8 Ways to Combat Dust in Your Powder Packaging Process

Dust and airborne particulates can pose a problem for even the most advanced packaging process.

Products like ground coffee, protein powder, legal cannabis products, and even some dry snacks and pet foods can create a fair amount of dust in your packaging environment.

Dust emissions are most likely to occur when dry, powdered, or dusty product passes through transfer points in the packaging system. Basically, any time the product is in motion, or starts/stops motion suddenly, airborne particulates may occur.

Here are eight features of modern powder packaging machines that can help reduce or eliminate the negative effects of dust in your automated packaging line:

1. Enclosed Jaw Drives
If you operate within a dusty environment or have a dusty product, it is vitally important for the moving parts that drive the sealing jaws on your powder packaging machine to be protected from airborne particulates.

Packaging machines designed for dusty or wet environments have a completely enclosed jaw drive. This enclosure protects the jaw drive from particulates that can impede its operation.

2. Dust Proof Enclosures & Proper IP Ratings
Machine enclosures that house electrical or pneumatic components must be adequately protected against ingress of dust in order to maintain their proper function. When purchasing packaging equipment for a dusty environment, make sure the machinery has an IP (Ingress Protection) Rating suitable to your application. Basically, an IP Rating consists of 2 numbers that indicate how dust- and water-tight an enclosure is.

3. Dust Suction Equipment
Dust ingress into the machine isn't the only thing you have to worry about. If dust finds its way into package seams, the sealant layers in the film will not properly and uniformly adhere during the heat seal process, causing rework and scrap. To combat this, dust suction equipment can be utilized at different points in the packaging process to remove or recirculate dust, lessening the likelihood of particulates ending up in package seals.

4. Static Elimination Bars
When plastic packaging film is being unwound and fed through the packaging machine, it can create static electricity, which causes powder or dusty products to stick to the inside of the film. This can cause product to end up in the package seals, and like mentioned above, this should be avoided to maintain the integrity of the package. To combat this, a static elimination bar can be added to the packaging process.

5. Dust Hoods
Automatic pouch filling and sealing machines have an option to place a dust hood above the product dispensing station. This component helps to collect and remove particulates as the product is dropped into the bag from the filler.

6. Vacuum Pull Belts
Standard on vertical form fill seal machines are friction pull belts. These components are responsible for pulling the packaging film through the system, and they do so by friction. However, when a packaging environment is dusty, airborne particulates can get between the film and the friction pull belts, reducing their performance and wearing them down prematurely.

An alternative option for powder packaging machines is vacuum pull belts. They perform the same function as friction pull belts but do so with vacuum suction, thus negating the effects of dust on the pull belt system. Vacuum pull belts do cost more but need replacing much less often than friction pull belts, especially in dusty environments.