innovations update: product-in-seal-detection with intelli-speed and gas flow controller

posted on 26 October, 2016 by Lawrence Roos

screenshot of product-in-seal-detection with intelli-speed and gas flow controller Two of the top concerns for today’s manufacturers are achieving operational cost savings and producing a consistent, high-quality product. Our most recent innovations update enables our customers to meet both goals by detecting product-in-seal issues using speed modulation software and the gas flow controller in tna robag® 3 series packaging systems.

challenge

Using gas flow packaging machines during a production run presents a potential challenge: If the oxygen level is outside of the ideal range, your product can be negatively impacted. If the gas flow is too low, the product may have too much oxygen, which shortens its shelf life. If the gas flow is too high, the product can get stirred up and become caught in the bag seal. Product-in-seal-detection (PISD) can lead to packaging rejects, which wastes material and requires additional labour for repackaging.

Typically, oxygen levels are tested manually, which is a time-consuming process. Worse still, the trial-and-error nature of manually testing and adjusting oxygen levels can produce an inconsistent product.

solution

To eliminate the need for manual oxygen testing, our engineers have developed the continuous gas flow controller, which integrates into the robag packaging system. The continuous gas flow controller features an online gas analyser that provides immediate gas flow and continuously monitors the residual oxygen level in every package. The controller will stop the bagger if it detects the oxygen content is out of the ideal range. Meanwhile, the system automatically logs actual gas consumption and saves quality control data directly to a PC via the robag Modbus communication.

Using the continuous gas flow controller on the robag system, in addition to the PISD with speed modulation software, offers additional benefits. The software enables the robag to automatically adjust the speed of the bagmaker and even use varying speeds for a single product. The PISD monitors bag seal output and automatically selects the optimum speed to waste performance for a defined number of bags.