Without getting into too much detail, I’m looking for a machine that will assist with bagging and sealing small items like a cookie, roll, or sandwich.
How many items are you looking to package at a time?
How fast do you need to package them?
What kind of bag do you want to use?
Can you show us an example of what you want your finished (packaged) product to look like?
How should the top look? Sealed? Bow? Tape? Bunched up? Folded over and stickered?
Does it need to be airtight? Tamper-evident?
How long does the seal need to hold? Hours? Days? Weeks?
Will the product be handled a lot between packaging and being sold (will many customers be picking it up to look at it, or is it the type of thing that typically the first person to touch it, buys it)?
How many people will be working with you?
How much are you willing to spend on the equipment? The bags?
You linked to
You linked to a product, why didn’t it work for you?
An impulse sealer may work. The bags you typically work with for them are somewhat stiff which makes them very easy to load and easy to seal, but the actual sealing process takes about 2 seconds per bag. OTOH, when you’re done, you have an air and water tight seal.
We use almost this exact same impulse sealer at work (but bigger). I know it provides a great seal since I can fill a bag with a gallon of soup, launch it across the room, let it hit the floor and it won’t break. We also heat our soup by putting said bag (from frozen) into boiling water for hours and never have a problem.
We use smaller bags to seal things that we sell in our freezer case with out any problems with freezer burn.
If you are working on a small scale, this may be a good option. BTW I should mention that while I have ordered from that website, it’s not where I ordered that machine or those bags from, so I’m not sure about the pricing from that site, but the website itself has been very good to us.
On average 800 items at a time, could be as high as 1400. Although those numbers could double since I need to package 800 cookies (maybe 4in diameter) as well as 800 rolls with butter.
Not sure what answer you need here, “as fast as I can afford.” Last night I had two guys spend over an hour putting rolls/butter into bags. I need it done faster.
The “look” isn’t crucial, right now it looks like crap so anything would be better. I’m picturing a straight-line seal, because it’s easier to then pack. Folded over with a sticker would also work.
Airtight/tamperproof isn’t as much of a concern. Does need to be reasonably easy to open (children/seniors).
Seal needs to hold at least 1 day, and not more than 5. It’s currently made, packaged, and sent with a 48 hour window.
Handling, yikes, yes, it’s handled a lot. I’m sending 100 in bulk where they get re-distributed to individual clients. Although, the product isn’t on “display.” Although I could summarize to say, the product would get packaged, then handled once for shipping, then handled a second time for distribution, then gets to the client.
I’ve got lots of people, and right now need to hire more. But I can’t really devote more than two people at a time.
Price is an issue, but we’re at the point where we are throwing money at the problem.
I haven’t tried the one i linked too, I’ve talked the rep and will meet with her on Monday. But I need alternatives if I’m going to get the financing for this.
THANKS!
Yes, impulse sealer might work and I think I need one of those for another application as well. But at the start i need to get the products into the bags faster.
I think the impulse sealer would be perfect. If you can get the help, I’d get at least two of them. I don’t think you’d have any problem knocking out 1000 in a day (provided this is a ‘real job’ and not a hobby, if you know what I mean) The nice thing is, with the cookies at least, with a flat seal, they’ll stack and transport nicely in a bin.
BTW, an impulse sealer is what made the seal in the image you linked to, but you’d probably want to make your seal further from the top so people have something to grab on to to open it. You’d also want to experiment with a setting that doesn’t seal it quite as much to make it easier to open. The sealer I linked to makes a really good seal.
Check out AssociatedBag.com. See if there’s an Associated Bag in your area you can check out. They are ungodly expensive, but they A)Have everything and B)you can get some good ideas and find the stuff (like the impulse sealers) on other websites for much cheaper.
The impulse sealer looks right, and we have a cryovac machine. The issue is more about loading the bags, it’s such a slow and cumbersome process. Maybe with two people splitting the task in two, one bag one seal. I’ll try tomorrow night and see how it goes. Thanks again for the help.
That’s one every 6 seconds. No breaks, no talking, no stopping for water. Doable, but pushing it. With two people working, it’s one every 12 seconds. With a second sealer and a second team you’re getting closer to 30 seconds per unit and maybe a short break in the middle.
When it comes to cookies, I think you’ll be happy with a stiffer/heavier bag. They’re easy to open and hold open with one hand while using the other hand to put the product in. If it’s a thin product (like a cookie), letting go will cause the bag to more or less close itself…if you can picture what I mean.
I have a customer who designs food packaging/processing machinery. This kind of stuff gets to be expensive custom work in a big hurry. I will PM you his info, I built the computer he does his design work on…
The other thing you may want to look into, there are food processing plants who will do runs of a product but I think they are looking for $1Mil runs. If you get to that kind of scale you basically give them a recipie and packaging design and when your run completes…your 82 tons of cookies get delivered.
As for the second part, it’s what we’re desperately trying to avoid. Our core business model was that fact that we’d make our own stuff. Prepackaged cookies and rolls are readily available, I just interested in reselling someone else’s product.
The traditional solution to the problem of filling the bags is to not have bags at all.
That is, they use a larger piece of plastic coming from a roll, with the product laid flat on it (often automatically, as it comes of the production line. Then as it moves forward, the plastic sheet is folded over the product, heat-sealed on the 3 open sides, and then cut off at the back edge. So you have a steady progress of items coming off the end, each one individually sealed.
So possibly you should think not in terms of bags & inserting cookies into them, but in machinery to form a flat sheet into bags around your cookies. The automated ones are expensive, though.
Given the short term storage you are talking about, what about Saran wrap or similar? That seals to itself reasonably well, and should last 5 days. It might be possible to build a jig that will wrap the Saran wrap around the cookie and seal the edges as you pull it through.
We’ve done this in the past, and currently do this with larger loafs of bread, problem is that 9 times out of 10 it looks like crap.
I forgot about the make-a-bag solution. I know there is another variation that involves a long roll of tubular plastic. A bag is then created when the seal cuts through each end.
Also, how do other similar local companies handle this?
Local baked cookies in our coffee shop were unbagged & loose. Apparently people complained about sanitary issues. Now that same local company sells them in formed sealed transparent bags, each with a gloss printed cardboard square. Their prices are far higher too! The seal technique looks identical to big suppliers such as Doritos etc., but transparent plastic and more flat.
The seal technique looks identical to big suppliers such as Doritos etc., but transparent plastic and more flat.
