The hot air tube sealing industry has long been a business that lacked consistency in its processes. The Team at AnC has been working with partners over the last decade on establishing better quality products and in recent years better instruments for testing the quality and validity of the actual products we are using in the industry. However it is the revolutionary idea that each product has its own set of characteristics that need to be managed in order to have consistent success in the process, AnC calls this the Finger Print ™.
The Finger Print ™ of every batch of tubes and any particular run of products has the ability to be measured with absolute precision. However until recently, there was no way to scientifically produce these types of results. The industry needs a simple visual method to show all the sealing parameters at one time, in order to log successful data which could indeed be replicated, run after run. Introducing the Finger Print™.
The Finger Print™ is a method of visually looking at the sealing pressure over time. To introduce the Finger Print™ of any tube project it was determined that through the sealing process you could convert the sealing pressure to voltage generated by the force and track that voltage over time to create a unique fingerprint for that specific product run. AnC Precision then created the visual technology that can produce a quick image that displays the incredible detail of the entire sealing process. This simple added technology could potentially reduce the waste generated by improperly sealed tubes.
So how does the Finger Print™ actually work?
The Finger Print Brand Data Collection Image is generated by:
- Measuring the Dwell Time (Horizontial): The Time the jaws are closed on the tube.
- Force: The Amount of Force that is being applied to the jaws.
- Tube Seal Melt Time: The time the jaws are in contact with the tube and the pressure decrease as the pressure is reduced from a melting tube.
- Example A – Tube melt time is .7 sec, during which time the pressure drops during the melt cycle 3.5lbs causing a back lash spring tension.
The Finger Print™ Load Cell can be installed on any production machine. AnC has established it as a standard feature on there most popular Hot Air Sealing Production Instruments The TS-100 and the TTS-1000.
- The TS-100 and the TTS-1000 is a bench top sealing instrument that can be used for production run (5,000
tubes/shift) or it can be used in the laboratory. It allows an operator to thermally seal plastic tubes with a controlled process while simultaneously measuring and recording the various tube sealing characteristics, heat, dwell, pressure, jaw gap and sealing pressure using the AnC patented “FingerPrint™” Brand technique. - The PTS-100 is an instrument that tests the strength of the tube after it is sealed. The tube is installed into the test chamber and the burst pressure can then be determined. Air pressure inside and outside of the sealed tube is measured and can be used to detect an air leak in the tube as well as the test system.
It is our belief that the Fingerprint™ when used in production process can save companies millions in production line waste, both in raw materials and labor. The simple task of collecting the data which ensures the same quality end result on every batch is now as simple as turning on the machine and matching results.
AnC Precision has dedicated itself to creating and measuring the variables needed to bring a set of standards to the Hot Air Tube Sealing side of packaging. We have also create the first Tube Certification process in the industry which has already been used in litigation cases to help resolve the issue of blame.
Our hope is to see the industry in which we service,start to adopt a more efficient way of doing business and to set a baseline of standards with in the industry.
For more information on the Fingerprint™ or the tube certification program please feel free to contact us directly at 775-392-3111