Flex-Pak bags big benefits with new Servo bagmaker
System switches from fin to lap seals, doubling capabilities.
Edited by Associate Editor Jorina Fontelera -- Converting Magazine, 4/1/2005 2:00:00 AM
William Reimann, president and owner of Flex-Pak Packaging Products, Inc. in Batavia, IL, didn't have to look far to find the machine he hoped would increase his company's barrier-bagmaking capabilities. Just 10 miles south of Flex-Pak is Mamata USA (Montgomery, IL), which eventually sold Reimann its Vega 356 CP center-seal, servo-driven bagmaker.
"Over the course of six to eight months, I had a series of discussions with Mamata USA, on how Mamata could best handle Flex-Pak's specific requirements for barrier bagmaking," Reimann says. "They understood exactly what we needed and came up with the solution."
The Vega 356 converts polyester, aluminum foil, paper and barrier poly-propylene in thicknesses of 30 to 125 microns at up to 130 fpm. It can form, seal and cut flat film to size, creating fin seals by marrying two pieces of film, sealing the ends and cutting them to size. While the Vega could make fin seals, Flex-Pak, a custom bag and pouch converter of cellophane, PP and laminated films, needed a machine that would produce laminate bags with lap seals, as well as fin seals.
In order to meet Flex-Pak's needs, Mamata modified the Vega 356 so that the fin assembly could be taken off and the lap assembly put in its place. The changeover process would take about 30 min. Mamata made the changes to the unit at its manufacturing facilities in India and then shipped the machine back to its Montgomery facility so that Reimann could see the changeover process.
Customer service
"What I appreciate is Mamata USA's willingness to work with us the entire time," Reimann says. "We've had great after-sales service and plenty of engineering support from Mamata USA since day one. They even had the Vega 356 adjusted so that when the film roll is coming to the end, the machine turns itself off. Setup is very easy—we simply set the parameters for a specific bag, and the machine controls adjust the speed to automatically fit these specific requirements."
Flex-Pak was so pleased with their relationship with Mamata that they are considering making additional modifications to the Vega 356 in the future. Currently, the machine is being used to make bags only for the food and healthcare industry. Reimann plans on transforming it to a pouchmaker as well by adding a folding attachment infeed. Although Flex-Pak is not yet ready to make the changes, Reimann believes that the added versatility of the machine will open new doors for the converter.
"It'll give us more opportunities to go after different pieces of business, and we can be more aggressive in that it's a nice dependable machine that'll run well for us and has been running well for us," Reimann says. "I expect this modification to be as effective as the first."
Oldies but goodies
The Vega 356 recently joined the Flex-Pak family of machines, which is a mix of equipment from those that are over 15 years old and a relatively new FTSC-N series 3-side, sealing/stand-up/zipper pouchmaker from HCI Converting Equipment (Taichung, Taiwan). Like the Vega 356, the HCI pouchmaker is also designed for multi-tasking capabilities. For Flex-Pak, the HCI is a stand-up, zippered and side-gusseted pouchmaker, just to name a few of its many roles.
The rest of Flex-Pak's machines are all custom-built. "We have some older equipment that continues to do the job. Not the multi-million dollar fancy stuff but it gets us by," Reimann says. "They don't really have a brand name. The first is a pouch machine used for all of the company's wider materials. Two 36-in. webs can be fed into the machine for some relatively large-sized pouches.
The second is Flex-Pak's "workhorse" press, custommade by the previous owners of Flex-Pak, Formel Industries (Franklin Park, IL). The 4-color stack press does basic line printing. Half-tone printing and more complicated process-print jobs are outsourced.
This mix of old and new machinery has done nothing but improve Flex-Pak's capabilities.
"Our bagmaking capacity has greatly increased as a direct result of doing business with Mamata," Reimann says.
CONVERTER:
FLEX-PAK PACKAGING PRODUCTS, INC., 630/761-3335, fax: 630/761-3336, www.thomasregisterdirectory.com/packaging
SUPPLIERS:
MAMATA USA, 630/801-2320, fax: 630/801-2322, www.mamata.com
HCI CONVERTING EQUIPMENT, 886/4-2359-0632, fax: 886/4-2359-0710, www.hci.cc
FORMEL INDUSTRIES, 847/455-3300, fax: 847/928-9655, www.formelinc.com
Correction
04/30/2005Demonstrate Machines with Visitors' films
07/31/2006
