The ten vertical packaging machine manufacturers worth a place on a shortlist are Syntegon, Ishida, tna, Rovema, BW Flexible Systems, Matrix Packaging Machinery, Triangle Package Machinery, Viking Masek, ULMA Packaging and GEA. Each builds its own roll-film vertical form-fill-seal bagger and sells it for a named product class, so once you have a bag style and a target rate you can send the same specification to any of them.
The numbering is only the order of the list. Soontact’s own range follows the ten on the same terms.
Syntegon is the German builder that was Bosch Packaging Technology until it left the Bosch Group in 2020. Its vertical baggers are the SV series: the SVX for the highest output, the SVE for corner-sealed and Doy-Zip bags, the SVL for low-density snacks at lower cost, plus a separate intermittent-motion line. Syntegon rates the SVX at up to 300 bags per minute per tube.
The range is sold for cookies and crackers, confectionery, frozen vegetables and seafood on wet-cleanable machines, and snacks and nuts, on laminates, recyclable mono-materials and paper. Syntegon’s pages name no weigher of its own.
Ishida is a weigher maker based in Kyoto, Japan, and its baggers are sold as one system with its own multihead weighers and case packers. The current bagmaker range is INSPIRA, ASTRO, ATLAS, ASTRO-B and the compact i-UP 8000, in intermittent, rotary and box-motion jaw configurations.
The range is built for snacks above all: crisps, crackers, croutons and similar dry product dropped from a multihead weigher, in pillow, gusset, block-bottom, flat-bottom and chain bags. Ishida rates the INSPIRA at up to 250 packs per minute with rotary jaws.
tna is based in Sydney, Australia. Its vertical bagger, the robag FX 3e, is a continuous-motion rotary-jaw machine sold as a snack line with tna’s own intelli-weigh multihead weighers, roflo distribution conveyors and intelli-flav seasoning systems.
The robag is built for confectionery and snack packaging in pillow, serrated, string, block-bottom and quattro bags. tna rates it at up to 250 bags per minute with the triple rotary jaw.
Rovema is a German vertical form-fill-seal specialist based in Fernwald. Its two base families are the BVC in continuous motion and the BVI in intermittent motion, each in three format sizes. Around them sit variants named for the product: BVC 250 Candy, BVC 310 Fresh, BVC 310 Liquid, BVC 400 Frozen, BVC Flexible for zip bags, the two-web BVC 165 TwinTube, and the SBS block-pack system for brick-shaped bags of baked goods and confectionery.
Rovema rates the core BVC machines at up to 220 bags per minute. Its pages name no weigher of its own; the BVC 250 Compact 2 is designed to fit under an existing scale.
BW Flexible Systems is Barry-Wehmiller’s bagging business in the United States and now presents itself as BW Packaging. Its vertical form-fill-seal machines carry the Hayssen name alone; Rose Forgrove, Sandiacre, Schib and Simionato are retired brands. The current families are the Hayssen ISB, an intermittent- or continuous-motion sanitary bagger built in the USA with USDA Dairy and Meat and Poultry acceptance, and the Verus in CM (continuous) and IM (intermittent) versions.
The Hayssen range is sold for fresh and frozen produce, shredded or cubed cheese, frozen meat and poultry, candy, dried fruit and nuts. BW rates the ISB at up to 150 bags per minute; its pages name no weigher.
Matrix Packaging Machinery is based in Grafton, Wisconsin, and is a ProMach brand, so a Matrix quote can extend to ProMach sister brands for case packing and palletizing and to its partners INVpack (stick packs) and Pacraft (pre-made pouches). Its baggers are the MVI intermittent machines (MVI-280 Mercury, MVI-330 and MVI-460 Elete, plus a sanitary Elete Premier), the MVC continuous machines (MVC-250, MVC-300 Morpheus, MVC-300L for liquids), the MVX-200 Doy and a bag-in-bag model.
The range is sold for food, beverage, consumer goods and pharmaceutical products, with the MVC-250 sold into IQF. Matrix rates the MVC-250 at up to 240 cycles per minute; its pages name no weigher.
Triangle Package Machinery builds and services its baggers in Chicago, Illinois, and has been owned by the Muskat family since 1923. It builds its own multihead weighers alongside the baggers. The vertical range is the Delta Series in intermittent motion, the all-servo X-Series in continuous motion, and the Elwin Series for auger, cup, scale or counter filling.
The baggers are sold for wet and frozen product first — frozen chicken, ready-to-eat meat and poultry, IQF, seafood, cheese and liquids — and also for candy, cereal, pet food and produce, in sanitation levels up to USDA/3-A washdown. Triangle rates the X-Series at up to 150 bags per minute.
Viking Masek is based in Oostburg, Wisconsin, and builds vertical baggers alongside stick pack machines, flow wrappers, pre-made pouch fillers, cartoners and palletizers. The VFFS models are the E300, ES400, M250, M250 BIB, M300i, M400, M500, S650, Velocity and Twin Velocity, in intermittent or continuous motion.
The range is sold for food and non-food: the ES400 for fruit, vegetables and fresh meat under heavy washdown, the M400 for liquids, powders and solids, and the Twin Velocity for snacks, coffee and other dry goods. Viking Masek rates the Velocity at up to 300 bags per minute; its pages name no weigher.
ULMA Packaging is based in Oñati, Spain, and is part of the ULMA industrial group. Vertical is one of several formats it builds, alongside flow pack, thermoforming, traysealing, shrink and stretch wrapping. The VFFS range is the VTI 200, 400, 500 and 600 in intermittent motion and the VTC 800 in continuous motion, with a hermetic design for heavy cleaning.
The range is sold for loose, granulated and doughy products and product that is difficult to handle, in food and non-food markets. ULMA rates the VTI 400 at up to 100 cycles per minute; its pages name no weigher.
GEA is a process-equipment group headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany, and its SmartPacker vertical baggers sit inside a wider process catalogue. The models are the SmartPacker CX250-H, CX250-S, CX400 and TwinTube, with a zipper unit for reclosable pillow and stand-up bags.
The CX400 is built for frozen and IQF product, fresh-cut vegetables, potato products, meat and grated cheese; the CX250-S and TwinTube for confectionery, savory snacks, nuts and dried fruit. GEA rates the CX400 at up to 120 bags per minute; its pages name no weigher.
Soontact builds its vertical packing machine range in Foshan, China, each model built around one dosing system: cup dosing for uniform granules (TL-VP-180G), an auger for fine powders (TL-VP-180PH), a pump for liquids and pastes (TL-VP-200L), a multihead weigher for irregular or premium product (TL-VP-200PH), and a linear multihead counting scale that closes each bag on an exact piece count (TL-VP-300V). The TL-VP-200PH is rated at up to 120 bags per minute.
The range is sold for snacks, confectionery and frozen foods, pet care and agricultural granules, pharmaceutical and chemical granules, and supplements such as softgels and tablets. Around the bagger we build the rest of the line: stick pack and pre-made bag machines for the formats a vertical bagger does not make, and downstream a checkweigher, a secondary packaging line and a palletizing robot.
Choose between these makers on four points: whose weigher or filler the bagger is quoted with, the rate the maker will demonstrate at acceptance, the bag styles and films the range forms, and where the nearest service engineer is based. Which machine suits your product is a separate question.
The weigher comes first. Ishida, tna, Triangle and Soontact quote their own; the rest take a third-party unit, and then the handshake between weigher and bagger must be agreed before the order, with one party answerable for both.
Every rated speed above is the maker’s figure for an ideal bag; the rate you will hold with your product, film and bag size is the one to have demonstrated at acceptance.
Not every range above forms a zip stand-up pouch, a quad-seal bag or a paper mono-material, so check your bag style and film against the model list. Then ask where the nearest service engineer is based.
