Form fill seal machine

About the sound

Hesser, made in Germany in 1978.
Capacity of maximum 50 PPM (=Pouches per minute)
Max. dB 80,6.

This form fill seal machine has been in operation in Tampereen kehitysmaakauppa over 10 years. Here roasted and grinded coffee is bagged and boxed.
The machine constructs coffee bags out of a flat roll of plastic film. A sealing bar creates the bottom seal by clamping across the bottom edge of the tube and bonding the film together. A sealing bar moves down with the bag while sealing. The coffee is dispensed through the long conical tube in the center of the bag. Then the sealing bar seals the top of the bag and forms the bottom of the next bag above. This bag is then cut off from the tube.
There is no scale in the machine so all bags are manually weighed afterwards and then the products are boxed to 9 kg boxes. The labels will be taped afterwards.

The main sound comes from the roasting drum. The coffee is continually kept airborne to roast evenly.
Coffee roasting took place in Tampreen kehitysmaakauppa ry, Fair trade organization in Tampere, specialized in wholesale and coffee roasting. The organization was founded in 1983 to increase fair trade. Mainly they buy coffee beans from Tanzania Kilimanjaro Native Co-Operative Union but also from Bolivia and Ethiopia. They buy also Café Caracol, which comes from zapatist areas in Mexico. In Kehitysmaakauppa they roast espresso beans, instant coffee and filter coffee with two roasts: medium dark and dark.

Sound recording: Leena Ahonen
Video Recording: Kimmo Kestinen
Photographer: Leena Ahonen