Seal Integrity Assessment of Coffee Bags during production Runs

Coffee is one of the most popular refreshment drinks of the world. There seems to be no end to its popularity growth. If you are a coffee processor, manufacturer, or packager, it is imperative for you to test the seal integrity of your coffee bags. The main reason is that improperly sealed coffee bags are at risk of mold development. Another reason is that a fault seal can cause the coffee to become stale.

Fortunately, there is a simple way to test for heat seal quality of your coffee bags by using a Bubble Leak Tester. This is a simple seal integrity testing unit that will allow you to perform a dry test and a wet test. The dry test is performed by pulling a vacuum and watching the coffee bags inflate. If the bag explodes, you may have a weak seal. The wet test is performed by dunking the coffee bags underwater, pulling a vacuum, and looking for bubbles emitting from the test specimen. If you observe bubbles, you have a leak.

This chamber size of the system is 12 inches diameter and 15 inch high. The vacuum pump is an Oil Free Gast Vacuum Pump capable of pulling about 22 inHg of Vacuum – this is enough in most cases to perform a dry or wet package leak test. Below the chamber is a drain valve which will enable you to drain the water from your tank without having to tip it. Next to the chamber is a Vacuum Pump that does not require much maintenance since it is oil free. This is a complete system, it is fully setup and ready to go all you need is to plug the vacuum pump in and just add water to start bubble leak testing.

Are you packaging Coffee Bags, Tea Bags, or other types of consumable products? If you are, Get in Touch with us to find out how you can produce the highest quality heat seals.

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Force Decay Leak Testing Systems
Force Decay Leak Testing Systems are instruments that detect and quantify leaks in a test specimen through measuring the drop in force an inflated specimen applied onto a pressure transducer. The specimen is placed into a vacuum chamber, a vacuum is pulled, and the test sample inflates. As the test sample inflates, it applied a specific force onto the force transducer. This force is measured and recorded over time. If a leak exists, the specimen will deflate and lose pressure, as a result, the force it applies onto the force transducer will decrease. This in turn will enable for detection and quantification of a leak in the specimen.
Altitude Simulation Controller Instruments
An Altitude simulation Controller is type of vacuum controller that simulates a certain altitude because altitude can be derived from vacuum levels. An altitude simulation controller will enable you to hold your vacuum level at a certain altitude equivalent of testing, run an altitude vs time profile, or rate of change of altitude vs. time. Further options include a vacuum pump relay that will control when the vacuum pump turns on and a vacuum valve.
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This was an interesting project where one of our customers needed to test wires up to 44 inches long within a high altitude simulation environment. In addition to testing wires, several other electric connectors required altitude testing as well. The altitude requirements were 100,000 feet (30.510 km) which corresponds to 8.36 Torr - a piece of cake when it comes to the vacuum requirements of our chambers.
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An Acrylic Vacuum Chamber can be used to simulate elevation very reliably to altitudes up to 60.9 km or 200,000 feet. This provides several advantages over other testing methods as acrylic is transparent and enables full view of interior during testing. In this article, we will give you a through guide on what can be done to eliminate the risk of packaging damage during shipments at high altitudes.