TEA
By Dan Shryock
It’s a simple consumer expectation. Tea drinkers want to enjoy the freshest taste possible. But as their demand for new, premium products continues to rise, tea companies continue to look for better ways to deliver quality.
The pyramid bag, for example, is growing in popularity. Its tetrahedral shape allows larger pieces of broken leaf teas, herbs, flowers, and even pieces of fruit to be bundled into a single pocket. The inclusions, design, and function appeal to the current market including the fast-growing tea drinking segment of millennials.
But how can these bags be packaged and sealed to preserve freshness?
The challenge becomes an opportunity for tea bagging equipment manufacturers who produce the technology needed to insert and seal the precious cargo.
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“The triangular bag is the premium tea bag. It is getting more common. It’s very common in Japan,” says Tomomi Yajima of FUSO International, a leading equipment company. “Customers’ needs are changing. The customer is looking for not only a pyramid tea bag but also a bigger tea bag for serving several cups of tea. We try to meet our customers’ requirements.”
The pyramid bag delivers an appealing visual product, says Franco Menetti with IMA Spa (tea & herbs division). “Pyramids are good for long leaf and bigger particles, not only for the taste but for visual impact. There is an increasing demand.”
And Andy Wang, president of Eastsign International, agrees. “The main thing the customers can see is the materials inside,” he says. “They can see the leaf tea, the flower tea. It is a totally different experience.”
Whether the tea is delivered in a traditional single-chamber bag, the flow-through double chamber, or pyramids, there’s an increasing number of materials used to make the bags. With the variety of materials come different ways to seal the bag.
Stop the staple
Some companies, such as IMA and ACMA, are using environmentally friendly knots to close each single- or double-chambered bag. In doing so, the once-compulsory aluminum stable is gone.
“If you consider that with one kg of aluminum wire we can produce about 77,000 tea bags and today the number of tea bags produced with the knot on IMA machines per year are about 50-52 billion, we can say that more than 650 (metric) tons of wire are not thrown in the waste bin each year,” Menetti calculates. “This for the environment has a big impact.”
And, one less production material results in a lower production cost, he says.
With the pyramid, however, ultrasound is a common way to seal the contents inside.
“Ultrasonic (sealing) is the first important thing,” Wang says. “If you’re not sealing well, the tea bag is not looking good.”
With ultrasound, heat is generated by vibrating the bag material at a precise frequency. In an ultrasonic weld, the mechanical vibrations applied between two sealing surfaces create frictional heat which melts the surfaces, which are then compressed into a welded seal.
Maintaining freshness
A tea bag alone cannot preserve freshness, however. Premium teas are enclosed in outer envelopes—known as overwraps—to seal in the qualities that make each variety unique. Foil paper, transparent film, and oriented polypropylene (OPP) are used to make overwraps. All with the goal of keeping air out and freshness in.
“Packing in a good-looking envelope bag is a basic function,” Wang says, noting that Eastsign uses multi-layer foil laminates for its envelopes. These are then heat sealed.
Since freshness escapes from filter paper, it is important to seal the bag in an outer envelope to protect each product. ACMA uses a “fold-seal-cut” method in which each envelope or overwrap is folded around the bag, then sealed and finally cut. In comparison to systems that cut the envelope and seal it around the bag, a company spokesperson says the ACMA solution avoids envelope misalignment and the waste of expensive packaging material.
IMA, a long-time developer of the “aroma barrier” sealable envelope, is working with envelope (material) suppliers to produce recyclable envelopes that also guarantee aroma protection. Adding environmentally sensitive materials comes at a price but “consumers can play a big role,” Menetti says. “If they start to ask only for this type of packaging, the producers have to follow the demand.”
Turn to nitrogen gas
“Pyramid envelope packing is very difficult because of the shape,” says Tecpacking spokesman Paul Zhang. “Before in the market, people had to use a big envelope. That was a waste of material and it did not look nice.”
Tecpacking, the first supplier in China to provide the pyramid tea bag packing machine, is now developing a more efficient machine that can save on waste. “We make the bag first, then re-open the bag and insert the pyramid tea bags,” Zhang says. “With this process, we can have a very nice bag. Then we can do the nitrogen flushing.”
Nitrogen, that odorless gas that displaces oxygen and surrounds all living things, has been surrounding tea bags in Japan for decades. Fuso International introduced nitrogen flushing 20 years in the Japanese market and it has been a common way to protect tea bags ever since.
“In Japan, we drink green tea. Green tea is very fresh tea,” FUSO’s Yajima says. “Oxygen is bad for green tea because it affects flavor and taste. So to keep the tea bag fresh we use nitrogen gas flushing.”
FUSO’s flushing process typically protects freshness for about a year, Yajima says.
Tea & Chemical Electronics (TNCE) is developing an improved envelope machine for triangular bags that can produce 50-60 units per minute, company spokesman Hanbyul Byun says. “Our goal is (an envelope that protects freshness) for two years.”
Here are a few tea bag machines on the market:
ACMA
ACMA’s TL 180 processes whole tea leaves with single chamber with lace and tags at low speed (180 bpm).
Other features:
- The machine produces thermos sealed bags using both recyclable and biodegradable materials.
- ACMA machines can ensure correct processing based on different types of tea and herbal tea blends.
- The company offers a range of options for secondary packaging from glue or flat cardboard to pouches, from lace bag-in-bags and sleeves to 10-unit micro-boxes with overwrapping.
Learn more: www.acma.it
Eastsign
Eastsign’s PTB-2400-F machine fills 40 triangular bags each minute. Each bag is closed with ultrasonic sealing.
Other features:
- Can accommodate materials weights up to 7 grams.
- The machine fills the inner pyramid tea bag as well as the outer overwrap bag.
- The inner bag size measures 40-80 mm in length, 60-80 mm in width. The outer bag size measures 80-140 mm in length, 80-130 mm in width.
Learn more: www.eastsign.com
FUSO International
FUSO’s FP-100S tea bag packaging machine is versatile for both triangular and rectangular bag shapes with one touch of a button. It’s capable of filling FUSO’s long tea bag configuration as well.
It can be packed in an individual overwrap by interlocking with the optional FT-III. And the overwrap size is compact and just fit to triangular tea bag size to reduce waste of cost and trash.
Other features:
- Fills up to 80 bags per minute.
- Bags are packaged using three-sided ultrasonic sealing and cutting.
- FP-100S packaging materials include nylon mesh, bio mesh, and non-woven fabrics or any suitable filter for ultrasonic sealing.
- Optional FT-III packaging materials include laminated film (PP, PE , etc.)
More information: www.fuso-int.com
IMA Spa (Tea & Herbs Division)
Sporting a clean, compact design, the C27-E is a 300 bags-per-minute packaging solution with knot technology for tea and herbs. It can process naked bags and sealed outer envelopes, incorporating a new flexible cartoning attachment.
Other features:
- Knotting technology ties cotton threads to both the tea bag and the tag. All is monitored by a precision video camera. Any flaw is rejected before stacking with other bags. No metal staples are used.
- Easy cleaning for efficient production line changes as customers shifts from different products.
- Envelopes can be heat or cold sealed.
Learn more: www.ima.it/beverage/portfolio
TNCE (Tea & Chemical Electronics)
The TNCE tea bag machine now includes a four-load cell making it possible to fill as many as 60 bags per minute.
Other features:
- The machine can accept nylon mesh, PLA mesh, non-woven filter bag materials.
- Makes both triangular and square-shaped bags.
- An improved five-load cell version is expected later this year increasing speeds to 75 bags per minute.
Learn more: www.tnce.co.kr
Tecpacking
The DXDCT-E8 pyramid tea bag packing machine is suitable for a variety of teas, coffees, and particles. It produces both pyramid and flat bags and can be operated with nylon, PLA, PET, and non-woven packing materials.
Other features:
- Easy control PLC and touch screen system.
- Double layer vibration channel filling to avoid breaking the tea leaf.
- Safety door alarm guarantees worker safety.
Learn more: www.tecpacking.com