Infrared Hot Melt Adhesive Detection Provides Seal Verification for Primary and Secondary Packaging, 1999 Hot Melt Symposium Proceedings

In the every increasing tactical use of paperboard and corrugated fiberboard packaging in marketing programs, innovative and complex designs have become common place, putting increased demands on the once simple sealing operation. In addition, recycled materials, complex coatings and finishes have lead to the use of specialty hot melt adhesives, which in some cases makes adhesive application set-up and operation difficult.

Packaging machinery has come a long way since the 1960’s. What was once a back-room secondary operation has progressed to an integral part of most manufacturers’ processes. Cartoning, tray making, case erection and sealing have all become highly automated, complex operations. The introduction of automatic hot melt application equipment has allowed production rates to increase, package designs to become more complex and package materials to change.

The need to increase productivity has increased automation, line speeds and machine complexity, leaving little opportunity for poorly sealed packages to make their way through a modern packaging facility let alone survive in today’s distribution systems.

As a result of increased automation there has been a corresponding reduction in labor, especially at the machine operation level. Most modern operations rely on the efficiencies of their packaging equipment to assure package integrity and quality. When a portion of the packaging operation fails, the results can be very expensive in terms of unscheduled downtime, extra labor and warranty costs.

Many producers have reported that a contributing cause of unscheduled downtime and distribution warranty claims are the result of poorly sealed packages due to some form of adhesive application process failure. Since the adhesive application process is fundamentally hidden, it is easy for poorly or partially sealed packages to be introduced into distribution.

There are many causes for adhesive application process failure but the hardest to catch are partial nozzle clogs and random or erratic component operation. Automated verification systems will help identify developing trends before they cause unscheduled downtime or introduce poor quality products into distribution.