How Does Laundry Detergent Pods Packaging Machine Producing Pods

Colorful laundry detergent pods have been around for over ten years, but they've recently grown from a niche product to a mainstream one. So, what are laundry pods, and how are these liquid laundry pods manufactured?

How Laundry Pods are Taking Over the Detergent Market

In 2012, Tide Pods were the first liquid laundry detergent pods to hit the U.S. market. By 2015, as more laundry detergent pods came onto the market, they held a 15 percent market share in the domestic laundry/dishwasher market.

Now, in 2023, just a decade later, these laundry detergent pods make up 25 percent of the market.

The cleaning industry is moving to laundry pods because they don't contain as much water as traditional products, which reduces shipping costs and emissions. It also reduces the number of plastic containers that end up as waste.

Consumers also love pods because they're convenient and sustainable.

What is a Laundry Detergent Pod?

In almost all the existing applications, pods comprise highly concentrated surfactants and other cleaning agents in a film soluble in water.

The most crucial part of pods is the thin film that seals them in place. This film needs to be able to hold liquids and solids that are chemically active, but it also needs to dissolve in water, even cold water, quickly and completely. The material that most companies have settled on for these properties is a polymer called PVA.

In simple terms, PVA is a carbon chain with an alcohol group on every other carbon. It is created by hydrolyzing acetate groups in polyvinyl acetate into alcohol groups. A few acetates are left in place to achieve the ideal solubility. Detergent pod films that are 85-90% hydrolyzed are completely soluble in cold water. Pod films are a mixture of polymer chain lengths, from 600 to 2,400 monomers, with the exact composition depending on the strength and solubility needed for a specific pod.

How are Laundry Detergent Pods Produced?

Producing laundry detergent pods requires several mechanisms, but most of these mechanisms take place inside a machine designed for the purpose.

On one end, you pour your laundry detergent(s), and on the other end, you have perfectly proportioned laundry pods. Here's how that occurs.

When it comes to laundry pods, the detergent inside is typically composed of a variety of ingredients such as Ethanol, Alcohol Ethoxylate, Alkyl Ethoxy Sulfate and Alkyl Sulfate, Polyethylene Glycols, Glycerin, Citric Acid, Percarbonate, Hydrogen Peroxide. These ingredients are carefully selected and blended to create an effective cleaning solution for your laundry needs.

Once the detergent mixture is created, it is then put through a detergent pods packaging machine that is lined with a Polyvinyl Alcohol film. This film serves as the mold for the laundry pods. The machine has filmed-lined indents which the detergent is poured into and then sealed using PVA film. This process ensures that each pod is consistent in shape and size.

After the machine molds the laundry pods, they are cut and packaged using the same laundry detergent pods packaging machine. This detergent pod packaging machine cuts the sheets of pods into the preferred size, completing the process.

Overall, creating laundry pods involves a careful and precise process that guarantees the quality and safety of the product. However, that doesn't mean you must be involved in manufacturing.

Depending on the manufacturer of the laundry detergent pods packaging machine, the process can be entirely automated, allowing you to produce thousands of laundry detergent pods a day.

Furthermore, the packaging machine can use custom-built molds, allowing you to create laundry pods that suit your brand.

What to Look For in a Laundry Detergent Pods Packaging Machine

Now that you understand how laundry detergent pods are made, the tips below will help you choose a laundry detergent pods packaging machine that suits your business's needs.

Automation

Your packaging machine should be completely automated, ensuring your manufacturing process remains productive.

Simplicity

The machine should be straightforward to set up and use without the need for additional parts or tools.

The best laundry pods packaging machine will allow you to control the output through a simple mechanism or digital interface.

Per Minute Packaging

The per-minute output of a machine will give you an idea of how productive your assembly line or factory will be. Ideally, the machine you use should pack 500 or more laundry pods per minute.

POLYVA's Laundry Detergent Pods Packing Machine

POLYVA is committed to simplifying the manufacture of laundry detergent pods. To do this, we've engineered a machine that simply requires you to add the laundry detergent and PVA film before commencing.

One machine can manufacture 336,000 laundry pods in a day (based on an average of 700 pods per minute).

With such impressive data, the machine will have paid for itself in a matter of days.