No DramaBuyer guide · Packaging
A tray sealer only seals the trays its tooling was cut for, and the quote rarely says which trays those are or whether your tray supplier's flange will hold a gas-tight seal.
01
Each tray footprint needs its own sealing plate and cutter, with a set number of trays per cycle. Ask which of your trays the included tool fits, and the cost and delivery of each extra tool.
A plain sealer closes the tray. Modified atmosphere (MAP) machines pull a vacuum and back-flush gas. Skin machines draw the film over the product. Each needs a different chamber and pump.
Cutting inside the tray edge gives a clean retail pack. Cutting outside leaves a film rim and simpler tooling. Decide before tooling is made.
Manual units seal one tool load when the operator pulls a handle or presses a button. In-line machines index trays from a conveyor. Price, floor space and labour differ sharply.
PP, PET, aluminium and paper-based trays each need a matching lidding film and seal temperature. Ask for proof on your tray, not on the factory's own trays.
02
Send these with the enquiry. Without them, any number a factory gives you is a guess dressed as a quotation.
03
| Require this | A pass looks like |
|---|---|
| Seal a counted run of your trays with your film and product, with product deliberately touching the flange on some trays. | Every tray sealed on all four sides with no channels, and rejects under the number agreed in writing before the test. |
| Measure residual oxygen with a headspace analyser on a sample from a MAP run. | Residual oxygen at or below the limit your shelf-life study sets, on every tray in the sample. |
| Change from one tray tool to another while you time it. | Change done inside the time written in the quotation, first trays after it sealed correctly. |
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05
A thermoforming packaging machine. It makes the tray from roll film, which costs less per pack than buying trays.
A chamber vacuum packing machine, with no tray purchase and no tool per format.
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We name the kind of source, how many and when, and never the factory. Listed prices are asking prices, not landed cost. Where we do not hold a fact we say so: that is a GAP, not an estimate.
07
Every machine we source in this area is on the Packaging page. How a project runs, stage by stage, is on how it works, and what it costs is on pricing.
Straight answers
The one that seals your supplier's trays with your film at your tray rate, with tools you can have copied locally. Start from the tray list, not the machine catalogue.
The principle is identical. European machines usually have wider tray libraries and local tool makers. If your trays are standard sizes, a used European sealer with existing tools can beat a new import.
Whether the factory makes its own sealing tools, which controller and gas mixer it fits, and whether it can show MAP results measured with an analyser rather than stated.
Buying direct from China normally makes you the importer. Your name and address go on the machine or its papers, and you check the conformity documents match its serial number.
Contact
Send a machine, a quotation you want checked, or a question. We reply with what we would look at first.
Sent
A person reads every message. You will hear back within one working day.
Not sent
Please email info@nodramachina.com directly and we will pick it up from there.