5 Benefits of Friction Testers for Paper and Packaging Manufacturers
Home During our daily sales, when our sales managers introduce our products, they are asked from the people “why would I want to measure ___”. That is always great questions. Many unseen factors affect our machines, products, filling, orproduction. You may run various quality control checks in your manufacturing process. But,have you considered the cost of not inspecting the machinery that makes thatprocess possible? The constant wear and tear, or friction, your machinery endures each day affects its manufacturing performance. This results in process and product quality inconsistencies, as well as safety issues for your operators. Firstly, I want to give you a quick knowledge of Friction. Basically, there are two kinds of friction: static friction and kinetic friction. Static friction is friction between two or more solid objects that are not movingrelative to each other. For example, static friction can prevent an object fromsliding down a sloped surface. Kinetic friction, also known as dynamic friction or sliding friction, occurs when two objects are movingrelative to each other and rub together (like a sled on the ground). Here we come to the question: Why Friction is something we want and need to measure? 1. Friction Causes Wear and Tear Friction causes wear and tear of the parts of machinery in contact, which will reduce their life time. The less friction, the less wear, and the longer your machine will last. The ability to pre-determine what parts of your system will need maintenance before a total system failure is invaluable when it comes to keeping operations running smoothly. Ongoing, consistent friction measurement also optimizes the process of replacing parts. So, a friction analyzer can help you identify: When it’s time to replace a part due to theamount of wear. When the wear itself is increasing frictionand accelerating more wear. How long it takes to reach the point ofreplacement. 2. Consistency In The Manufacturing Process Consider the example of two identically constructed machines. With one, the manufacturing process seems to work as intended every time, while the other doesn’t, e.g.slipping boxes on a packing line or slipping web or sheet processes on rollers.Accurate friction testers ensure interface surfaces are consistent. In layman’sterms, surfaces that are not too sticky, and not too slippery… but just right! 3. Ensure Product Consistency In addition to ensuring manufacturing consistency, there is also a need for product consistency. If the manufacturing process isn’t consistent or if variation of the raw materials isn’t corrected, your end product is going to have variation. When it comes to food products, medical devices, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals or any heavily standardized industry, thiscan make the difference between a final product being ready for the market, orbeing sent to the trash. 4. Safety Slips and falls can occur anywhere in your facility, frompublic areas to employee-only areas. Therefore, special designed floors have been made possible with the use of accurate. Additionally,while packaging large bundles can be a relatively simple process, friction analyzers keep them in place during transit. Measuring friction of the outerpackaging both during development and before shipment plays a dual role to keepworkers safe while preventing product losses. 5. Research & Develop Finally, the traditional role of friction measurement in R&D has made great strides. The research part begins with measurement,which allows the causes of problems to be identified and repaired. It can be University and Colleges, Laboratories, or Factory R&D departments More Details – https://www.flexitest.in/c620h-friction-peel-tester-packagingArticle Source: https://en.labthink.com/en-us/
The Relationship between the Hot Tack of Packaging Material and Filling Efficiency
Home The hot sealing performance of packaging materials is the main parameter to assess packaging ability of materials. It includes the hot tack and ultimate strength. Hot tack has been used to check the strength to peel off hot sealing parts, when shortly after hot sealing (not cold yet). Ultimate strength has been used to check the strength to peel off the hot sealing parts, when the parts have already gone cold. These parameters vary hugely with one material. However, the proper application of these parameters usually affects the choices of packaging materials and the actual filling efficiency. This paper is going to introduce the application of hot tack of materials by using filling product line material as an example. 1 The Application of Hot Tack Today, in food, medicine, cosmetics, and other areas, soft packaging often uses Form-Fill-Seal Machine. In these filling production lines, soft package manufacture is carried out at the same time with filling. The filling method is basically to fill the product into the package from a certain height. The falling cast strong impact to the bottom of packages. If the bottom cannot bear the impact, the bottom will crack—package break. It will affect the cleanness and the filling efficiency. As on the filling product line, the time between hot sealing manufacture of package and product filling is very little, it is almost impossible to cold down the hot sealing parts in such a short time period. It can be seen that the ultimate strength is not applicable in this case. The hot tack should be adopted. It is commonly recognized that optimization of hot sealing process is an efficient way to shorten the packaging time. The hot tack test will be helpful for manufacturers to choose the best hot sealing parameters.Thus, the difference between hot tack and ultimate strength is clear. Hot tack is applied to assure the running of filling product line. The hot tack will affect the filling efficiency and package break rate directly. The hot sealing performance is usually used to indicate the containment ability of materials. It is to assure that the hot sealed parts are not going to leak during transportation, storage and exhibition. It is the pre-condition to realize the functions of packaging materials. 2 Case Studies How to choose the best hot seal parameters of product line by making use of hot tack testing? The relationship between hot tack and hot sealing parameters of product line is going to be introduced in the following paragraph. It is the case of Labthink helping its clients to test product.The client is an East Asian food production company. The company wanted to make a choice between A and B film, which share similar performance parameters. The company wanted a film to satisfy the requirement of product line and make the product line more efficient. The hot sealing side of material, the hot sealing time and pressure are all fixed. Client required that the hot sealing temperature to be no more than 133°C and the hot tack to be no lower than 2N. Given the conditions above, the hot sealing time should be as short as possible and energy saving. We used Labthink HTT-L1 hot tack tester to test the hot adhesive of A, B two types of films. Hot sealing time was set to 0.3s, 0.5s, 0.7s; sealing temperature was set to 115 °C, 118 °C, 121 °C, 124 °C, 127 °C, 130 °C, 133 °C. Other parameters were set in accordance with customer requirements. The width of the test sample was 25mm as customer required. Figure 1 and 2 is the test data curve. In fact, there is a best temperature point in order to achieve the best hot adhesive of film materials. When the hot sealing temperature rises above the best temperature point, the hot adhesive will drop under the best point. From the figure 1 and 2 we can see that the best hot sealing temperature is about 130 °C, while B’s best sealing temperature is about 127 °C.Based on data of film A, when the hot sealing time is 0.3s, the hot adhesive did not reach the requirement of client; when the hot sealing time is 0.5s, sealing temperature at 127 °C ~ 133 °C, the material could just reach the requirement of client; but when the hot sealing time is 0.7s and the temperature is between 127 °C ~ 133 °C, the hot adhesive of the material could well satisfy the requirement. Thus in the case of film A, hot sealing time of more than 0.5s and temperature of 127 °C ~ 133 °C can satisfy the need of clients. But to film B, in the same condition of film A, film B showed better hot adhesive than film A. when the hot sealing time is no less than 0.3s and the temperature is more than 118 °C ~ 133 °C, film B can satisfy customer’s need for hot adhesive. As the time of hot sealing increased, the time need for hot sealing showed a significant drop. When the not sealing time reached 0.7s and temperature between 115 °C ~ 133 °C, film B could be very satisfactory.Referring to the above test data, we believe that the film should be B, and the production line sealing parameters can be set: sealing time of 0.3 s ~ 0.5s, sealing temperature of 118 °C. Of course, sealing temperature should also be further tested to determine the best value. It should be noticed that there values should be somehow over the margin in order to avoid uneven sealing, which could be caused by mechanical or material problem. Simply from the point of view of materials, we believe film A would lower the efficiency of filling and raise the energy cost of product line. However further analysis should be base on some other issues like material cost and the best efficiency of the who product line. 3 Summaries In order to reasonably set the hot sealing parameters of filling product lines, hot
The Effect of Packaging-Film Thickness on Quality of Products
Home Loss of moisture and addition of oxygen are ones of the ways in which freshness of fruits and vegetables is lost. Similarly, many products are sensitive with oxygen, moisture, light, and temperature. So that, we find many methods such as lowering temperature, raising relative humidity, reducing air movement, use high barrier packaging materials, coating the packaging materials, to ensure the product shelf life. Moreover, Researchers claimed that a suitable thickness of polyethylene film can also extend the storage life of products There is a research to study three commonly available packaging films viz. low-density polyethylene (50 and 70 μm thickness), polypropylene (25 and 50 μm thickness), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) (40 and 50 μm thickness) at 5 and 10 °C. At each temperature, the oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor transmission rates (OTR, CTR, and WVTR) requirement of guava were compared with those of the selected films. The storage life, peel color and pulp firmness of guava at the end of the storage in each packaging film were analyzed. The OTR and CTR required for designing the modified atmosphere packaging of guava were relatively close to that available with the PVC films but, the required WVTR was higher than that available with the studied films. Highest storage-life (25 and 20 days at 5 and 10 °C, respectively) were observed in PVC 40 film, and at the end of the storage the samples showed brighter color, lower firmness and were perceived as mature and highly acceptable by the judges. The available WVTR of PVC 40 film was highest. Hence, it may be used for storage of guava with estimated mass of moisture scrubber to prevent in-package condensation. Labthink as a professional manufacturer of packaging testing instrument, provides a high precision Thickness Tester – C640 Thickness Tester. This Thickness Tester is designed based ISO 4593 and ASTM standards. Article Source: https://en.labthink.com/en-us/
Single Parcel Distribution Test Design for E-Commerce
Home Overview The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a major boost to e-commerce, with the U.S. Census Bureau reporting a 45% year-over-year increase from the second quarter of 2019 to the second quarter of 2020. For brands experiencing a significant increase in e-commerce sales or embracing e-commerce for the first time, designing packaging to hold up under the conditions a single parcel may face in shipping can be a challenge. Products that are damaged during shipping are costly to your brand’s reputation and can ruin your relationship with customers. Testing your packaging to ensure it can protect the product at all points along its journey from your packaging line to its destination is integral to the process and to your brand. While the process can be daunting, there are two main things you need to understand before you get started: the distribution environment your product and its packaging will encounter during shipping and the available testing standards that simulate how your package will perform in that environment. Know Your Distribution Environment Distribution environments can be complicated. Depending on the product, a package may encounter a wide variety of conditions between packaging and arrival at its destination. These conditions can be broken down into two main categories, ambient conditions, and handling conditions. Ambient Conditions Ambient conditions can vary wildly depending on the distance your package will travel and the geographic location(s) it will travel through. Factors to consider include the humidity it will experience, the range in temperatures it will face and how much exposure it will have to elements such as sun light and, potentially, precipitation. Some products may even need to remain refrigerated or frozen during shipping to preserve quality. Handling Conditions Handling conditions have a similarly broad range and depend on whether your packaging will ship via rail, truck, air or some combination of the three. While we’re primarily focusing on products that will ship as single parcels, there may be portions of their journey where they travel as part of a unitized load. Packaging decisions can also vary depending on whether a package is primarily hand-carried or if it will be lifted with a crane or forklift. At times, other packages may be stacked on top of it, meaning the package will need to support additional weight without being crushed. Insights from Technology While an expert can make a fairly accurate projection about the conditions a package will face in the distribution environment, there are ways to take some of the guesswork out of the process. Several companies make small, disposable sensors that can be placed in test packages and shipped through the normal distribution channels to capture a variety of information about shock, temperature, and sunlight, along with location and time, to provide an opportunity for real-time data analysis. Know Your Testing Standards There are two main bodies that issue widely accepted single parcel test standards. ASTM is one of the world’s largest international organizations that develops standards. It is comprised of a large group of experts who develop and democratically approve those standards. The other organization, ISTA is a private industry association with standards generated by its board of directors. While the standards developed by both organizations are valuable, ASTM standards are more widely accepted than ISTA standards. For food and beverage brands, for example, the FDA recognizes more than 400 ASTM standards, but recognizes only the ISTA 3A, 3B and 3E series. These organizations have developed hundreds of standards that cover the wide variety of options for packaging sizes, shapes, and materials. It would be impossible to summarize all of them here, but an example that compares a few of the available standards is helpful in illustrating the relationship between knowing your distribution environment and knowing what options are available for testing. The table below lays out the steps in three testing standards that can be applied to double-walled carton that is 1.8 cubic feet in size and weighs 5 lbs. Testing Standards Example Step ISTA 3A Series ASTM D4169 DC 13 AL II ASTM D7386 1 Precondition to ambient for 12 hours Condition to adjusted settings from standard of 73.4 +/- 2°F (23 +/- 1°C) and 50% +/- 2% for 72 hours Condition to adjusted settings from standard of 73.4 +/- 2°F (23 +/- 1°C) and 50% +/- 2% for 24 hours 2 Condition to determined temperature and humidity “Controlled” conditions will use 73°F and 50% humidity for 72 hours Handling – Six drops from 15” Handling – Four drops from 18” and two drops from 20” 3 Shock – Eight drops from 18” plus one drop from 36” Vehicle Stacking – Apply and release 278lbs Vibration under Compressive Load – Bottom face for 60 minutes and side face for 30 minutes 4 Vibration – Random with overall Grms level of .46Grms and with 105lbs topload for total of 120 minutes Loose Load Vibration – Fixed Displacement for 30 minutes High Altitude (optional) 5 Vibration – Random with overall Grms level of .46Grms for total of 30 minutes Low pressure (optional) Handling – Two drops from 20” and four drops from 18” 6 Shock – Seven drops from 18” plus one drop from 36” Vehicle Vibration – Random60min with overall Grms level of 0.54120 min with overall Grms level of 1.05 Vibration – Bottom face for 30 minutes and side face for 30 minutes 7 n/a Handling – Five drops from 15” plus one drop from 30” Handling – Two drops from 14”, three from 20” and one from 32” 8 n/a n/a Concentrated Impact – Drop height 36” The details included for each step are instructive in deciding which standard best applies to your package and its distribution environment. Differences include the temperatures the packages are exposed to during testing, drop heights, the amount of compression force applied to the package, and other factors. ISTA 3A requires dropping the package from a height of 18 inches seven times and a height of 36 inches once, while ASTM D4169 DC 13 AL II calls for five drops from 15 inches and one from 30 inches. A thorough
Extending shelf-life of Ready-To-Eat Meals
Home As we know, extending shelf life of food is the primary function of food packaging and advanced food processing technologies can help to preserve flavor, texture, nutrients and color during processing. Microwave-assisted thermal sterilization (MATS) is an advanced state-of-the-art technology that can provide higher quality of sterilized meals in comparison to retort. The development of this technology was started by Dr. Juming Tang, at Washington State University, Pullman in 1997. It was partially financed by the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center and Kraft Foods and patented in 2006. For the first time in the USA, a microwave based thermal processing technology was accepted by FDA. This technology uses a 915 MHz microwave single-mode cavity and water immersion. The 915 MHz microwaves have longer wavelength compared to 2450 MHz frequency used in domestic microwaves that can penetrate deeper into food products, which gives MATS an additional means for uniform heating. Dr. Shyam Sablani, Professor at Washington State University, collaborated with polymer companies Toppan USA Inc., GA, USA; Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan; Kuraray America Inc., Texas, USA; Printpack Inc., GA, USA; Mitsubishi Gas and Chemical America, New York, USA to develop and evaluate high barrier packaging for MATS. Researchers from his group have determined that changes in barrier properties (oxygen transmission and water vapor transmission) of multilayer films are smaller after MATS processing due to shorter processing time (almost one-third) as compared to conventional retort processing. This greatly enhances the shelf life of packaged foods as these barrier properties have a significant impact on the food quality when stored for 3-5 years. The multilayer packages that Dr. Sablani’s laboratory evaluated were comprised of metal oxide coated PET and EVOH as barrier layer. Both laboratories at Washington State University are currently investigating combined MATS processing effect and advanced packaging effect on complex recipes such as macaroni and cheese, chicken pasta that could be used for U.S. Army rations, NASA’s extended duration space missions and by food companies targeting high quality shelf stable foods. Author: Dr. Juhi PatelSource: https://packaging360.in/casestudies/Extending-shelf-life-of-ready-to-eat-meals
