The Different Types of Packaging Machines

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There Are Four Main Types of MAP Packaging Machines

The most common types of packaging machines are:
1 Tray Sealing – The food product is placed in a pre-made rigid tray and the air within the tray is either vacuumed out & then the tray is either:

flushed with the modified gas and film is top sealed on the tray
simply flushed with modified gas to push the atmosphere out and top sealed with a film.

Tray Sealing machines are available in a range of sizes from small manually operated to fully automated twin lines. Tray seal packaging machine suppliers include:

Sealpac UK – www.sealpac-uk.com
Packaging Automation Ltd – www.pal.co.uk
Proseal – www.proseal.com
Redpack Packaging Machinery – www.redpack.co.uk

2 Thermoform-fill-seal (TFFS ) – This is a stage process, where the thermo-deformable thicker base web is unwound, heated and drawn into a set of dies to form a series of pockets. The product is placed into the pockets. The filled pockets are then moved to the second stage station where the atmosphere is evacuated from the pockets and the MAP gas is flushed into the pockets, which are then sealed with top film. The outer edge of the packages are then cut free from the base web. Thermoform package machine suppliers include:

Multivac – www.multivac.co.uk
Sealpac – www.sealpac-uk.com
Reiser – www.reiser.com

3 Horizontal form-fill-seal (HFFS) – or more commonly known as Flow Wrapping machines.
A single film web is fed horizontally and formed into a travelling “tube” of film. The film tube is sealed along it’s back (fin) seal
and over wraps the individual products. The MAP gas is flush into this tube, pushing the air back out of the tube, which is then sealed in front of and behind the product to form gas flushed individual packs. Flow wrap machine suppliers include:

PFM Packaging Machinery UK – www.pfmuk.com
Ilapak – www.ilapak.com
Paramount Packaging – www.paramount-packaging.co.uk

4 Vertical form-fill—seal (VFFS) – commonly known as ‘Baggers’, this is where a single film web is fed vertically around the outside of a forming tube and is sealed vertically to form a tube of film. Product is dropped down the inside of the forming tube, coming to rest on the bottom seal of the tube, which has already formed when the top seal of the preceding bag was made. The tube is either continuously, or pulse flushed, with MAP gas to expel the atmospheric air and then the top seal is made, producing a hermetical sealed package with a protective atmosphere inside. Bagging machine suppliers include: