Sausage Tube Packaging
Sealants and adhesives packaged in sausage tubes offer many advantages over standard, pre-formed cartridges.
Most caulkable sealants and adhesives are dispensed using pre-formed cartridges. These cartridges consist of a tube, plunger, and nozzle. While there are many variations when it comes to the materials the tubes are made of, the nozzle type, and other elements – the essential components remain the same.
However, there is another, often overlooked packaging option – the sausage tube. Sealants and adhesives packaged in sausage tubes (also known as chubs, sachets, or foil packs) have many advantages over standard pre-formed cartridges.
LESS PRODUCT WASTE
Would you throw away one and a half cases from every pallet?
If you’re using fixed nozzle pre-formed cartridges – you already are.
Fixed nozzle cartridges retain a portion of the product within their nozzles when empty. Approximately 1% of the product is trapped within a 10 ounce cartridge, while a 28 oz tube retains almost 2.75%. This trapped amount of product is thrown away with the cartridge.
That may not sound like much, but this seemingly small amount of waste can add up throughout a job. Per pallet, you’re throwing out an entire case of 10 oz cartridges and nearly a case and a half of 28 oz tubes.
The removable and interchangeable nozzles of a sausage tube gun mean that one nozzle can be used throughout the entire project, minimizing the amount of product wasted from being trapped in the nozzle.
Sausage packaging also helps to reduce disposal costs. As the sealant is dispensed, the foil packaging compresses to form a small disc measuring roughly ¾ inches (2 cm) tall.
It would take ten empty sausage discs to create the same amount of waste as one pre-formed 10 oz caulk tube.
This 90% reduction in waste helps lower cleanup and disposal costs. It also results in far less waste going to a landfill, reducing negative environmental impact.
SAVES SPACE
Sausage packaging also saves space. A 3,280 foot (~ 1,000 meters) roll of foil formed into sausage tubes can take the place of over 2,000 pre-formed cartridges.
The space-saving benefit of sausage tubes helps free up valuable warehouse room while driving down shipping and storage costs per ounce.
LONGER SHELF LIFE
During the filling process of sausage packs, the film is formed into a sausage shape and clipped with the product inside.
This process ensures no air is introduced, which could cause the product to cure prematurely. The air-tight clip closure keeps air and moisture out, resulting in extended shelf life.
All of these benefits contribute to substantial cost savings over traditional sealant and adhesive packaging options.
- Improved package yield over fixed-nozzle cartridges means fewer units to do the same job.
- More product per package reduces changeover, improving overall efficiency by reducing labor and material costs.
- Sausage packaging saves substantial warehouse space, driving down the cost per square foot of storage and contributing to reduced shipping costs per ounce.
- A longer shelf-life means the product you have on hand will last longer, reducing the amount of expired, wasted material.
- The small foil disc left behind once the sausage pack is emptied creates 90% less waste than standard caulk tubes, reducing cleanup and disposal costs.
Sausage tubes are an economical, low-waste, space-saving alternative to ‘standard’ pre-formed cartridges. They are ideal for use in industries and applications that make use of long, uninterrupted beads or bulk application. Sausage tubes are popular in the drywall, flooring, glass/glazing, and marine industries, but are great fits for many other industries and trades.
AVAILABLE SAUSAGE PACKS
Everkem Diversified Products offers multiple product chemistries commonly used in a variety of industries in sausage tube packaging.
FIRESTOP-814+
Intumescent Firestopping Sealant
FIRE SEAL-136
Residential Fireblock Caulk
SOUND SEAL 90
Draft, Smoke, & Acoustical Sound Sealant
TRUSIL 100
100% Silicone Sealant
ECOTEX 25
Acrylic Latex Caulk
ALL GRIP 60
All Purpose Construction Adhesives
