GEAR APPLICATION GUIDE · PLANETARY GEAR · P08

Planetary Gears for Packaging Equipment:
High-Speed Cartoners, Form-Fill-Seal Machines and Case Packer Drives

Packaging equipment drives represent the most diverse and demanding application category for compact planetary gearboxes in the consumer goods manufacturing sector — a single high-speed horizontal form-fill-seal (HFFS) machine running at 200 packs per minute contains 15–25 individual servo axes, each with its own planetary gearbox, all synchronised through the machine controller to produce precisely cut, formed, filled, and sealed packages at rates that would be impossible with mechanical cam-and-lever mechanisms alone. The planetary gearbox in packaging equipment must operate at very high cycle rates (hundreds of starts and stops per minute in intermittent-motion indexing machines), maintain position accuracy across a wide temperature range (from cold room packaging at 0–4°C to hot-fill packaging at 60–80°C ambient), and survive in environments where food and pharmaceutical product, cleaning chemicals, and packaging film residues all contact the gearbox exterior daily.

20CrMnTi · 316L · M2–M5 · DIN 4–6 · IP65
200+ packs/min · Servo · NSF H1 · Washdown
HFFS · Cartoner · Case Packer · Blister · Pharma

AXES PER MACHINE

5 – 40 axes

Servo axis count per packaging machine. Simple intermittent indexer: 3–5 axes. Horizontal flow wrapper: 5–8 axes. Vertical VFFS machine: 6–10 axes. High-speed cartoner: 12–20 axes. HFFS machine (multi-lane): 20–40 servo axes. Each axis has one planetary gearbox — the planetary gear sets for a complete modern packaging machine are a significant procurement in both quantity and technical specification

MODULE RANGE

M2 – M5

Packaging equipment planetary gear module range. Digital servo indexer (small format): M2–M3. HFFS film drive: M2–M3. Cartoner carton transport: M3–M4. Case packer main drive: M4–M5. Intermittent motion (high torque, slow speed): M4–M5. Continuous motion (low torque, high speed): M2–M3. All profile ground for the servo dynamics of modern packaging servo drives

CYCLE RATE

Up to 800 cpm

Maximum cycle rate for packaging equipment planetary gearboxes. Intermittent motion indexing (stop-dwell-move): 200–400 cpm. Continuous motion (blister packer, flow wrapper): 200–600 cpm. High-speed HFFS film drive (continuous): 400–800 cpm. At 800 cpm the planet gear accumulates 1.15 million cycles per working day — every 10 μm of tooth wear per million cycles becomes critical at this cycle rate

INGRESS PROTECTION

IP65 / IP69K

Packaging planetary gearbox sealing requirements. Standard packaging (dry food, confectionery, non-food): IP54 minimum, IP65 recommended. Wet food packaging (meat, dairy, fresh produce): IP65–IP67. High-pressure washdown zones (meat, poultry, RTE foods): IP69K mandatory. Pharmaceutical packaging (clean room): IP54 with FDA 21 CFR materials for all seals and lubricant

Planetary Gear Engineering for Packaging Machines — Servo Dynamics, Cycle Life, and Hygiene

The packaging equipment planetary gearbox operates in a servo drive context that is fundamentally different from a continuous-running industrial drive — the packaging machine’s servo controller commands precise position profiles for each motion axis, with the gearbox experiencing rapid acceleration from rest to maximum speed and deceleration back to rest within each machine cycle. At 300 cycles per minute, each motion axis completes an acceleration-deceleration cycle every 0.2 seconds, requiring the planetary gearbox to transmit peak torques during acceleration that are 3–5× the rated running torque. This dynamic loading requires the planetary gear set to be designed not just for the rated torque fatigue life, but also for the peak acceleration torque — which determines the tooth bending safety factor at the infrequently-occurring but high-amplitude torque events.

Korea Ever-Power’s planetary gear sets for packaging equipment are designed for the servo duty cycle — the combination of continuous rated torque fatigue life (typically 10⁸–10⁹ cycles at rated torque for a modern packaging machine at 400 cpm over 10 years) and peak torque capability (the gear must sustain 3–5× rated torque for the duration of the acceleration phase without tooth fracture). This dual-design requirement drives the packaging planetary gear specification to 20CrMnTi case carburized (for maximum tooth root bending fatigue strength and peak load tolerance), DIN 5 profile ground (for low transmission error and minimal backlash under the servo position control loop), and matched planet pitch tolerance ±3 μm (for load sharing that maintains the designed fatigue life at high cycle rates). For food packaging applications requiring washdown resistance, Korea Ever-Power also manufactures stainless steel planetary gear sets with 316L housing and 17-4 PH stainless planet shafts, conforming to NSF H1 lubricant requirements. For complete planetary gearbox assemblies with servo motor flanges and the position feedback encoder mounting standard for packaging machine servo drives, our planetary gearbox range includes packaging-specific configurations.

The thermal behaviour of packaging equipment planetary gearboxes is a less-discussed but practically significant design aspect — the gearbox temperature rise during high-speed continuous operation determines whether the backlash specification (measured cold at assembly) is maintained at the thermal steady state (typically reached after 30–60 minutes of operation at rated speed and load). The thermal expansion of the gear components (steel sun, planet, and ring gears within an aluminium housing) creates a predictable change in the tooth mesh clearance as the temperature rises: steel expands at 11.7 × 10⁻⁶ /°C while aluminium expands at 23.1 × 10⁻⁶ /°C — nearly twice as fast. In a packaging planetary gearbox with a 60 mm ring gear OD aluminium housing and 20CrMnTi steel ring gear, a temperature rise of 40°C (from 20°C ambient to 60°C steady state) causes the aluminium housing to expand by 0.055 mm in diameter while the steel ring gear expands by only 0.028 mm — the differential expansion increases the effective ring gear-planet tooth clearance and thereby increases the backlash at operating temperature. Korea Ever-Power measures the backlash of all packaging planetary gear sets at both cold assembly temperature and at thermal steady state (after running at rated speed under the specified duty cycle for 30 minutes), and issues both values on the measurement certificate to allow the packaging machine servo controller to be configured with the correct position dead-band setting for the operating temperature.

planetary carrier packaging equipment servo drive Korea Ever-Power
Korea Ever-Power 20CrMnTi carburized planetary carrier for packaging machine servo axis drive — M3, 3-planet carrier, planet pin bore H6 for press-fit planet bearing outer race, carrier material 42CrMo4 QT HB 300–320 (the carrier is not a tooth-carrying component and uses QT material for its better machinability relative to carburized steel). Planet pin concentricity to carrier bore: ≤ 0.006 mm TIR — the planet pin position determines the effective tooth mesh geometry for each planet in the ring and sun, so any pin eccentricity or angular error directly adds to the transmission error of that planet’s contribution to the stage output. All 3 planet pin bores on Korea Ever-Power packaging carriers are machined in a single fixture rotation on a CNC jig boring machine — eliminating the re-fixturing errors that would occur if each bore were machined separately. Carrier runout at the output flange relative to the input bore: ≤ 0.012 mm TIR — meets the Flange mounting standard for servo motor / gearbox coupling for packaging machine servo axes (compatible with Beckhoff, SEW, Bosch Rexroth, Siemens servo motor flange configurations).

Packaging Equipment Type Planetary Drive Specifications

PKG 01

HORIZONTAL FLOW
WRAPPER (HFFS)

Planetary specification: M2–M3, DIN 5, 20CrMnTi, ratio 5:1–10:1 (film drive axis) or 10:1–25:1 (infeed and outfeed conveyor axes), backlash ≤ 1.5 arc-min, servo motor flange, continuous operation at 400–600 cpm. Horizontal flow wrappers (HFFS — Horizontal Form-Fill-Seal) are the most widely used secondary packaging machine for biscuits, confectionery, bakery items, and fresh produce — the machine forms a flat roll of packaging film into a tube around the product, seals the tube longitudinally, and then creates transverse seals and cuts at each end of the pack. The film drive servo axis (which pulls the film from the reel at exactly the right rate to maintain the pack pitch at high speed) is the highest-precision planetary drive on a flow wrapper — any speed variation in the film drive produces a variation in the pack length that generates pack length out-of-specification, and in the worst case a misaligned transverse seal that creates a leaking pack. Korea Ever-Power HFFS film drive planetary gear sets are individually run-tested at 600 cpm for 30 minutes with the transmission error monitored continuously — any gear set showing TE above 3 μrad at the 600 cpm test speed is rejected before assembly into the stage kit.

PKG 02

BLISTER PACKER
(PHARMACEUTICAL)

Planetary specification: M2–M3, DIN 5, 20CrMnTi or 316L stainless (for API-exposure zones), ratio 6:1–20:1, clean room IP54, FDA 21 CFR compatible lubricant (Klüber ISOFLEX TOPAS NB 52 or equivalent), backlash ≤ 1.0 arc-min for the foil feed and index axes. Pharmaceutical blister packaging machines (for tablets, capsules, ampoules) are among the most regulatory-scrutinised packaging machines — all components including the gearboxes must be compatible with the pharmaceutical manufacturing environment requirements of GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice), 21 CFR Part 211 (FDA), and the relevant pharmacopoeial standards. The planetary gearboxes in a blister packer must not shed metallic particles that could contaminate the pharmaceutical product — Korea Ever-Power pharmaceutical blister packer planetary gear sets use a PTFE lip seal (rather than the standard NBR oil seal) on the output shaft to prevent gear oil ingress to the blister-forming zone, and the housing external surfaces are electropolished to Ra ≤ 0.8 μm to prevent product particle accumulation. All lubricant contact surfaces are pre-cleaned with pharmaceutical-grade IPA (isopropyl alcohol) before final assembly in the pharmaceutical version of these gear sets.

PKG 03

CASE PACKER
MAIN DRIVE

Planetary specification: M4–M5, DIN 5–6, 20CrMnTi, ratio 15:1–40:1, high peak torque capability (acceleration torque 4× rated), IP65 washdown, NSF H1 lubricant for food case packers, output torque to 2,000 Nm. Case packers (which erect, fill, and close corrugated cases around product groups) use larger planetary gearboxes than the flow wrapper and blister packer because the case packer must handle the weight of a full case of product (typically 5–25 kg) accelerating and decelerating during the product infeed and case closing operations. The peak torque at acceleration is the design-critical load condition — a 25 kg case group accelerated to 1 m/s in 0.1 s requires 250 N of force × the lever arm to the gearbox output shaft, producing peak torques of 500–2,000 Nm depending on the machine configuration. Korea Ever-Power case packer planetary gears are designed with a dedicated peak torque service factor in addition to the fatigue life calculation — the planet gear tooth must not fracture under 5× rated torque applied for up to 1 second, which is the worst-case case packer jam condition where the servo controller applies full motor torque into a jammed case before the overload detection triggers.

planetary gear set packaging equipment servo Korea Ever-Power
Korea Ever-Power 20CrMnTi carburized planetary gear sets for packaging equipment servo drives — left: M2 stage kit for HFFS film drive (sun 12T, planet ×3 × 18T, ring 48T, ratio 5:1, DIN 5, carburized HRC 60–62, profile ground); right: M4 stage kit for case packer main drive (sun 10T, planet ×3 × 20T, ring 50T, ratio 6:1, DIN 5, individual peak torque test at 5× rated). Both stage kits shown with planet gears removed from carrier for illustration — in service, all 3 planets are simultaneously engaged in both the sun and ring gear mesh. The size comparison shows the 4× mass difference between the HFFS (25 g planet gear) and case packer (380 g planet gear) planetary gear stages for the same 6:1 ratio — the mass difference reflects the 16× torque ratio between these two packaging applications. Korea Ever-Power supplies both stage kits as part of a complete packaging machine OEM or refurbishment supply, allowing the machine builder to specify the same supplier for all servo axis planetary gear sets across the machine, simplifying the procurement and quality documentation for the complete machine commissioning and CE marking process.
internal planetary gear packaging machine servo Korea Ever-Power
Korea Ever-Power profile-ground internal ring gear for packaging machine planetary servo drive — M3, 60T internal, ring bore OD 180 mm, wall thickness 22 mm, 20CrMnTi carburized HRC 60–62, internal profile ground to DIN 5. The internal ring gear is the most technically demanding component in a packaging equipment planetary stage — the grinding spindle must reach inside the ring bore with a small-diameter grinding wheel that is inherently less rigid than the external gear grinding wheel used for planet and sun gears. Korea Ever-Power uses a CBN (Cubic Boron Nitride) internal grinding wheel for M3 ring gears — CBN maintains its wheel form for 10× longer than conventional aluminium oxide in grinding 20CrMnTi carburized steel, producing consistent DIN 5 profile accuracy across the full production run of 50–200 ring gears without wheel redressing. The ring gear dimensional traceability (manufacturing date, heat treatment batch, profile grinding programme ID) is recorded in Korea Ever-Power’s quality database and traceable for 10 years — essential for packaging machine OEMs who must maintain CE technical documentation for the machine’s design life under the EU Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC.

Frequently Asked Questions — Planetary Gears for Packaging Equipment

Q 01

Our HFFS biscuit wrapper is producing variable pack lengths — some packs are 2–3 mm too long or too short. The film drive axis encoder and servo tuning have been checked and are correct. Could the planetary gearbox backlash be causing this?

Variable pack length of 2–3 mm on an HFFS biscuit wrapper where the encoder and servo tuning have been verified is consistent with planetary gearbox backlash as the primary cause. At 400 packs per minute with a typical pack pitch of 180 mm, the film drive completes approximately 400 full pitch cycles per minute — each cycle involves an acceleration from the seal dwell speed to the index speed and back, with a direction reversal in the servo profile at the end of each forward stroke. The backlash dead-band appears at each direction reversal — the gearbox output shaft must first traverse the backlash angle before the servo motor position command is reflected in the film drive roller movement. A backlash of 3 arc-min at the planetary gearbox output with a film drive roller of 60 mm radius produces a film length variation of 2π × 60 mm × (3/60 × π/180) = 3.14 × 60 × 0.000873 = 0.16 mm per reversal — too small to produce 2–3 mm length variation by itself. However, if the backlash is 15–20 arc-min (which is common in worn film drive planetary gearboxes after 3–5 years of 24-hour operation at 400 cpm — equivalent to 1 billion direction reversals), the film length variation becomes 15/3 × 0.16 mm = 0.8 mm per reversal, and with 2 reversals per pack, the worst-case pack length error reaches 1.6 mm — approaching the observed range. Add the contribution of backlash-induced servo oscillation (the servo system hunting across the backlash zone trying to reach the commanded position) and the total length variation can reach 2–3 mm. Measurement: with the machine stopped and the servo in position-hold mode, manually rotate the film drive roller by hand and measure the angular dead-band before the servo resistance is felt — in mm at the roller rim. More than 1.0 mm dead-band indicates the planetary gearbox backlash is above the acceptable limit. Korea Ever-Power replacement film drive planetary gear sets for standard HFFS machines restore backlash to 0.4–0.6 mm at the roller rim, eliminating the length variation contribution from the drive.

Q 02

We are designing a new pharmaceutical blister packaging machine and need to specify planetary gearboxes for 12 servo axes. What documentation will Korea Ever-Power provide that supports our machine’s CE marking and FDA 21 CFR Part 211 compliance?

Korea Ever-Power provides the following documentation with pharmaceutical blister packer planetary gear sets for CE marking and FDA 21 CFR Part 211 compliance support: (1) Material declaration: certification that the housing material (316L stainless, EN 10204 Type 3.1 material certificate), seal material (PTFE, FDA 21 CFR 177.1550 compliant), and lubricant (NSF H1 registered, FDA 21 CFR 178.3570 compliant) are approved for use in pharmaceutical manufacturing environments. (2) Lubricant data sheet and NSF H1 certificate: the specific lubricant grade, NSF International registration number, and the maximum permissible incidental food/pharmaceutical contact level. (3) Surface finish declaration: housing external surface Ra ≤ 0.8 μm (electropolished, confirmed by surface profilometer measurement on each housing), confirming compliance with GMP surface finish requirements for pharmaceutical production equipment. (4) IP rating declaration: confirming IP54 sealing (or IP65 if specified) per IEC 60529 standard, with the test method used (dust test and water ingress test conditions). (5) ISO 9001:2015 quality certificate for the manufacturing facility. (6) Particle generation assessment: a written declaration that the gear set design and lubricant selection prevent metallic and polymer particle generation above the specification limit in normal operation (this is a qualitative declaration based on material selection and sealed design, not a quantitative particle count test — pharmaceutical OEMs are advised to specify quantitative particle testing if required by their validation protocol). (7) Dimensional certificate per IEC 61800 (servo motor mounting interface) confirming the motor flange and output shaft dimensions, for integration into the machine’s CE technical documentation as a purchased component. Korea Ever-Power can provide all 7 documents within the standard delivery lead time — no additional documentation lead time is required for pharmaceutical packaging specifications.

Q 03

What is the expected service life of a packaging machine planetary gearbox at 400 cpm, and how do we know when to replace versus refurbish?

Expected service life of a Korea Ever-Power DIN 5 packaging machine planetary gearbox at 400 cpm in a typical HFFS or cartoner application: Gear component life (to measurable backlash increase above the specified limit): 15,000–25,000 hours (6–10 years of 3-shift, 5-day operation), based on the planet gear tooth contact fatigue life calculation at the rated torque and the measured wear rate in comparable packaging machine applications. Bearing life (the first failure mode in most packaging planetary drives): 10,000–20,000 hours for the planet pin bearings (needle roller or cylindrical roller), which are the highest-loaded bearings in the stage. The planet pin bearing life is typically shorter than the gear life and determines the refurbishment interval. Replace vs refurbish decision: Korea Ever-Power recommends condition-based maintenance rather than fixed intervals for packaging machine planetary drives: (a) When the backlash at the machine output axis exceeds the machine builder’s backlash limit (typically 2× the new specification value), replace the worn stage kit. (b) When unusual noise (rattling, cyclic knocking) develops in the gearbox at any speed, remove the gearbox for inspection — noise typically indicates bearing failure, which if left unaddressed will cause the planet gear to touch the ring gear bore and produce rapid tooth fracture. (c) When the gearbox operating temperature exceeds 20°C above normal at rated load, check the lubricant condition and bearing state. Refurbishment: if the gearbox housing and carrier are in good condition, Korea Ever-Power supplies stage kit refurbishment packages — new matched planet gear set, new sun gear, and new planet pin bearings — for self-installation by the customer’s maintenance team, at 40–60% of the cost of a complete replacement gearbox. Refurbishment is appropriate when the housing concentricity and carrier flatness are within 30% of the original tolerance, and only one stage shows backlash above the limit (the other stage remaining within specification).

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Need Planetary Gears for Packaging Equipment?

Korea Ever-Power manufactures DIN 4–6 planetary gear sets for all packaging machine servo axes — HFFS film drives, cartoner indexers, case packer main drives, blister packer axes, and pharmaceutical clean-room packaging. M2–M5, 20CrMnTi carburized, cold and hot backlash test certificate, servo motor flange compatible. NSF H1 food-grade lubricant, IP65/IP69K, 316L stainless pharmaceutical option, FDA 21 CFR documentation. ISO 9001:2015 certified.

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