Vertical form fill sealing machine

Walter Zwoyer, the inventor of the technology, patented his idea for the VFFS machine in 1936 while working with the Henry Heide Candy Company.

[1] The machine constructs plastic bags and stand-up pouches out of a flat roll of film, fills them with product, and seals them.

[2] The typical machine is loaded with a continuous flat roll of plastic film, which has usually had labeling and artwork applied.

Plastic is the most commonly used packaging material in the food industry, but the technology can be used to form continuous metallized foil/film, paper, and fabric product containers by changing the edge sealing/seaming methods.

This bag is then cut off from the tube and is now a sealed package, ready to advance onward into the product boxing and shipping processes.

The feeding of material and cutting of the bag/pouch can be determined either by pouch length, or by indexing to an eyespot (photo registration mark), which is detected by a visual sensor.