When Matrix Packaging Machinery (matrixpm.com), powered by Pro Mach, began designing the company’s next generation vertical form-fill-seal (VFFS) platform, the design team focused on creating the most versatile machine possible. This involved understanding likely bag sizes and types, production speeds, film formulations and thicknesses, machine size footprint, motion control complexities, and all the other minor but essential elements of the target applications. Next, team members looked beyond the basics and asked, “How can we make this new, technically more complex platform simpler to operate and support?” During the subsequent development of the first two machines based on the Matrix next generation platform, the high speed continuous motion Morpheus and the intermittent motion Apollo, Matrix identified fundamental considerations when evaluating VFFS that go beyond the obvious. Based on the work of the Matrix next generation team, here are six not-necessarily-obvious tips when exploring a VFFS purchase.
As the U.S. nears full employment, and as skilled workers retire at a faster rate than they are being replaced, employers face multiple labor related challenges, including the tension between the shortage of technically savvy workers and the increasing complexity of production system.