VFFS (vertical form-fill-seal)

VFFS (vertical form-fill-seal) machines make bags from rollstock on a vertical axis. The film passes over a forming collar into a tube, a vertical seal creates the back seam, horizontal jaws seal the bottom, product drops through the tube, and the jaws then seal the top and cut, forming the next bag's bottom at the same time. Printed eye marks keep the cut in register.

Typical products

Free-flowing goods: crisps and snacks, nuts, pulses, sugar, coffee, powders, frozen vegetables, granular detergent and confectionery; liquids with pump dosing.

Bag styles

Pillow bags with a back seal, gusseted bags, quad-seal style bags with suitable tooling, and stick packs or sachets on multi-lane machines.

Ordering rollstock

• Web width matched to the forming collar.
• Repeat length and eye-mark position.
• Unwind direction.
• Core diameter, maximum reel diameter and weight.
• Suitable slip (COF) and sealing properties.

Pros and cons

VFFS usually lowers packaging cost compared with premade pouches and runs fast in a small footprint, but needs machine investment and collars per bag width. Share your machine specs and ask for a trial reel.