On cases where the foil sits further than 4mm from the cap’s top surface, tunnel induction sealing head will allow you to seal it. Usually, this is the scenario with twist top spouts, flip top lids, sports drink caps, sipper caps or shaker caps.

When a coil shaped elongated coil generates high, rotating magnetic field, induction sealing occurs. The coil that carries a magnetic field is generated as well as, shift course several thousand times a second.

This magnetic field can pass through plastic or air. If it comes across metal, then it will work on producing current in the metal parallel to the coils that made the magnetic field.

A magnetic field produced from a “point” dissipates with the cube of its distance from that point. Generally, the magnetic field of an induction sealing machine ought to be within 5mm or ¼ inch from the sealing foil to have significant production speeds.

A number of cap variety do not match the standard flat top profile which presents a challenge to bring the magnetic field of the heat sealing equipment to within 5mm or ¼ inch from the sealing foil.

These types of specialty caps require an adaption from your standard flat coil sealing head to a tunnel sealing head. The Coils are designed to pass within the tunnel. The tunnel permits the protruding feature of the specialty caps to pass through the machine without moving the plane of the magnetic field farther away from the sealing foil within the bottle cap.

On the SealerOn webpage there is a youtube icon that will link you to videos showing SealerOn™ heat sealing or more accurately induction heat sealing using a tunnel sealing head.

Relying on the combination of cap and foil, the SealerOn™500 with a sealing tunnel installation has a speed capable of up to 10 meters per minute or 30 feet per minute.

The MeRo adjustable tunnel sealing machines are designed for faster induction sealing. These machines have the added and unique feature of having an adjustable width sealing head. This feature allows for higher concentrating and focussing of the induction field for increased sealing speed. A MeRo 2Kw unit is capable of sealing at sealing speed up to 30 Meters per Minute or 90 feet per minute depending on the cap and foil combination.

Less time required beneath the sealing head defines efficient cap sealing, which lead to higher production speed.

Flat profile sealing head allow an increased variety of cap sizes and permits the sealing head to be positioned at an angle over the product’s route to receive a sealing of cap diameters which are even wider than the coil winding pattern within the sealing head. Potentially a flat profile sealing head can seal caps from 30mm to 110mm wide. Not being able to seal specialty caps and lower speed throughput are the trade-offs for the flexibility of this profile.

Because there are unseen factors that can significantly affect the sealing performance of an induction it is always recommended to have induction sealing process validation.

The sealing machine may be bumped on a small angle, a slight height adjustment might have been made, large bottle height variations, and conveyor speed variations can all significantly impact on the induction sealing results.

Visual Inspections Process Validation for Induction Sealing

Actually, this method can be the best method of all; especially when you have well-trained operators experienced in what induction foils look like when they have received the correct conditions for a good seal.

Some things to look for include:

1. A Concentric heat pattern in the foil; if you hold the foil to a light source at the correct angle you should see a smaller circle where material has not been heat affected.  This means the seal has heated from the outside inwards in an even pattern; hence an even seal
2. Overheating – there are a number of factors to show if there has been overheating including – visual discolouration of one or more layers of the induction foil, bubbling or creasing, a flattening of the bottle neck, melting of a backing resealing foam (if present)
3. Uneven heat sealing; linked in some ways to a) above a foil can look well sealed but an uneven heat seal can result in areas of the seal being too firmly “welded” or very lightly welded an likely to “pop loose with a little pressure on the side walls of the bottle/container

Provided you have operators in each shift that are well trained in the above areas to look for then the “subjectivity” of a visual process validation is reduced and the validation will hold more merit.

2.0 Simple version – Linepatrolman™ Process Validation for Induction Sealing

If you have doubts that you will always operators trained or experienced enough to cover what is required for a reliable visual process of validation for induction sealing then there is the simple option of a Linepatrolman™ which has no more controls than a reset button.

This unit needs no programming and simply provides an integrated count of the energy seen by the testing cell passing down the same path as the products.

The Benefel web site has a good animation of the Linepatrolman™

In this animation the count gets up to “50”.  If that reading worked for the last batch and was confirmed to be a good reading by a very thorough visual inspection (and some leak testing), operators would look to obtain similar readings in subsequent production runs of the same product.

A reason that many need an induction sealing measurement is because the energy transferred by an induction sealing machine to the foil of an induction seal within a cap is a time and position dependent process.  If for any reason the product passes through the induction machine at a different speed, the induction sealing result will be different.  To an operator a 10% change in the speed of a product conveyor may not be noticed.  To an operator a 1mm height adjustment of the sealing head may not be noticed or a 5 degree angle change in guide rails may be missed.  The induction sealing setting on the induction sealing machine may not have changed at all, yet the sealing results could have changed significantly!

The Line Patrolman™ is a unique process validation tool that will pick up variations in energy transfer in what may look like an identical set-up to the last time an induction machine was run.  This tool takes way the guess work on what energy is being transferred and provided operator confidence that the machine is set to the best it can be set.

Hang Tabs are usually clear pieces of plastic with a hanging hole at the top and an adhesive section on the bottom. The hanging hole is usually one of four popular shapes; Euro Slot, Delta Slot, Round Hole or a Hook.

Hang Tabs are a quick and efficient way to add a hanging option to products.  Products in need of hang tabs include those where a hanging hole is not already in the packaging , where a hanging hole cannot be incorporated into the packaging (a common example might be a box of Condoms) or when the product does have a hanging hole but that hole needs to be repaired or reinforced.

Hang Tabs or self-adhesive hooks are most often supplied in sheet form and in roll form.  In the sheet format there may be anywhere from 4 Hang tabs to 20 hang tabs supplied on a sheet of backing paper. Then many sheets are packed into a bag or a box.  Sheet form is really the most basic format of hang tabs supply and is often the cheapest format.  Hang Tabs are often also supplied in Roll form.  The roll format is useful when using a mechanical or electrical applicator in very high volume applications.  In any other type of application the roll format sticky hook can be a clumsy format to use in a store or production line; it may be the only format available from some smaller hang tabs suppliers.

A third format of Hang Tabs is the Pad form hang tab.  This clever format of Hang Tabs involves a “stack” of 5 to 10 pieces of Hang Tabs one on top of the other.  The Top hang tabs is peeled off the stack and applied to the product. The hang Tab below becomes the next Hang Tab to be peeled off and applied; repeated until the bottom/last hang tabs is peeled off a common backing paper.  This Pad format hang tab probably inspired the brand name “scotchpad”.   Hang Tabs are sometimes referred to as do its associated to the products development by a company called Do-It.  There are “Do-its” that are also Pad format.

The pad format allows for easy staff distribution and is a very useful format when shop floor staff needs to repair hanging products or look for innovative ways to lift the visibility of products by taking them to eye level using sticky hooks and perhaps Hang Strips.  It is quite possible to comfortably carry 200 hang tabs on your pocket –something not very practical when considering the sheet or the roll form options.

In very high volume Pad Form hang tabs can work out to be the most cost competitive format as the amount of backing paper for the hang tabs is shared by the “Stack”. This can mean a PAD form hang tabs like the scotchpad range can have one piece of backing paper for 10 Hang Tabs.  In Sheet format or roll format EVERY hang tab has to have its own area of backing paper. Also the manufacturing process of the Pad format can lead to longer lasting expensive die cutting moulds and this can be passed on to clients.

The pad format hang tabs is usually a “flexible hang tab”.  A Flexible hang tabs has a rigid PET hanging hole section and a flexible lower sticky section.  It is commonly know that when comparing the same size rigid hang tabs with the flexible hang tabs the maximum holding weights and endurance for holding weights is less for a flexible hang tabs (perhaps 25% less than a rigid hang tab).  Making up for this loss in holding power is the Flexible Hang Tabs ability to fold down for packing.  For example, a manufacturer adding the option of hanging their product using a flexible Euro Slot hang tab may not need to change their shipping cartons at all – given his products can be have the hang tab fold over the top of the product as it is put into the original shippers used in their packaging operation.

In many developed countries, the main demand and sales for Hang Tabs is generated at the Point of Sale (POS).

These developed countries have most of their non-food products produced and packaged in lower cost areas such as Asia and in particular China.  Where manufacture takes place in the developed country there is the opportunity to supply Hang Tabs to these regional manufacturers.  These opportunities are quite rare as the Hang Tabs are usually applied by hand except in very large scale packaging operations where they may be applied using labelling machines.

Applying Hang Tabs by hand is a costly business and the trend for hang sales of goods manufactured in these countries is to insure the hang sell feature is built into the packaging.  In some instances it is difficult or even not possible to have a built in hang sell feature.  A good example of where a Hang Tab is necessary for hang sell is where goods are shrink-wrapped with a film of plastic and there must not be any holes in this plastic.

Nevertheless, most Hang Tabs sales are to the point of purchase.

Retail shops need to maximise their sales which can be very dependent on how they display their best selling items and items they wish to promote.  It can be costly for shops to hold on to stock for too long as it is capital tied up and even worse capital lost where goods have a shelf life.

Bringing goods up to the eye level of clients and providing more choice and variety within the confines of the retail space available is a key priority for the shopkeeper.  Hang sell of products is a key way to achieve better product visibility and higher density displays.  The tools of Hang sell are Hang Tabs, often referred to as display hooks or Do-Its or even Scotchpads and display strips also called hang strips.

The hang tabs consist of clear pieces of plastic which are partially backed with adhesive. The adhesive section sticks to the product to be displayed and the non-adhesive section with a hanging hole profile projects above the product.  The product having been converted to hang sell is now hung from pegs, rails or hang strips.

Another reason why the POS will need hang tabs is to repair hang sell items that have damaged.  Often cardboard products with a Hang Sell built into the cardboard can tear.  Another common problem is when hang sell holes are cut into packaging like lollies and the cut is not clean.  In these instances the hanging hole can be weekend or not even present.  Large supermarket chain stores will go through hundreds of thousands of hang tabs just to repair broken hang sell packets.

While many shops continue to use older or more traditional format Hang Tabs such as those supplied in rolls or in sheets there is a growing awareness of the Pad Format Hang Tabs.  While the Pad Format Hang Tabs may cost one or two cents more per Hang Tab the added convenience of this format should easily pay for itself.  Pad Format Hang Tabs enables shop staff to easily carry 200 Hang Tabs in their pocket at any time and as these Pad Format Hang Tabs have five to ten times less backing paper per Hang Tab they take up much less space.  Sheet form and roll form Hang Tabs can be stuffed into a pocket but the pocket needs to be fairly large pockets and there is a strong likelihood Hang Tabs will be lost or spoilt by coming off their backing while still in that jammed pocket.

When there are unknowns for a supplier or tradesperson that needs to quote you for a job, their only responsible way to quote you is to find out all they can about your job and then quote you a price that will allow for what is known and add a “contingent factor” into the price. If all goes to plan in providing the service and very little unknowns affected the Job, the supplier ends up making more money from the Job. If there are too many unknowns that have affected the job, the supplier could lose money should they have not allowed enough of a contingent factor into the price. Undeniably true, there are suppliers that cut corners when they find out they stand to lose money on the job. Some only do the very least to meet their commitments or worse, abandon the job which cause losses to everyone.

The more experienced supplier or tradesman, with excellent reputation will approach a Job by taking the time to thoroughly understand the job and insure their client also thoroughly understands the job. Due to their expertise, such suppliers could identify some of the unknowns in the job and will be able to provide an accurate quote thereby lowering down the contingent factor built into the price. These suppliers know a problem properly identified is more than half solved.

The supply of self-adhesive labelling equipment is very much a problem that needs to be “half solved” through a process of identifying what is involved thoroughly before moving on to the quotation and eventual supply phase. Be wary of future suppliers that require very little information before quoting you on a job. It is possible that there is either a higher “contingent factor” built into the price or there will be parts that will be neglected on purpose.

An experienced machine supplier like LabelOn™ will take you through a thorough process of identifying what needs to be known before giving you a price for the machine they will supply.

Fast price range can be acquired from LabelOn™ which will be reduced down during formal quotation process.

Knowing the above mentioned facts, what will your self-adhesive labelling machine supplier need to know?

For self-adhesive labelling bottle, shapes are classified into Flat-Sided, Oval and Round. Within the Round classification there are sub classifications of cylindrical, tapered and those with an orientation feature. The most likely orientation features on a round product include handles or flat panels, markings or the need to orientate the body label with another label or marking already on the round bottle.

Height, length and thickness help identify the bottle sizes. In the case of a round bottle it is the height and diameter that will usually best describe their dimensions. The bottle labels will be supplied in rolls. The range of label roll diameters and heights are important information to include in any machine proposal.

The label panel on a product is the area on that bottle where the labels are expected to be placed. It is important to identify if the product labels need to be placed on a recessed surface on the bottle – especially for round bottles. Equally important is to know if the product label area has sufficient room for the common variations in bottle dimensions added to the common variations of label placement. For round bottle labels, there is a need to identify if the application calls for a single or more than one label. For single product label, there is a need to identify the percentage wrap of the bottle label. Soon after collecting all this information in writing, pictures showing the obtained data should be put together for machine proposal records to make sure that no pertinent considerations are missed.

It is a good practice to acquire a quick budget range for your labelling equipment prior to contacting a supplier. If your budget meets their price range, make sure that most, if not all, of the above mentioned considerations are extensively covered in any future formal quotation presented to you