The development of modern packaging machinery has been something of a revolution in industrial sectors. The complete packaging process can now include everything from fabrication, cleaning, filling and sealing to combining, labelling, overwrapping and palletizing.
Most packaging operations cannot be conducted without specialist equipment such as vertical packaging machines. Some items require heat sealers to prepare or seal a package, with the effectiveness of the heat seal often critical to product safety.
Packaging machinery consists of many different constituent parts, including control pulleys, bearings, couplings and conveyor belts and chains. These parts often suffer wear and tear through regular operation but can be individually replaced to maintain the machinery’s optimal performance level. A conveyor chains supplier like Yorkshire’s YB Components have access to all the different parts needed to keep a packaging machine performing at a high level.
How a Packaging Machine Works
A standard packaging machine will receive the film of a roll that has been fed through a supporting device via a group of guiding rods and a tensioning device. Then the end part of the piece of film being fed into the machine will be rolled into a cylinder and longitudinally heat-sealed by a heat sealer to create a sealed tube. The now cylindrical film is then positioned transverse to the heat sealer to be sealed along second and third edges to create a square packaging bag with an opening.
Once the packaging bag has been created, a metering device fills the packaging bag through the opening of the fourth edge with the filling material before the fourth edge is heat-sealed by heat sealer to completely seal the material inside the packaging bag. The heat sealer also features a cutting implement which cuts the film in the middle of the connecting heat seal to completely separate the packaged unit body while at the same time creating the first seal of the next piece of film being fed into the machine.
There are also modern packaging machines which are capable of packaging in different ways. They use a photoelectric detecting device and control pulleys to detect a trademark pattern on the film material which determines the size, shape or packaging material to be used.
Types of Packaging Machinery
With the ability to custom-build packaging machines, there is no real end to how many types of package machinery can exist, but there are many common types. For example, banding and strapping machines are extremely common and are used in a wide range of industries.
There are specialist machines for blister packs and vacuum-sealing machines, as well as a variety of wrapping machines such as flow-wrapping, stretch wrapping and shrink wrap.
If you require any parts for packaging machinery such as control pulleys, bearings, couplings or conveyor belts, then contact YB Components who are the UK’s leading conveyor chains supplier in Yorkshire. We keep local stocks of all such parts and more ready to ship out fast and free all over the UK and the rest of the world.