There are many factors that can affect the outcome and quality of your induction sealing operations within food and beverage production environments. These things must be taken into consideration when planning and operating induction sealing systems to avoid lost product, dissatisfied customers, reduced product quality, increased maintenance and costs, and unplanned downtime.
This blog explores some of the hidden drivers of success when induction sealing in food and beverage production:
Consistent Seal Quality
Inconsistencies in seal quality can be caused by product contamination on the product rim, differences in container dimensions, uneven power delivery and inconsistent settings from the induction sealer, as well as variations in liner placement. These inconsistencies can happen intermittently, which makes it difficult to detect until the product(s) reaches distribution, retail shelves, or in the hands of the consumer. If these inconsistencies occur, it can lead to product leaks, reduced shelf life, failed tamper-evident seals, and damage to your brand image.
Proper Cap Torque
When sealing, the force that presses the seal against the bottle is known as torque, and without it, your products cannot be sealed if the liner is not pressed evenly against the container. If a container is too loose and under-torqued, the liner won’t make sufficient contact with the bottle, and if it is too tight, or over-torqued, the liner can deform and the seal can be compromised. Even the smallest variations in cap torque can lead to inconsistent sealing results and product rejects. It’s important that food and beverage manufacturers calculate their application torque using this formula: 1/2 Diameter of the Cap +/- 10%, while at the same time, considering the container material, closure design, liner construction, and product type.
Keeping up with High Speed Production Lines
Many food and beverage lines operate at hundreds of containers per minute, so it’s critical that manufacturers are able to keep up with high speed induction sealing rates. Manufacturers often struggle to keep up with these fast production rates when there is insufficient sealing power as each container spends less time under the sealing coil, containers wobble under the coil due to container height variations, or bottles are improperly spaced because of conveyor and handling issues. If these issues are not addressed, manufacturers won’t be able to keep up with production rates and can potentially see incomplete or weak seals, unplanned downtime, and product quality rejects.
Proper Equipment Maintenance to Avoid Downtime
While induction sealers have relatively few moving parts, preventative maintenance is one of the most common root causes of seal failures, unplanned downtime, and product quality issues; so, it’s important that ongoing maintenance is a priority for food and beverage manufacturers. Manufacturers should regularly be inspecting the sealing coil for physical wear or damage, verifying cooling system performance to avoid failures, and inspecting electrical components to avoid degradation of control panels, circuit boards, power supply connections, etc.. If not regularly performing maintenance to induction sealers, manufacturers can experience poor sealing quality, increased costs for replacement equipment, and unplanned downtime.
If you have any questions or want to learn more about how to achieve success when induction sealing on your production line, contact our experts today.