Form-fill-seal machine

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. 

Form-fill-seal machines, 13 46 Formic-acetic anhydride, 10 484 Formic acid, 5 27... 

Form/Fill/Seal Machine Targets Bottle Blow Molding, MP, June 2003. 

Aseptic fill in form—fill—seal machine A C... 

In this, the air is replaced by passing a stream of gas. The gas flush technique is normally accomphshed on a form fill-seal machine. The replacement of air inside a pack-... 

Another important packaging development area is plastic. Various plastics have been and continue to be used high- and low-density polyethylene (HDPE, LDPE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polystyrene (PS) and various barrier plastics. These can be formed into bottles of conventional shape or fed into machines producing form-fill-seal packages, typically cups. 

Polyethylene, as LDPE, LLDPE or a mixture or blend involving combinations of LDPE, MDPE, HDPE, EVA, etc., finds a wide usage in bags, sacks, sachets, overwraps, shrink wraps, stretch wraps, etc. Most deep freeze packs, for example, use LDPE or an LDPE mixture which is produced from a reel on a form fill seal type machine. However, as many of these packs are up to 100% printed, even ink of 2-5 Pm could be considered as a separate layer which modifies some of the physical and chemical properties. As all polyolefins need a surface (oxidative) treatment to ensure a good print key, this or any other surface treatment process may further modify the film properties. 

The whole operation of forming a sterile container, filling it, and sealing it, is conducted within one machine. The filling zone for aseptic filling is afforded localized filtered air protection. There is no intervention from personnel until after the filled presentation is sealed and automatically moved away from the point of fill. What need therefore for location within a Class 100 clean room, or for protection by the double barrier principle Support for this argument has come mainly from media fill studies conducted with machines located in Class 10,000 areas [10]. Accumulation of uncontaminated individual trials, each of several units of thousands of items to total numbers of several tens and even hundreds of thousands of items has been used to claim equivalence between form-fill-seal in Class 10,000 clean rooms with conventional double-barrier aseptic fill in Class 100 clean rooms. 

The most common way to make pouches (and to package products in pouches) is to use a form-fill-seal (FFS) machine, in which preprinted roll stock is formed into a package and the package is filled and sealed with product, all in a continuous operation within one piece of equipment. Cutting the pouches apart is usually accomplished within the FFS machine, as well. 

Thermoforming as a discontinuous process is often used for Form Fill Seal (FFS) applications. New machine developments allow a continuous output of thermoformed products which can ease the production control of inline FFS machines. 

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. 

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. 

Flexible medical packaging is well suited to SBC for use in form, fill and seal machines. SBC have excellent formability, which allows for nearly perfect replication and filling of molds. To make a peelable seal, the SBC would need to be co-extruded with a lower melting substrate to act as the adhesive layer. The SBC structure provides good web formability and good toughness. It then has the versatility to be sterilized by 7-radiation, ethylene oxide or electron beam. 

The filling and packaging operations may take place on one piece of machinery or be split across several machines, namely form fill and seal—e.g. blister packs where the product is filled, closed and identified on one machine—whereas a bottle of liquid... 

Blow/fill/seal units are purpose built machines in which, in one continuous operation, containers are formed from a thermoplastic granulate, filled and then sealed, all by the one automatic machine. Blow/fill/seal equipment used for aseptic production which is fitted with an effective grade A air shower may be installed in at least a grade C environment, provided that grade A/ clothing is used. The environment should comply with the viable and non-viable limits at rest and the viable limit only when in operation. Blow/fill/seal equipment used for the production of products for terminal sterilisation should be installed in at least a grade D environment... 

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