Ultrasonic Sealing of Flexible Packaging Films – Principle and Characteristics of an Alternative Sealing Method

Bach, Sascha; Thürling, Karsten; Majschak, Jens‐Peter

doi:10.1002/pts.972

Cited by 19 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 12 publications

(17 reference statements)

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“…The results showed that the elderly and the young groups exhibited significantly different torque and force profiles when attempting to open the bottles. Similar work was also conducted by researchers focusing on the opening force measurement and opening postures of bottles and jars [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26].This interest in understanding the issues around openability has led to the development of European and international guidelines on the measurement of packaging seal forces and user test panel methods. The European technical specification DD CEN/TS 15945 [26] launched in 2011 sets out a framework for ease of opening evaluation for packaging and has more recently been superseded by ISO17480.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Seal Strength Evaluation of Flexible Plastic Films by Machine Testing and Human Peeling

Nilmanee

Jinkarn

Jarupan

et al. 2018

Journal of Testing and Evaluation

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ABSTRACT:The seal strength of flexible packaging indicates both functional performance and the ease of opening. This research aims to compare the seal peeling mechanisms evaluated by human participants and standard machine tests. The tests were conducted on flexible films used for typical packaging applications, LDPE, LLDPE and Nylon/LLDPE. Human peeling was simulated through the use of novel force measurement equipment. The results showed that the maximum machine peel force set by standard test methods was generally lower than the human peel force for most sealing temperatures. In all film types no significant difference was shown between genders although for people over 65 years peel force was generally lower than for the younger cohort. The results also indicated that peeling speed of human participants was normally higher than the peeling speed set according to the machine test standard.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Seal Strength Evaluation of Flexible Plastic Films by Machine Testing and Human Peeling

Nilmanee

Jinkarn

Jarupan

et al. 2018

Journal of Testing and Evaluation

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“…In scientific and technical papers, several tests are performed on packaging films with contaminated seals such as seal strength, leak rate, and degree of particle encapsulation (caulkability) . This study is focussed on seal strength.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The relation of seal through contamination and hot tack performance is part of this study. In the last decades, the influence of seal material composition on the contaminated seal performance was the topic of a limited amount of studies, and these studies did not include a well‐described application method for solid contamination . Moreover, there are no methods described in these studies to obtain the optimal or maximal seal performance through contamination.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evaluation and optimization of seal behaviour through solid contamination of heat‐sealed films

et al. 2019

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A method is presented to apply solid powder/granulate contamination (ground coffee and blood powder) in between the heat conductive seals of flexible packaging materials. A response surface method is tested and validated to optimize seal strength of heat conductive sealing with and without solid contamination. In this study, a maximal seal strength is defined as optimal. Using these methods, three typical packaging films with varying seal layer composition (metallocene linear low‐density polyethylene (LLDPE), plastomer, and sodium ionomer) are maximized towards contaminated seal strength. Contamination caused a decrease in seal strength and narrowed down the process window (seal temperature and time combinations) in which at least 90% of the maximal strength is obtained. The influence of seal layer composition on the clean and solid (ground coffee and blood powder) contaminated seal performance (seal strength, process window, and leak tightness) was evaluated. The film with the plastomer‐based seal layer outperformed the other films with respect to the width of the process window. It also reached a higher seal strength and a higher amount of leak tight seals (evaluated with the dye penetration test) after optimization. The hot tack test was evaluated as predictive test for the contaminated seal strength. The results of this study do not support an indicative relationship.

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“…Several advantages of ultrasonic sealing over heat conductive sealing have been shown, such as the short sealing times, decreased thermal stress on the packaged product, the capability to seal through powder contamination, a decreased energy consumption, a narrower seal, and no need for thick peel layers. 2,[7][8][9] In ultrasonic sealing, sound waves in the frequency range between 20 and 40 kHz are used to create friction and thus generate heat between two layers of packaging film. The energy introduction in the seal is achieved by means of an ultrasonic horn, oscillating with an amplitude in the range of 10-60 μm, and an anvil.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multicriteria evaluation and optimization of the ultrasonic sealing performance based on design of experiments and response surface methodology

et al. 2019

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Proper closure is an essential packaging quality aspect and can, amongst others, be achieved with ultrasonic sealing. The ultrasonic sealing performance depends on the film type, and the seal settings, such as seal time, applied force and ultrasonic amplitude. Because these parameters are less intuitive than heat seal parameters and optimal settings are undefined for many films, this work presents an efficient approach to evaluate the effect of these settings on the ultrasonic sealing performance. An experimental design defines the experiments to perform. A response surface methodology is then used to model the relation between seal settings and sealing performance. Based on these models, the seal settings are optimized. As there are several criteria to express sealing performance, single-criteria and multicriteria optimizations are described.The approach was illustrated for a polyethylene terephthalate/linear low-density polyethylene-C4 film. The seal settings were optimized to obtain high seal strength, limited ultrasonic horn displacement, and low seal energy. The optimum settings were 0.1 seconds (seal time), 4.32 N/mm (force), and 28.75 μm (amplitude). The predicted optimum strength, horn displacement, and energy were 2.32 N/mm, 40 μm, and 11.66 J, respectively. Besides the optimum, the seal window is also of interest. A broad seal window ensures sufficient seal strength for a wide range of settings. For the polyethylene terephthalate/linear low-density polyethylene-C4 film, a strength of ≥90% of the optimum was obtained for 39% of the input combinations within the design space.The presented approach is widely applicable (other films and sealing processes) since it is flexible in the input parameters, design, and responses. KEYWORDSdesign of experiments, multicriteria seal optimization, polyolefin packaging, response surface methodology, ultrasonic sealing

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Ultrasonic Sealing of Flexible Packaging Films – Principle and Characteristics of an Alternative Sealing Method

Cited by 19 publications

References 12 publications

Seal Strength Evaluation of Flexible Plastic Films by Machine Testing and Human Peeling

Seal Strength Evaluation of Flexible Plastic Films by Machine Testing and Human Peeling

Evaluation and optimization of seal behaviour through solid contamination of heat‐sealed films

Multicriteria evaluation and optimization of the ultrasonic sealing performance based on design of experiments and response surface methodology

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