Worn Gears Cause Problems on Flow Wrappers

Worn gears are often overlooked as a cause of set-up and sealing problems on flow wrappers. In this Tech Bite one of Greener's technical experts encounters these issues when rebuilding a client's cutting and sealing head at our manufacturing facility.

Symptoms

He had installed many new components on the head, including shafts, bearings, springs, and two pairs of sealing jaws. When he rotated the jaws together by hand, one pair meshed smoothly. But the second pair was too tight and took extra effort to rotate through.

Possible Causes

The old set of gears had been cleaned and reinstalled. Since only one pair of jaws was tight, he suspected that the gears were worn. But before checking them, he needed to ensure that the new components were not out of tolerance and causing the disparity.

• The shafts were consistent and true.

• If the new bearings were defective, problems would occur intermittently. But in this case the issue was consistent.

• Both pairs of sealing jaws were new and proved to be the same design and height.

Had he been troubleshooting a wrapper on a client's packaging floor, he would make sure that a matched set of jaws had been installed. Mixing together new and used jaws or jaws with different serration patterns can create problems.

Uneven Gear Wear

More gear wear typically occurs on the teeth that engage as the sealing jaws come together.

This wear creates extra space between these gear teeth.

On the rebuilt head the gear wear corresponding to one pair of jaws was much greater than for the other pair. The split gear had been over-adjusted to remove the extra spaces between the most worn teeth. This made the rest of the gear teeth mesh too tightly and as they rotated through.

Solutions

The problem resolved when worn gears were replaced with a new set. Both pairs of jaws aligned properly and meshed together smoothly, without any binding.

Hitec horizontal flow wrapping machines

Automatic horizontal flow wrapping machines are designed to package a wide variety of products that require a specific look and feel. Flow wrapping or flow packing is most commonly used for single serve products (cookies, chocolate bars, candy, coffee filters, soap, wet wipes, whole vegetables or fruits) as well as products that are in carton trays (tomatoes, mushrooms, sandwiches, meal kits) or to wrap widgets (hardware tools, home goods, appliances). Automatic flow wrappers like the Hitec Wrapper are easy to use, compact and affordable while being easy to use.

To best define the technology as a whole, lets go thru each part of it's naming:

Horizontal: The product is inserted on to the machine's conveyor bed and then travels horizontally to the sealing head.

Flow: The product flows from either left to right or right to left to the sealing head.

Wrapping: The product is wrapped with protective packaging, often called film. That film (or roll stock) is available in many differant structures and materials depending on the requirements of your marketing needs.

Machine: All the above processes are completed automatically by one packaging machine.

If you are interested in our products, please feel free to contact us!