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About Flow Wrapping

11th February, 2011 - Posted by health news - No Comments

How do crisps stay fresh when you pop open the packet? It’s mainly thanks to flow wrapping. You’ve got a crimp seal at the top and bottom and a fin seal running the length of the packet which is the easiest way to understand flow wrapping!

Flow wrapping can also be known as fin seal wrapping, crimp seal wrapping, and horizontal bagging.

What products can you flow wrap?

Flow wrapping is a packaging process that over wraps an pre-sale product with a film. You can flow wrap all kinds of products which also include foods, leaflets or booklets, scratch cards, phone cards and giveaways in cereal packets and computer software. There are hundreds of thousands of products that we all use daily which are flow wrapped including wipes, tissues, sweets, chocolate bars and pharmaceutical products and cosmetics.

What materials are used in flow wrapping?

This really depends on the product. Foods can be wrapped in food grade clear, printed or polypropelene film. Up to 10 colours can be used to create a unique look or specific branding. There is a large range of materials available in today’s environment depending on the needs of the client. This includes cellulose film and heat sealable lacquered materials and plastics laminated to paper film or foil.
What machinery is used in the flow wrapping process??

Flow wrapping or otherwise known as fin seal, is a very versatile and cost effective solution for packaging. The Horizontal Form-Fill-Seal machines are also more commonly known as ‘Flowrappers.’ These machines are highly effective and efficient machines and are capable of flow wrapping up to 50,000 items per daily shift. With several machines up to 200,000 items per day could be flow wrapped! This type of machinery is used by companies which offer contract packaging services & packing and wrapping solutions on a wholesale basis.

These machines can produce assorted crimp seal sizes and airtight seals for a range of products. To obtain the best results the film must be wrapped tightly enough around the product so that they don’t move around. The ‘tails’ at either end must be compact so that the products are packed efficiently.

So the next time you open a packet of crisps, you now know how the wrapping was completed!