Over the last decade, pouches and doypacks have grown increasingly popular as a packaging choice for many different products. From sweets and snacks to pet food, laundry detergent and dishwasher tablets, the lightweight material, durability and sustainability mean that pouches are the ideal choice. With the growth in popularity of pouch packaging, the demand for a fully automatic pouch packing machine is also at a high.
There are so many benefits to pouch packaging that investing in a pouch filling machine to increase efficiency and elevate your end product seems like a no brainer, but before you buy a pouch packaging machine, as there are numerous different machines available, there are important questions to ask yourself.
To ensure that the pouch filling machinery you choose is right for your business needs, consider:
What sort of pouches will you be using?
To suit the wide variety of products that are packaged in pouches, there are a number of different premade pouch styles available, including gusseted pouches, often used for tea and coffee, standup pouches (doypacks) for food, pharmaceutical and household products, sealed bottom pouches, and spouted pouches, best suited to liquids and pastes.
If you are looking for a premade bag packing machine that will accommodate different sizes and styles of pouch, this must be factored in when you choose a packaging machine. If you are looking for a solution that will fill and seal different pouch styles with a range of products, you will need to consider this.
What is the machine layout?
It may seem obvious, but before you invest in a pouch filling machine, you will need to consider its layout and how it will fit your processes, as well as the space you have available. There are two main pouch packaging machine layouts, inline, which has the start and end process points at opposite ends of the machine, and rotary, where all processes are carried out in a circular fashion.
If you are looking for a fully automated packaging solution that requires less floor space, then a rotary machine is the better choice.
How fast is the machine?
If you are forecasting growth in demand for your products as you switch to pouch packaging, then the speed at which a fully automatic pouch packing machine will operate is an important consideration. Of course, automated equipment operates much faster than manual processes can achieve, but not all machines operate at the same speed.
If you are seeking to upgrade your pouch machine to a high speed model, or simply need a fast model to ensure that forecasted demand for your products is met, then a high speed pouch filling machine is required and some machines achieve operating speeds of as much as twice as fast as others.
How durable is the machine? How much maintenance is required?
As with buying any type of machinery, the parts that make up the equipment are extremely important, as poorly made components can lead to regular issues and maintenance may be frequent and expensive. Whilst a machine with cheaper parts may save money in the short term, when future maintenance is considered, the chances are, the machine will be much more costly.
In addition to the quality of parts, you should also factor in how many critical machine components are used. A packaging machine that operates with precision and efficiency whilst using fewer parts will be favoured as fewer parts will usually mean simpler maintenance.
Is machine support available
Remember, when you invest in a pouch machine, peace of mind that support is available is important. If you are a UK based business, then ensuring that UK based engineers are available is vital. In the case of a machine malfunction, or support in training staff to use packaging machinery correctly, after sales support helps to keep your business running as smoothly as possible.
For help in choosing the right fully automatic pouch packing machine for your business, visit intamacmachinery.com.