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Laminate tubes, along with folding boxes and shipping cartons, are currently among the packaging materials with the highest growth rates. Due to their excellent barrier properties, good printability and favourable unit costs, they are increasingly replacing aluminium tubes as the preferred packaging for paste-like products in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. Many manufacturers from these industries are currently converting their tube packaging to printed laminate tubes.
To be able to produce laminate tubes, you need a tube machine (tube line). This tube line forms individual tube bodies in various lengths and diameters from a flat, digitally printed laminate roll with the highest precision.
As a rule, a tube line consists of several workstations arranged one behind the other: a welding machine, tube shoulder production and an integrated screw-on unit for different types of caps.
Several operations are necessary to create a laminate tube. After the printed laminate roll is inserted into the roll holder of the machine, the flat laminate is bent into a tube and the two opposite edges are welded together to form a tight tube seam. Then a rotary knife cuts the tube into the respective tube length, thus creating the so-called "tube body".
In the next step, the machine places the tube shoulder (as a semi-finished product) with the thread on the tube body and firmly joins the two components together. This process takes place with the addition of heat or as induction. Optionally, a freshness seal can be glued onto the thread of the tube shoulder. The integrated screw-on unit then turns or bounces the tube cap, also a semi-finished product, onto the tube thread.
Laminate is bent into tube Rotary knife cuts tubes Tube shoulder is put on Tube body and shoulder are
connected together
Standing upright and open at one end, the empty tubes are packed in cartons and shipped to the customer. There, the laminate tubes can be filled with pasty liquids, e.g. cream, glue or shower gel, and sealed at the open end. Only then do the laminate tubes get their final shape.
This Labelprint24 tube line achieves a production speed of up to 150 tubes per minute.
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