Abbey Equipment Solutions and Junapack are always looking for ways to simplify our customer's life.
That’s why we have created a pouch design guide for efficient operation for Rotary Bagger Systems!
The relationship between the zipper, header seal, and tear notch should be kept constant across ALL pouch formats.
Why?
Pouches are held inside the gripper at zipper height level. If the top seal, zipper, and tear notch dimensions remain constant across all pouches, there will be no need to adjust pouch height inside grippers, saving time and eliminating set-up.
Should there be a hang-hole (preferably not), the suction cups should be set either side of the hang-hole, and the top seal width needs to extend at least 3mm below the bottom of the hang-hole, and the bottom of the hang-hole needs to be at least 5mm above the tear notch line.
Keeping pouches, the same width, and changing the height or gusset also makes changeovers easier, reducing set-up issues.
If all pouches can’t be made to the same width, try to have as few widths as possible and only adjust pouch height or gusset.
Pouch Width:
The wider the pouch is, the larger the funnel size that can be inserted, and the easier the product will pass through the funnel. We recommend that the lower funnel orifice be 1.75x the largest dimension of the product so if the part dimension is 25mm, the minimum funnel orifice should be 25 x 1.75 = 44mm, so the funnel that could be used for this product would be 50mm but that’s assuming a single item passing through the funnel at any one time. If we wish to pass multiples through (as is normally the case), we must factor by another 1.75, so 44 x 1.75=77mm, so the funnel size for this product is 80mm.
The larger the funnel, the easier for the product to pass through, and the faster line speed we can maintain.
The pouch opening is an oval shape, yet we need to have the opening large enough to accommodate the round funnel, so an 80mm funnel will need to have an opening more than 100mm to guarantee clean entry 100% of the time. To achieve this, the pouch would need to be over 220mm wide. A rule of thumb is that the width of the pouch should be at least 3x the diameter of the lower funnel dimension.
Pouch Volume: (Fill Level)
Product fill level in the pouch can affect pouch stretching and sealing. If product fill level is too high in the pouch, it can inhibit the stretching motion to pull closed the pouch before top sealing and can even push product up into the seal area, inhibiting good sealing.
A general guide is to have a maximum fill level never higher that 2” below the bottom of the zipper (or 2.5 – 3” below the seal area, if no zipper fitted).
Summary:
If the header seal remains constant across all pouches, width changes stay to a minimum, and just make changes on height or gusset, changeovers will be quicker and more efficient.
