The most common set up for a Flow Pack horizontal packaging machine places the film reel above the product motion level and locates the longitudinal sealing wheels below the product motion level. This typical Flow Pack operation is mainly used for products of the same shape and similar size as well for packages that contain one product piece per pillow bag.
However, it is often necessary to package products of irregular shapes and sizes, as well as for packages to contain multiple product pieces in one bag.
This is why APM designed and constructed the Flow Pack horizontal packaging machine RJ INV in the category of Inverted Flow Pack machines. In these packaging machines the film reel is placed below the product motion level and the longitudinal sealing wheels are located above the product motion level – Top Seal.
In this way the packaging film wraps around the product from below and transfers it, with the help of a conveyor belt, to the transversal sealing jaws.
The film sealing jaws rotate and the infeed conveyor is manufactured either with a conveyor belt or with chain lugs.
Typical packaging applications of the RJ INV Flow Wrapper are agricultural products of small height, like parsley and dill; agricultural products containing multiple pieces in one bag such as cucumbers, carrots and green beans; bakery products of different shape and uneven size such as bread sticks in bulk; cleaning products such as mop heads, and plastic products of different forms and sizes.
RJ INV series machines are manufactured with five different crimp lengths covering a wide range of product dimensions. They use servo-driven motors for machine motion control as well as touch screen functionality for setting machine parameters.