Welcome to Package This — your guide to packaging machinery and materials. Today we explore vertical form/fill/seal equipment, also known as VFFS machines and vertical baggers. Vertical form/fill/seal machines form bags from plastic roll stock, fill products into the newly formed bag, and immediately seal them – all on one machine.

Standard pillow pouch

Pillow pouch machines use gas flushing to puff up the bag with nitrogen for added protection of the product inside, such as potato chips or other snacks.

Syntegon’s Woodman P3c, a continuous-motion VFFS bagmaker, features technology designed for light, low-density snack foods like potato chips and extruded snacks.

As the machine unwinds film roll stock around a forming tube, they measure and deposit the product and seal the bags. Its product clamp and settler feature stops and shakes products falling through the film tube.A jaw stripping motion sweeps the end seals clear of any small particles that may interfere with the seal.

The Woodman SVX Agile is the newest VFFS bagmaker from Syntegon, capable of speeds up to 300 bags per minute, thanks to its unique new cross-seal drive system, which consists of four independently controlled servo motors. The SVX platform comes in three models: the Agile, the Duplex, and the Compact.

VFFS for solids

If you think VFFS systems are just for snacks, think again!

Vertical baggers can handle a wide range of solid products such as meats, frozen foods, pet foods, cheeses, and other products, including non-food items. Here we see an R. A. Jones KartridgPak brand chub packer in action. R. A. Jones says KartridgPak offers the lowest total cost of ownership primary packaging machine in the industry.

This new mid-speed machine utilizes the latest packaging technology to help customers’ bags and pouches stand out on the shelf, with registered film and consistent graphics. This KartridgPak is forming a chub pack, often used for applications such as ground beef, turkey, or sausage products.

As product is filled into the newly formed chub pack, the machine forms a metal clip to snugly close the chub. The KartridgPak product line is designed to handle many different chub packing applications.

Sachets & portion packs

Portion pack bags, or sachets, use the same vertical bagging technology described earlier, except for much smaller package sizes. These little guys hold just enough product for a single portion or use.

With sachets, the roll stock will be cut into small strips, filled, and sealed on four corners to form square- or rectangular-shaped bag for items such as condiment and sugar packets used in food service applications.

Stick packs

Stick packs also carry small portions of products perfect for the on-the-go lifestyle, only in a long and thin tubular shape. As these machines work with such small amounts per package, the forming, filling, and cutting of stick packs demands a great deal of precision.

Tubes are sealed with a bottom and top seal, holding dry goods such as powdered drink mixes or pharmaceutical products for pouring or viscous liquids such as mayonnaise and honey that can be squeezed out.

Quad seal bags

Quad seal bags feature four seals. Taking on a rectangular shape, these bags stand out on store shelves due to their prominent squared off appearance. They're a great choice for coffee products, nuts, snacks, cookies, and other powdery or granular goodies.

VFFS for liquids

VFFS technology doesn't shy away from liquids and semi liquids. Soups, sauces, and condiments can all be filled hot into bags or pouches on VFFS machines. Cold filling for dairy products is also possible, keeping them cool, smooth, and creamy.

From popcorn bags and stand-up pouches of rice to sachets for soy sauce and stick packs for powdered sports drinks, vertical baggers cover it all, offering efficiency, speed, and versatility in a single seamless bagging operation. For more videos on packaging machinery and materials, please subscribe to our Package This series on YouTube. And to browse bagging equipment options, head over to Prosource.org, a searchable directory with 1, 000 packaging and processing suppliers.

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