Q: What is the difference between single wound (flat) and center folded (folded) film?
A: Center folded film is folded in half before it is wound on the roll, flat film is not. Most machines such as L-bar sealers and side seal machines can use either form but a center folder device is needed to fold flat film before it goes into the wrapper. Lap seal wrappers use only flat film which is wrapped around the former or plow to form the wrapping tube. The advantage of using flat film on any wrapper style is that the roll length is double that of folded film which reduces the number of times production has to be stopped to load a new roll of film.
Q: Which types of film run on Texwrap equipment?
A: Texwrap wrappers can run a wide range of polyolefin, polyethylene, PVC and some polypropylene-based films from the new 30-40 gauge films up to a full 3 mil. Texwrap offers many different seal systems, and testing allows us to select the best one for your application and chosen film. All films should be tested to assure machinability and seal quality.
Q: Texwrap's film sizing formulas often seem to recommend wider films than absolutely necessary. Why take this approach?
A: We understand that our film formulas are conservative (they do include scrap). The reason we estimate film width on the high side is that our years of experience tell us that doing a minimalist estimation based on ideal product dimensions from a chart are not real world and, while it gives a prospective customer a theoretical lower film usage projection, those results are often not achievable in actual production.
Customers' products are often not perfectly square as they bulge slightly and vary in size slightly due to small inconsistencies or variations in the forming/packing equipment. Other real world issues can include the need to make the film bags larger than the theoretical smallest size in order to give different films the time and space to shrink completely to eliminate wrinkles or dog ears.
Rarely is it the case where a smaller bag results in a more acceptable package appearance. Slightly wider film size also allows the user to eliminate sealing issues in real production, at real production rates, by increasing the bag size slightly to eliminate film tension at the points where the seals are made which is the cause of most poor or weak seals.
Very frequently new users find that, as their operators become more familiar with the equipment, they find small ways over time to hone the film usage and run with narrower widths. For all of the above reasons, we find that our customers are happier and have smoother startups if they approach their film selection in this way.
Q: What makes Texwrap's user interface so easy to use?
A: Texwrap leads the industry in easy-to-use intuitive machine interfaces. The touch-screen is the communicator between operator and machine, therefore it must be designed and organized similarly to the way an operator thinks.
Texwrap’s machine interface transforms complicated machine settings into an easy, intuitive, self-teaching interface that speaks in layman’s terms. Anyone who can operate an ATM machine can setup and operate a Texwrap machine.
Q: What is a product library?
A: Product libraries are used to record individual product setups and recall them for later use. After an operator finds the perfect settings for a particular product, he/she simply saves the settings with the push of a button and the entry of an alpha-numeric title. Once saved, the product can be recalled by name at a later time and sent to the controller to perfectly repeat the original setup. A virtually limitless number of different program files can be stored.
Q. How important is shrink tunnel performance in final package quality?
A: Often overlooked, the design of a shrink tunnel often plays as large a role as the wrapper itself in the quality and appearance of the final package. If the tunnel can't impart sufficient energy into the film early enough to create the maximum ballooning effect and allow the bubble to collapse at just the right rate, the film won’t shrink to its maximum extent, imperfections won’t be cleaned up and end result will be less than desirable.
The heater size, fan velocity, volume of air, ability to precisely control the volume and direction of the air, belt type, and tunnel length are all critical factors in the choice of a tunnel. Heat and volume of air without the ability to control the direction or, control of the direction without sufficient volume, will produce less than satisfactory results.