Cartoning Machine

To describe the procedure for validation of the cartoning machine to ensure that it meets installation, operational, and performance qualification requirements 

It is the responsibility of the production manager and technical services manager to follow the procedure. The quality assurance manager is responsible for SOP compliance. 

The following machine characteristics should be checked to ensure that they fulhll their stated function  

Code reader for leaflets (single side, double-sided) 

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Some knowledge is required on how these can influence the material performance during packaging on the line and thus the specification of the cartoning machines. 

Semiautomatic. This is usually a machine in which the carton is erected, the bottom is closed, and the gaping top is presented to the operator who drops in the required goods and accessories. It would be expected that this type of machine would have a form of overprinting unit of some type built into the cartoning machine. 

High-speed, fully automatic packaging lines for stick wrapping of margarine with speeds up to 240 sticks per minute are widely used in the U.S. margarine industry. Such lines include fully automatic cartoning machines for inserting four... 

Cut sheet. Usually printed both sides, delivered as blocks of cut sheet and folded on the cartoning machine. The restrictions on block cut papers are also relevant, i.e. they should be backed and fronted with band bound card. 

Reel-fed. Like reel-fed labels, but with no backing paper. They are both guillotined and folded on the cartoning machine. Claimed to be more secure than all other types of leaflet. 

Pre-folded. Are delivered as bundles (these need to be broad banded , not with elastic bands round them) or contained in plastic cartridges and fed via a hopper system direct to the cartoning machine,... 

The other parameter of lightweight paper to be considered is the porosity of the chosen paper. This is because many cartoning machines use a vacuum type of pickup for the leaflet no matter in what form it may be presented to the cartoning machine. Even so-called reel-fed leaflets have to be cut, picked and moved through folding plates up to the insertion point into the carton. For this reason both specification of paper porosity to air and pick tests (to keep down the amount of lint or dust) are sensible. 

All leaflets, though folded tightly for insertion, have inherent problems of ink show through , particularly with ink colour solid blocks, e.g. photos or pictures. Security bar code reading can be a severe problem on the thinner papers. The amount of copy required on all types of leaflets has increased dramatically over the past ten years, so much so that packs have had to be devised to accommodate very large leaflets (A3) this has created its own cartoning machine design problems. 

Creasability of boards BS 4818 1993 described the method of determining the creasing quality of cartonboard within the range of 300-1000 4m. This is important to the packaging line, since if the creases are not correct and do not assist the carton erection, the cartoning machine will not function correctly. 

Carton opening force. The method that is often used is to hold the flat carton, as delivered, by its creases between thumb and first finger and press. The carton should spring open into the square position without a need for unreasonable force. If the carton does not spring open, or buckles in on itself, then it is reasonable to assume that those particular cartons will cause problems on any cartoning machine. This can be measured by instrumentation. 

In some high-speed machines, a rotating disc or wheel fed with adhesive by gravity, can apply a line or a zone of adhesive onto fast running sheets. For instance, gluer-folder carton machines use flat discs or discs fitted with pallets to apply water based adhesives on the cardboard sheets at high speed, upto 100 m/min. 

The type of paperboard used by the carton industry is boxboard. Boxboard may be categorized, based on the raw material, as combination or soHd boxboard. Combination boxboard, of which there are many grades, normally is made on a multicylinder paper machine using a substantial percentage of waste paper with virgin pulp. SoHd boxboard usually is made on a Fourdrinier paper machine using only virgin pulp and it is bleached or coated. 

FIG. 21 -47a Clybourn carousel-type folding carton set-filler-closer for bulk solids sucb as powders and granules. (Couttesy of Clybourn Machine Co., A Division of PAXALL, Inc., Skokie, IL 60076.)... 

Where folding cartons are to contain a product which is sensitive to moisture pickup, barriers are available which can be incorporated into the carton construction. An example of this is polyethylene laminated to paperboard. In some cases an insert bag is used instead, but this requires an additional operation and is usually accomplished by a form-fill-seal machine that makes a bag which is then inserted by another machine into the folding carton. 

There are a number of well-established systems for the aseptic packaging of liquids. Notable among these are those packs constructed, box form, in situ on the filling line from a cardboard, aluminium, plastic laminate sheet, such as TetraPak or Combi-box. In the TetraPak system, the packing material enters the filling machine from a feed roll the sheet contact surface is sterilised with warm hydrogen peroxide solution it is formed into a tube, and its lower end is heat-sealed across the width the tube is filled, sealed at the upper end, cut and then folded into a box shape. This produces a continuous output of filled cartons with premium utilisation of bulk storage capacity. 

The next machine on the line is the packer, which collates the bottles into the required sales unit (often 12 or 24 bottles). Sales units are generally shrink-wrapped trays, cardboard cartons or crates for returnable bottles. These are stacked on pallets for ease of distribution and storage. 

Canning lines are very similar to bottling lines except that the container is sealed with a can end, which is rolled on by a seaming machine. There are also many specific machines for special filling operations in use in beverage packing, for example, laminated cartons, foil pouches, etc. 

There are several machine systems available for aseptically filling glass and plastic bottles for still juices. (Aseptic filling of drink cartons is covered in Section 9.7.) Carbonated drinks are not aseptically filled. There are two main aseptic filling workflows, with a third workflow used less frequently. The first system sterilises the container, fills and seals it the second takes a sealed, precleaned bottle, removes the seal in a sterile environment, fills and re-seals the container. The third system blows a bottle and while it is still sterile fills it and then seals it, all within the same machine, this is known as a form-fill-seaF (FFS) system. 

The gable-top carton has become identified with fresh juices. The 1 1 pack has a very good display area for graphics, fits the fridge door easily and is easy to hold and pour from. Some filling machine developments have meant that gable-top cartons can be filled aseptically. 

Cartoning/leaflet addition (usually the same machine)... 

Automatic. There are two basic types of machines—intermittent motion and continuous motion. The intermittent is smaller, slower, and cheaper, usually with a blade-opening action for the carton prebreak so that it is likely to accept... 

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