The Key Challenge in Adopting Liquid Nitrogen on a Flex Pack Line and The Value of Proper Testing

Liz Cuneo: What have been some of the challenges in adopting the liquid nitrogen in the flexible pouch? I know you mentioned the use of too much would be a bulging issue. Is there a problem if there's not enough? How do you control the right amount?

Darius Schubert: By testing. There are methods, ways of calculating only how much we can gain volume-wise by how much we aredosing. I mean, the size of the droplet of the liquid nitrogen and then considering like I mentioned, the 700 times expansion. We can calculate the volume of the nitrogen that we're putting in, but it's very difficult to do it in the production area and the production environment. So, by testing different settings, different parameters of the chart doses, we determine which product or which package requires what amount of nitrogen to be dosed to be acceptable.

The test that we're using verifies the content, or presence of nitrogen in the pouches. Unfortunately, we cannot register the amount of it. By assuming that we are expelling all the air from the pouch, we will accepting the fact that once we have nitrogen in the pouch, presence of the nitrogen in the pouch, it's taking pretty much the whole space available for it.