Sealing

Actually, this method can be the best method of all; especially when you have well-trained operators experienced in what induction foils look like when they have received the correct conditions for a good seal.

Some things to look for include:

1. A Concentric heat pattern in the foil; if you hold the foil to a light source at the correct angle you should see a smaller circle where material has not been heat affected.  This means the seal has heated from the outside inwards in an even pattern; hence an even seal
2. Overheating – there are a number of factors to show if there has been overheating including – visual discolouration of one or more layers of the induction foil, bubbling or creasing, a flattening of the bottle neck, melting of a backing resealing foam (if present)
3. Uneven heat sealing; linked in some ways to a) above a foil can look well sealed but an uneven heat seal can result in areas of the seal being too firmly “welded” or very lightly welded an likely to “pop loose with a little pressure on the side walls of the bottle/container

Provided you have operators in each shift that are well trained in the above areas to look for then the “subjectivity” of a visual process validation is reduced and the validation will hold more merit.

2.0 Simple version – Linepatrolman™ Process Validation for Induction Sealing

If you have doubts that you will always operators trained or experienced enough to cover what is required for a reliable visual process of validation for induction sealing then there is the simple option of a Linepatrolman™ which has no more controls than a reset button.

This unit needs no programming and simply provides an integrated count of the energy seen by the testing cell passing down the same path as the products.

The Benefel web site has a good animation of the Linepatrolman™

In this animation the count gets up to “50”.  If that reading worked for the last batch and was confirmed to be a good reading by a very thorough visual inspection (and some leak testing), operators would look to obtain similar readings in subsequent production runs of the same product.

A reason that many need an induction sealing measurement is because the energy transferred by an induction sealing machine to the foil of an induction seal within a cap is a time and position dependent process.  If for any reason the product passes through the induction machine at a different speed, the induction sealing result will be different.  To an operator a 10% change in the speed of a product conveyor may not be noticed.  To an operator a 1mm height adjustment of the sealing head may not be noticed or a 5 degree angle change in guide rails may be missed.  The induction sealing setting on the induction sealing machine may not have changed at all, yet the sealing results could have changed significantly!

The Line Patrolman™ is a unique process validation tool that will pick up variations in energy transfer in what may look like an identical set-up to the last time an induction machine was run.  This tool takes way the guess work on what energy is being transferred and provided operator confidence that the machine is set to the best it can be set.

 

 

To be able to understand what shape sealing head is the most suitable on an induction machine, we should learn first, precisely how induction sealing occurs.

The sealing head is the portion of the machine that is put over the path of the product cap or lid. Inside the sealing head is typically long oval shaped coils of thick wire that deliver high current that alters direction many thousands of times a second. The coil that contains a magnetic field is generated and in addition, adjust course several thousand times a second. The magnetic field will get weaker as it progresses away from the coil that made it to begin with nonetheless it is able to travel through air and plastic. Coming across metal, it will act to produce current.

Heat sealing machines function a little different. It is waiting for a product with metal laminated foil in its cap. The magnetic field from the sealing head acts to generate current in the laminated foil and the laminated foil gets hot. There is a layer that is laminated to the foil that turns wet with the heat or melts. When the product has completely passed from under the sealing machine, the foil will begin to cool and the layer that became “wet” will set to bond the laminated foil across the opening of the product.

It can be understood from the above principle that bottle or product sealing with the utilization of induction machines will rely on the time the product is under the magnetic field and how close it becomes to the origins of the magnetic field.

There are two distinct shapes of sealing heads for cap sealers being Flat profile and Tunnel profile sealing heads.

The Flat profile sealing head is suitable for “Standard Flat Caps”. A “Flat Cap”, typically speaking, means a cap where the plane of the induction liner is at 4.0 mm of the plane of the Cap’s top surface.

Tunnel Profile sealing head is best for “Specialty Caps“. Typically, the Tunnel Induction Sealing Head permits cap sealing in which the foil is located far than 4mm from the top surface of the cap; this is regular with twist top spouts, flip top lids, sports drink caps, sipper caps or shaker caps.

The magnetic field concentrates to a place inside the tunnel profile because of the tunnel sealing head thus delivers stronger magnetic fields over a generally smaller width route for the products moving below. A Tunnel sealing head also makes it possible for the coils inside the sealing head to have a route lower than the top of the product caps. This end in delivering the foil inside specialty caps closer to the magnetic field. The disadvantages of employing tunnel profile sealing head is the constrained array of cap dimensions it can efficiently seal and that it is not effective with big caps. MeRo™ brand induction sealer, nonetheless, is the exclusion to this concept. MeRo™ can, typically, cater for a range of specialty caps with an adjustment of 30mm and can seal cap diameter between 30mm to 60mm.

Better production speed is achievable where there is efficient cap sealing – less time beneath the sealing head.

Flat profile sealing head permit a larger selection of cap sizes and permits the sealing head to be positioned at an angle over the product’s route to obtain a sealing of cap diameters which are even greater than the coil winding pattern within the sealing head. Possibly a flat profile sealing head can seal caps from 30mm to 110mm wide. Decreased speed throughput along with the inabiility to seal specialty caps are the cons of this profile sealing head on a heat sealing head.