Glossary
What is VFFS (vertical form-fill-seal)?
Also called: vertical form-fill-seal machine, vertical bagger, VFFS bagger
VFFS means vertical form-fill-seal, a packaging machine that forms bags from a flat roll of film around a vertical tube, fills them from above and seals them.
Film from a printed roll is wrapped around a hollow forming tube. A vertical jaw seals the long back seam, either as a fin seal (inner face to inner face) or a lap seal (overlapping edges, outer face to inner face, which needs a film whose outer layer will seal). A horizontal jaw makes the bottom seal. Product drops through the tube, usually from a multihead weigher above. The same jaw then seals the top of the bag and the bottom of the next one, and cuts the bag free.
Machines run in intermittent motion, where the film stops for each seal, or in continuous motion, where the jaws travel with the film for higher speed. Common formats are pillow, gusseted, block-bottom and stand-up bags. It is used for snacks, frozen food, confectionery and powders. Compare HFFS.