Seal Contamination

Independent studies showed that a third of sealed packages have insufficient seam quality. Contaminations are the main reason for the leakage of flexible packages with a part of more than a half of the failure issues. Disposal of the packaging good occurs as dust or sprinkles at the sealing area due to filling processes of liquids, paste-like or powdery packaging goods. For high quality tight seals a reliant sealing through this residues of the packaging good is essential. This may in particular be an issue for modified atmosphere packages (MAP). Also, the seam strength will be reduced as well as the appearance of the whole package which is important for the sale of the product.

The research project follows the objective to develop a method of a reproducible testing of films and sealants for their sealing behavior in case of contamination. Therefore, a method for defined coating for different contaminations and a first approach for the measurement of the degree of contamination will be developed. This method will also be implemented in a test rig.

During the IVLV project different procedures to contaminate packaging films has been investigated and tested for powdery products and assessed in regard to the technical feasibility. With these results and knowledge an IGF proposal was prepared and filed.

The objective of the IGF-project will be the consolidation of the method development for the defined application of contamination and the measurement system of contamination degree. The developed test rig will be used for measurements to validate the procedure and for evaluation of the degree by sealing through contamination at specify packaging materials. Furthermore the physical mechanisms will be analyzed, described and summarized in an IVLV paper. Simultaneously with the experimental tests, a coupled thermal-fluid-flow simulation model will develop for the analysis of melt flow during the sealing process.