| Imagine the following situation: You feel like eating a yogurt, so you walk into the kitchen, take a container out of the fridge, open it and the yogurt spills all over the kitchen.
If the seal of the container is too strong, then it may be a problem to open it or – even worse – if the seal is weak, the contents of the container will not keep fresh. This is why quality food needs quality packaging.
Müller produces fresh dairy products and sells them successfully throughout Europe, so they want their customers to feel good about their product even before they eat it. As a market leader they constantly develop new products and packaging with different container shapes and cover seals. One year ago they decided to replace the manual cover peel off tests by a much more reproducible testing system using a materials testing machine. After detailed technical discussions, Zwick offered the complete solution which included an easy to use and specially designed cover peel test kit.
The container is placed on the specially designed sliding table and positioned under the roller stop. The roller stop is able to accommodate many different heights of container. This ensures the optimum operating position. The tab of the container cover can now be attached to the clamp between the rollers, and the test can be started.
Advantages of the peel test kit:
• Containers of various shapes and heights can easily be tested
• The rigid clamp of the test kit minimises backlash, caused by stick-slip-effects while the cover of the container is being opened.
• The peeling angle of 90° is always guaranteed via the horizontal movement of the container on the sliding table. This guarantees that the delaminated area, the clamp, and the load cell are always exactly aligned. The specimen table and hence the movement of the container are driven by the crosshead which eliminates friction in the system, which would contribute to errors in the force.
• A vertically adjustable roller stop enables the system to be quickly setup for different container heights and types. Tests can be carried out very quickly and easily for single testing or for batch testing in a production environment.
• The testXpert® master test program allows off-line creation of new test procedures for different container types without interrupting running tests - just create a new parameter for the container type on another PC.
In summary, the manual test has been replaced by a modern and automated system which guarantees much better and consistent testing conditions. The procedure is precisely controlled, and the test data can be collected, processed, stored, and used to improve production processes. If required a video system can be added to the system and this allows the test to be recorded with the video frames in exact synchronisation with the force and displacement value. The customer benefited from Zwick’s vast knowledge in the engineering of materials testing solutions combined with the experience gained from over 10,000 installations of the intelligent and reliable testXpert® software. |
