From Liners to Linerless
To Cap it All
From Liners to Linerless
Increasing costs are making production line efficiencies more important than ever before . Here Victor Sachs , Technical Services Manager at Selig Group , a leading worldwide manufacturer of tamper evident cap and closure lining materials , discusses how producers can overcome bottle necks in packaging production lines using induction heat sealing and explores going capless and linerless .
Increasing sealing speed
Avoiding bottle necks in the process is key to speed , and container sealing can become a rate-determining step , depending on the option used :
Conduction sealing - can require additional pick and place machinery , necessitating more product handling than the contactless , integrated liner and cap induction heat sealing process . To increase the speed of conduction sealing , more lines are required . And for food producers running a mix of applications on filling lines , conduction sealing is less tolerant to bottle and height variance and neck designs than induction sealing .
Induction sealing – can be used on multi-use filling lines and to future-proof them . To increase speed is simply a matter of adding more induction heat sealers to the existing line . Using induction heat sealing , food producers can seal up to 650 sauce bottles per minute , with 3 units on the production line .
More units can be added if needed . In fact , a water bottling plant in Saudi Arabia is running at present at 1000 bottles sealed and capped per minute , using induction heat sealing .
With cost efficiencies more important than ever before , choosing the right sealing method for a product , a brand and an entire packaging line has never been more important .
Linerless or capless ?
Bore seals , or linerless closures – these non-induction sealed caps can save producers money , due to the lack of liner . Used in some dairy applications and in the drinks market , these double ridged caps wrap around a landing area on the container . However , they can ’ t deliver a consistent hermetic seal and can let in oxygen and water vapour , making reliability and shelf-life a possible issue .
Capless closures - many supermarkets and brands are removing plastic lids on foil-sealed yoghurts , creams , and dips , to improve their packaging carbon footprint . The preferred sealing method for capless closures is conduction sealing , although induction sealing has the potential to deliver significant time , energy , and aluminium savings .
With cost efficiencies more important than ever before , choosing the right sealing method for a product , a brand and an entire packaging line has never been more important . Thankfully , however , with the wide range of benefits offered by induction heat sealing , and the availability of conduction and liner-less solutions for specific applications , there is a sealing solution to meet the majority of food and drink processing needs .
68 FDPP - www . fdpp . co . uk www . seliggroup . com