The boom of online shopping has increased the reliance on packing and shipping for commerce to function. Businesses have always needed to be able to use packaging equipment to sell their creations. However, that’s become even more needed with the ability to ship items directly to consumers rather than having to go through stores. Industrial packaging equipment like packaging machines and case sealing equipment is a group of automated tools which will make the process go far easier than attempting to packaging up items without them. This article is going to take a look at packaging equipment, including the types of packaging equipment commonly used and the benefits of packaging. After reading, hopefully you will understand just a little bit more about the world of industrial packaging and what it’s doing to enhance the world around us today.
Types of Packaging Tools and Machinery
There’s a wide variety of packaging tools and packaging machinery that a business may need to pick from. Each has their own specialized job in the packaging chain. Some of the most common and useful ones include:
- Filling Machines - There’s quite a number of different filling machines, but they are pretty common in the food and beverage industry. Agitator Fillers are needed when filling packages with dry solids like sugar. Flow fillers are used for liquids and oils to enter into bottles or drums. Tablet fillers are used to specifically count out portions of units. Vertical form fill sealing machines are used with bags that originally start flat, but are filled and sealed. It should be noted that these are only some of the filling machines available.
- Wrappers - Pallet wrappers are among the most common items in manufacturing. Pallet wrappers can quickly and safely wrap up a pallet to ensure items remain secure during transfer. Stretch wrappers are another variation.
- Cartoning Machines - As the name suggests, this is a packaging machine intended for packaging items into cartons. They can be sealed, folded or erect. Cartoning machines either work horizontally or vertically.
- Shrink Tunnels - All of those packages that have been placed inside bags need to have the bag properly shrunk to help provide protection. This is where shrink tunnels come into play.
These are only some of the industrial packaging machines currently being used by manufacturers. Some of the others include clamshell machines, case erectors, blister machines, and skin pack machines among many more.
Benefits of Using Packaging Tools and Machinery
Why is packaging equipment so important to businesses? The large number of benefits can help explain that. Some of the benefits of packaging tools and machinery include:
- Speed - There’s no real scenario where packaging machinery is going to be beaten by a group of humans trying to perform the same task. Humans will need to assist packaging machinery, but it’s so much faster than manual labor.
- Production Volume - Going hand in hand with speed is the potential production volume from packaging tools. Many companies need to be able to produce a large number of goods in a short amount of time and package them up.
- Reliable - Packaging machinery will last for a long time and will rarely break down as long as it is properly maintained. It’s more reliable in that way than a group of people who may try to do the same job. No packaging machinery is going to be taking time off to vacation in the tropics.
- Lower Cost of Production - Typically, packaging machinery will lower the cost of production beyond what it would be with a human workforce. While it may seem like a large upfront cost, running at a lower cost will eventually pay it off and more.
These benefits should make it rather clear why industrial packaging tools and machinery are so vital to a modern production based business.
