Business: Beverage Packaging Manufacturer

Sections: ST Series, Food & Beverages, Research & Development, Quality Control

Country: France

Product Family: CT Series Transparent Vacuum and Pressure Vessel

Background

In the competitive and highly regulated food and beverage industry, packaging integrity plays a critical role in maintaining product quality, safety, and shelf life. For producers of juice and wine in flexible plastic pouches, ensuring the durability of packaging throughout transport and storage is essential.

Traditional quality control methods for pouch testing often lack precision, visibility, and adaptability to accommodate a wide range of pouch formats. Manufacturers needed a more effective, real-world testing solution that would give them complete confidence in their packaging before products reached the shelf.

Engineering Challenge

The challenge was to create a solution that could:

• Simulate real-world stress conditions such as vacuum pressure and atmospheric changes during distribution.
• Visually monitor for any deformation, puncture, or micro-leakage.
• Accommodate a variety of pouch sizes, shapes, and materials.
• Be easy to use on the production floor with minimal training.
• Improve consistency and reliability of quality control without increasing operational overhead.

Existing equipment options were often either opaque (limiting visual checks), lacked versatility, or failed to deliver repeatable and adjustable testing parameters suited for modern flexible beverage packaging.

Engineering Solution

SR-TEK proposed a purpose-built Transparent Vacuum and Pressure Vessel from the ST Series product family. This vessel enabled precise vacuum and pressure testing of flexible plastic pouches, while offering the key advantage of full visual access during operation.

By placing pouches inside the transparent vessel and applying adjustable vacuum or pressure levels, operators could closely simulate shipping or storage conditions and instantly identify weaknesses, such as seal failure, small leaks, or structural deformation.

The clear-wall design allowed for uninterrupted monitoring throughout the process. With intuitive controls and automated testing sequences, operators could consistently test various pouch formats without the need for complex setup or recalibration.

The vessel’s ability to adjust testing parameters ensured adaptability for different packaging materials and performance thresholds. This helped beverage producers verify their pouch designs under realistic conditions and catch quality issues before they reached the supply chain.

Result

The SR-TEK Transparent Vacuum and Pressure Vessel has become a critical tool for manufacturers in the juice and wine packaging sector. It allows for:

• Accurate simulation of real-world transport and storage conditions.
• Early detection of defects or weak points in packaging.
• Improved efficiency in the quality control process with minimal operator input.
• Reduced waste due to proactive fault detection.
• Enhanced brand trust through more reliable product quality and fewer packaging failures in the field.

By incorporating SR-TEK’s pressure vessel into their quality control process, manufacturers not only improved operational reliability but also reduced the risk of costly recalls and preserved brand reputation in a highly competitive market.

Specifications

• 1x 1000CL-CT Series Transparent Vacuum & Pressure Vessel
• Material: borosilicate glass + stainless steel
• Seal type: FKM
• Vacuum capability: 600mmHg
• Pressure rating: 4 bar
• Visual inspection window: 360° transparent body
• Adjustable pressure settings
• Compatible with multiple pouch sizes and designs