Here’s a little story of how the Princess of Granola-land made Printed Stand Up Pouches and saved the day (plus a few gold coins).
Once upon a time, there was a Princess from the Land of Granola. She had dreams of one day ruling the Kingdom of Snack-a-lot. But how could she defeat the evil Queen of Chewtopia if she was still putting labels on stock Stand Up Pouches?! She couldn’t. And she was sad. Like crying and stuff.
Just at that moment, a friendly Hawk appeared and said, “Princess, please don’t cry over your packaging. I will make you the best looking Printed Pouches in all the land! And instead of 34 gold coins, I’ll only charge you 17! Give me your artwork and I’ll return in 24 hours with proofs.”
So she gave the Hawk her artwork and just as he promised, he returned in 24 hours with her proofs. He even helped her pick out Pantone colors! Wow, what a nice Hawk. After fixing a quick typo in her Nutrition Facts, she approved the proofs and the Hawk flew off, promising to return quickly with her new bags.
The first step to making great looking bags is to properly “set up” the artwork. The print manager will review all details of the artwork and address any concerns before moving forward. Next, Cylinders or Plates are created to print each color of the design.
Once this step is complete, a test print is created to make sure the cylinders are printing properly. If there are any defective cylinders, they are immediately remade and tested again.
Once cylinders have been created and the test film is approved, it’s time to print! There are 3 main methods of printing in Flexible Packaging: Digital, Flexographic and Rotogravure. The Hawk uses Rotogravure for Princess Granola’s bags so they look great and cost less. We’ll compare these three printing methods in more detail another time. A big roll of unprinted film is loaded onto the Rotogravure printer. Cylinders and ink are loaded. The print manager flips the switch and off it goes! Film whizzes through the printing machine at lightning speed as the print manager watches closely to make sure colors and alignment are perfect.
The printed film is wound back onto a roll on the other side of the machine. The freshly printed film is now ready to be laminated.
Most pouches are made from two to four layers of film and each layer serves a unique purpose. Princess Granola’s bags used a PVDC PET outer layer for printing and to protect her product from Oxygen and Moisture. This layer was laminated to a Nylon layer for added strength and puncture resistance. Very important for granola, jerky, pet foods and other sharp or rigid products. The third and final layer, LLDPE, is used for heat sealing and food contact. LLDPE is the inside layer for a vast majority of food packaging bags.
These individual layers are fed into a laminating machine and come out on the other end, bonded into one film.
Once the layers have been laminated together, they still need to be cured in a special high temperature drying room. If laminated films are not cured for long enough, they can begin to peel apart days or weeks after the bags are finished. Proper drying requires 2 – 4 days and this is not a part of the process you’ll want to rush, regardless of the deadline.
At this stage, the film has been printed, laminated and cured. Now, we’re ready to make the bags! This process of converting films to actual bags is called Converting (hizaa!).
The roll of finished film is loaded onto a big converting machine. As the film is pulled through the machine, it’s slit into separate sections to make the front, back and bottom of the Stand Up Pouch. These parts are sealed together to form the bag. In the final part of the process, zippers, hang holes and tear notches are added. This all happens on one machine! It’s pretty cool to watch.. or maybe I’m just a packaging nerd. One the other end of the machine, completely finished bags are popped out one at a time and collected by the Converting Technician.
Now that the bags are finished, they need to be checked closely for any defects that may have slipped through the cracks. This can include printing errors, misplaced or missing features (zippers, hang holes, etc.) or defective seams.
Each bag is carefully scanned as they are counted and packed for shipping.
So the Hawk loaded up the bags and quickly flew them to the Princess of Granola’s headquarters where she was tireless working on new recipes. As she looked up and saw the Hawk coming, she screamed out with excitement!
As soon as he landed, she tore open one of the boxes and she couldn’t believe her eyes – they were beautiful!! She gave the Hawk a big hug and immediately scurried off to begin packing her delicious snacks.
Her new packaging looked so good that she was finally able to defeat the Queen of Chewtopia and rule the Kingdom of Snack-a-lot! The people rejoiced, as they enjoyed the finest snacks the world had ever had.
THE END.
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