Use-Case – FS150 Continuous Band Sealer

The Challenge

A mid-sized dry food producer near Maribor, Slovenia, packs nuts and dried fruit into LDPE and PP bags up to 3 kg. With growing orders, their two manual bar sealers became a bottleneck at around 1,200 bags/day.

Operators spent most of their shift hand-positioning bags and waiting for seals to cool. Inconsistent temperature and pressure led to roughly 5% rework due to weak or crooked seals, plus occasional open bags detected in final checks. Management wanted to triple potential throughput without hiring additional staff while standardizing seal quality for retail customers.

Manual Process

The existing workflow used two handheld impulse/bar sealers and a basic conveyor. Bags were filled, manually aligned in the sealer, clamped, released, then checked and placed in cartons. Each seal required active operator time and dwell/cooling time.

Before Automation:

• Daily volume: 1,200 bags/day
• Cycle time per bag: 22.5 seconds/bag (position 10 s + seal/cool 10 s + handling 2.5 s)
• Total daily time: 1,200 × 22.5 s = 27,000 s ≈ 450 minutes (7.5 hours/day)
• Labor cost: 7.5 h × €25/h = €188/day
• Rework/issues: 5% of bags (≈ 60/day) needing resealing and extra checks

Automated Solution

The company installed an FS150 Continuous Band Sealer in vertical configuration for 1–3 kg bags. The unit was integrated after the filling station, with one operator responsible only for presenting filled bags to the infeed and light visual checks.

After Installing FS150 Continuous Band Sealer:

• Machine operates at 60% of maximum capacity for reliability
• New cycle time: 7.5 seconds/bag (steady infeed and automatic continuous sealing)
• Total daily time: 1,200 × 7.5 s = 9,000 s ≈ 150 minutes (2.5 hours/day)
• Labor cost: 2.5 h × €25/h = €63/day
• Quality improvement: rework reduced from 5% to 1% (≈ 60 → 12 bags/day)

At 60% of its rated 13 m/min speed, the FS150 can comfortably handle the current 1,200 bags/day in a fraction of a shift while leaving ample capacity to scale up to around 3,600 bags/day without extra headcount.

ROI Calculation

Investment:
Machine price: €599
Daily savings: Labor: €188 − €63 = €125/day
Rework reduction (time/labor): 48 fewer bags/day × 0.5 min/bag ≈ 24 min/day ≈ 0.4 h/day
Rework labor saved: 0.4 h × €25/h ≈ €10/day
Total daily savings: €125 + €10 = €135/day
Monthly savings (22 working days): €135 × 22 = €2,970/month
Payback period: €599 ÷ €135/day ≈ 4.4 days (under 1 week)

Even if we include additional setup time, training, and occasional maintenance, the practical payback period remains under 1 month. In ongoing operation, the FS150 continues to save around €135/day in labor and rework while supporting higher throughput.

Conclusion

By replacing manual bar sealing with the FS150 Continuous Band Sealer, the Slovenian food producer cut sealing labor time by about 5 hours per day, reduced rework by 80%, and unlocked the capacity to triple bag throughput without adding staff. The low capital cost and very short payback window made the investment easy to justify.

“The FS150 cut our sealing time from 7.5 hours to 2.5 hours per day and dropped rework from 5% to about 1%. We recovered the €599 investment in less than a week and now have capacity for over 3,000 bags a day without hiring more operators.” — Marko K., Production Manager, NutriPack d.o.o., Maribor (Slovenia)