TOSS® with the PIREG® Impulse Heatseal Temperature Control System | Application

The perfection of TOSS® Technology with PIREG® Heatseal Temperature Control can be readily extended to the perforating, cutting, and trimming of individual or contiguous packages. Perfect Seals... Every Time.

The packaging industry, and in particular, the medical, healthcare, pharmaceutical, and food industries, use plastic molded parts, films, sheets, and composite structures to produce, protect, preserve, and display a multitude of products. These products must be produced and packaged with unerring precision and integrity, often at high speeds. As the commercial world expands, distribution networks are stretched to reach into distant markets and packaging must be made to withstand the rigors of transport and handling. The definition of a good product includes secure packaging for protection and purity until opened by the user. Further, it must open easily and have good appearance in order to provide convenience and instill confidence in the user.

Polymer producers continue to create unimaginable new plastic materials with superior properties for the production, protection, and display of products. Many of the newer polymeric structures, with improved strength, clarity, and barrier qualities, require greater precision in the joining or sealing process in order to assure integrity and tamper resistance.

The objective then, is to produce high integrity seals consistently and repeatedly, while operating at maximum speed. The challenge is to make perfect seals from first to last. The optimum seal is one that meets the physical configuration that is required for the application, meets or exceeds the strength requirement, is uniform, attractive, free of defects or deformations, and is produced in minimum time with virtually zero rejects.

Fundamentally, heat sealing of plastic materials is the process of joining the materials together with sufficient heat and pressure to assure secure bonding. The materials might be films or sheets of polymeric materials, plastics, or they may be metallic foils or papers that are coated with a polymeric sealing layer. The misnomer for the process is that the secure bonding of the materials is not accomplished when they are heated but rather when they are cooled. Therefore, it follows that precision bonding can only be accomplished with the ability to control not only the heating cycle, but also the cooling rate, cooling temperature, pressure, and timing. Whereas this was previously done based upon operator judgment, it is now accomplished with precision using PIREG® high response temperature controllers that monitor and automatically control temperature within milliseconds.

The introduction of precise PIREG® temperature and timing control has not only increased productivity and reduced scrap to virtually zero; it has created a level of quality that assures unquestioned integrity. As example; healthcare professionals can now handily open surgical kits while engaged in stressful procedures with absolute confidence that their instruments have been perfectly packaged and are sterile. Everything from soap powder to peanuts or milk can be packaged without the possibility of spilled product on the packaging machine or on the floor.

The perfection of PIREG® heatseal control can be readily extended to the perforating, cutting, and trimming of individual or contiguous packages. Sealing and cutting can be accomplished simultaneously at one station. This capability is critical to achieving maximum production rates without the cost and aggravation of registration problems and with minimal waste of materials.

In recent years the methods and means of sealing plastic films and joining plastic components has advanced from an art to a science by the development and introduction of processes, designs, and controls that guarantee perfect bonding every time. The development of this capability has been driven by the demand for polymeric materials and packaging in critical applications where failure is not acceptable. In addition, it has been shown that precision processing reduces the rate of rejection and thereby reduces cost and increases profit margins. Many new polymeric materials are constantly being developed with qualities that expand their usefulness but in spite of superb qualities they come with increased cost. It is therefore all the more important to eliminate rejects and reduce the waste of expensive materials. Plastic materials have greater commercial value if they can be cut or seal/cut effectively. This need induced the TOSS Companies to develop precise and predictable sealing and cutting technology using PIREG® Impulse Heatseal Temperature Controllers.