SN Maschinenbau and SÜDPACK have entered into a partnership to create an innovative concept for the in-house production of stand-up pouches with spouts designed for packaging pasty and liquid products. The concept is intended for food producers and fillers of thick and thin fluid products—such as fruit purées, smoothies and other liquids—who have up to now been using pre-made spout pouches.

The concept relies on packaging technology and high-performance, recyclable packaging components made of polypropylene (PP) that are coordinated to offer users simple handling and maximum process and packaging reliability. The concept is also high-quality, profitable, and flexible, as well as sustainable due to the use of recyclable monomaterials.

The concept offers an alternative to high-cost, pre-made pouches, the processing and filling of which often entails a great deal of logistical effort. The solution makes it possible for the producers and fillers of pasty and liquid food products to manufacture spout pouches in-house that can then be filled and sealed as usual on their existing filling machines.

The concept is based on a user-friendly pouch making machine combined with films and spouts that are perfectly coordinated, which means they can be reliably processed. The film can be processed from the reel, which provides many advantages in terms of efficiency and economic profitability without having to make compromises when it comes to quality.

The PP-based Pure-Line films used in the packaging concept are classified as recyclable due to their monostructure. In combination with the PP spouts that are currently on the market, the result is a recyclable spout pouch. The pouch can also be used for hotfilling and pasteurization, and the films can be equipped with different barrier functions to suit the products that are to be packaged.

On the SPM 50 horizontal pouch making machine from SN Maschinenbau, the spout pouches are manufactured horizontally from the film reel and the spouts are sealed in. They are then automatically inserted into the commercially available rail systems and are stored on a transport cart. Every rail can then be easily and ergonomically inserted into the existing pouch-filling machines to allow filling of the empty spout pouches. Compared to pre-made pouches, this significantly simplifies handling and allows staff to process an increased number of pouches more efficiently because the time-consuming process of separating the rails is eliminated. The low-maintenance machine is highly efficient and can be used in tight production spaces thanks to its compact design. This allows flexible placement, either right next to the filling machine or on its own in a separate room.

Pouch production can be insourced easily because the machine is user-friendly and can usually be operated by the existing staff. One of the many advantages is that the reel change requires minimal set-up time and has to be performed at most once every shift. The SPM 50 from SN Maschinenbau makes up to 4,200 pouches per hour and can achieve continuous production of over 30,000 spout pouches per eight-hour shift with just one film reel, resulting in an annual production volume of seven million spout pouches in one-shift operation and up to 21 million in three-shift operation.

Producing pouches onsite eliminates the complex handling and logistics needed for finished pouches, which would usually be delivered on rails in cardboard boxes. The space that is necessary for reels is roughly one third of what is needed for pre-made spout pouches. In addition to reduced transport costs, the solution also simplifies warehousing, and the cardboard packaging from pre-made pouches is no longer required.

The concept for in-house spout pouch production also provides substantial benefits in regards to flexibility. The machine can be flexibly adapted for the production of pouches of various shapes and sizes, as well as for the processing of different materials. This allows producers to quickly adapt to changes in demand and shortens their lead times and time-to-market. Finally, the concept can offer added value by providing more resilience in case of disruptions in the supply chain.