Poly Pak

BAG MAKING FACT OF THE DAY:Before a bag is formed, the ink is printed on a roll of film. The roll has the print for the front of the bag and print for the back of the bag on 2 sides (right and left) of the same surface of the film. When the bag is made, the printed film passes over a V-bar (see photo), that folds the flat roll to form the front and back of the bag. The base of the V is where the bottom of the bag will be.

Poly-Pak is always a family friendly place

BAG MAKING FACT OF THE DAY: Every bag machine has a series of rollers that the film passes over on its way to becoming a bag. The rollers stretch the film to insure no creases. In this case the rollers also insure the channel lock track is taut, securely adhered to the film and straight.

By posting these photos, we are trying to make it easier for all to understand the multiple steps and effort involved in producing a custom printed plastic bag: Creating artwork, proofing the artwork, making printing plates, extruding film to the proper color, opacity, thickness and size, mounting printing plates perfectly and carefully on the print cylinders to help insure a properly registered print, mixing the inks to any of thousands of Pantone colors, loading inks in to ...the press, loading plate mounted cylinders in to the press (sometimes with a crane), printing the film, moving the printed rolls to a bag machine, threading the printed film through the bagging machine, setting up the bag machine for gussets, pouches, handles, ventholes, tape closure, ziploc, headers, etc. Converting the bags, quality controlling the job as it runs, packing the bags in to the proper carton, labeling the cartons clearly and carefully, sealing the cartons securely, stacking them neatly on pallets, stretch wrap pallets, move to staging are in shipping dept., then finally ship the bags anywhere in the world. See more

Unprinted film on a pallet, ready to be printed. All film that will be printed get "treated" at the time of extrusion. This treating helps the ink to adhere to the film.

BAG MAKING FACT OF THE DAY: We have hundreds of printing cylinders to accommodate the hundreds of bag sizes we offer. Each ink color requires it's own printing plate and print cylinder (a 12x15, 3 color print needs three 12" cylinders, one for each ink color). Polymer plates are carefully mounted on the the metal cylinders over "sticky back". This helps the plate to adhere tightly to the cylinder. Plates are then wrapped for hours to again make sure they do not shift or come off under the pressure of the fast spinning cylinder in the press.

Film is extruded and rolled to a specific color, gauge and width. Those unprinted rolls of film are then printed and made ready to be converted in to bags.

Bag converting machine

Poly-Pak will be closed on Monday for the 4th of July holiday. Wishing all a fun and safe long weekend.

Today is a special one here at Poly-Pak. Diane Byrne will be retiring this week. Diane has been with us for 25 years. Diane was instrumental in the fabulous growth of our Primrose division which caters to the paint and hardware industries. We have a special send off today at 3:00. We will all miss Diane's smile, laugh and professionalism. Enjoy and long and happy retirement.

stay tuned for more info, pics and posts......