Are you looking to send your products through the mail? Perhaps you are in the medical industry and are looking for packaging materials. Or, maybe, you are an eCommerce business looking for the best order fulfillment packaging supplies.
Regardless of the applications, you have found yourself here on the Industrial Packaging blog. Why is that? Well, after doing your due diligence in sourcing the appropriate packaging materials for your products, you found yourself leaning towards roll bags.
Based on the fact that you are reading this article, I guess you have seen the term "roll bag" pop up in a few other google searches. And, you are not really sure what they are.
It is clear to you that they may be a good fit for packaging your products, but before you commit to buying them, you want to understand better what roll bags are and how they are commonly used.
You want to know what types of packaging machinery or equipment you will need to use with this type of packaging material in your warehouse.
Industrial Packaging has been consulting on packaging materials and machinery for decades. And roll bags are one of those materials that we have worked with during that time.
This article will define what a roll bag is, explain the machinery you need to use them, and help you identify if roll bags are a suitable packaging material choice for your product packaging needs.
What Is A Roll Bag?
Roll bags are clear or custom printed bags made from various plastic formulations. The bags come pre-rolled onto a circular plastic center piece called a core. Each bag has an opening on one side for easy insertion of products and a perforated section on the opposite end for easy removal from the roll.
Roll bags are similar to the bags you find at the grocery store for hand bagging of vegetables, fruit, and other types of produce.
What Are Some Common Applications For Roll Bags?
While roll bags are most popular for eCommerce order fulfillment, mailing, medical supplies, and various consumer goods, many different products can be packaged in roll bags. They are a common packaging material on hundreds of thousands of packaging lines the world over.
What Packaging Machinery Is Required For Roll Bags?
Roll bags can be filled manually, by hand, or with an automated bagger. You will need to identify your expected volume of products packaged. Once you have that information, you will be able to figure out if you can manually hand bag your products with manual labor or if you will require an automated bagger.
When it comes to bagging volumes, generally speaking, less than five bags per minute would be a low volume, and greater than 20 bags per minute would be considered high volume. Low volume applications may be done with manual labor. High volume applications will require an automated bagger.
Hand Bagging
Hand bagging is done manually by laborers. The laborer simply grabs a bag, pulls the bag to the perforated section, and removes the bag at the perforation. Next, they put the product in the bag. After that, they seal the bag with a tabletop sealer.
To help clarify this process, recall the vegetable bags from the supermarket. This manual process is very similar to that application and is an excellent comparison to visualize what this process would look like if you were to choose hand bagging.
Automated Bagger
When using an automated bagger, the bags are automatically pulled from the roll. Next, they are filled, sealed, and removed at the perforated section. This process repeats until the roll is empty, at which point it will need to be replaced with a new roll.
Pre-opened bags are also available. These come fan-folded for simplified loading and reduced changeover times. Roll bags are available in a wide variety of sizes, styles, and materials.
Roll bags are available in transparent or custom printed, four-color Pantone options. With the Pantone color capabilities, virtually any shade of color can be reproduced. This gives the custom printed four-color roll bags significantly enhanced branding and marketing capabilities.
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Are Roll Bags Right For You?
To decide if roll bags are suitable for your products, you will need to answer a few questions. With the answer to these questions in hand, you should be able to identify if roll bags make sense for your product packaging requirements.
- Are you trying to avoid plastic packaging? - If you answered yes, roll bags are not a good choice for you.
- Are you looking to save money over rigid packaging supplies like cardboard boxes? - If you said yes, roll bags are a good option for you.
- Do you need strong packaging that can prevent breakage? - If you said yes, roll bags are not a good choice.
- Are you looking for packaging with a low cost per unit? - If you said yes, roll bags are a good packaging material for your needs.
Where Can You Learn More About Flexible Packaging Supplies?
With the information in this article, you should now know if roll bags are a good choice for your product packaging needs. If they are, you may want to compare prices from a few different vendors and choose the roll bag that best fits your budget and other requirements.
If you do not think roll bags are the right packaging material for your products, you may want to consider researching alternatives. If that is the case, you will want to read What Are The Different Types Of Packaging Materials?
This article will introduce you to several different types of rigid and flexible packaging supplies. With the information in this article, you should be able to find a better alternative to roll bags for your products.
