Hair Gel

Hair gel's high viscosity and elastic body make it string and bridge at the nozzle. It does not break cleanly at the end of a shot: it stretches, forms a thread and lays that thread across the film exactly where the seal has to close a fraction of a second later. A trace of gel in the seal zone gives a weak or leaking pack, and it is usually only found downstream. Gel also carries air folded in during mixing, so the volume that arrives at the nozzle is not always the volume drawn, and the same batch behaves differently as temperature moves through a shift. A hair gel filling machine therefore works by positive displacement. A piston dosing unit draws a measured volume and pushes it out through a shut-off nozzle with sharp cut-off, so the shot is set mechanically rather than by flow time and the viscosity works for the dose instead of against it. Piston speed is matched to the nozzle so the gel is accelerated and stopped without whipping, and the nozzle closes at the end of travel so the thread is cut at the tip. Product paths are kept short and free of dead corners, and contact parts and seals are chosen for the formulation and for wash-down between fragrances and colours. Single-use portions dominate. The stick pack is the format most often asked for on a hair gel stick pack machine: narrow, rigid enough to hold in one hand, easy to squeeze empty and cheap to carry. Sachets, three-side or four-side seal, serve the barber-supply and travel segments, sold in strips, boxed as counter units or placed in hotel and salon kits; here a strong yet easy-tear seal decides how the product feels in daily use. Larger or multi-application portions run as VFFS pillow bags when the volume no longer suits a stick. Doses run from 5 to 15 ml. Output on a hair gel sachet packaging machine depends on pack width, because these machines are multi-lane: MSM1200 reaches up to 960 packs per minute with 12 lanes on a narrow pack, and the same machine gives up to 480 packs per minute with 6 lanes when the pack is wide. Lane counts by model: ARTISTICK 1-5, HSM 1-3, ISM400 2-5, ISM600 3-7, MSM800 4-10, MSM1200 6-12, SPM320 1-8, SPM800 4-12, SPM1200 7-12. A hair gel packaging machine of this type is bought by cosmetics and personal-care manufacturers, by contract fillers working for hair-care brands, and by suppliers to barber shops, salons, hotels and travel retail.