A Small Part With a Large Failure Cost

A 30ml sauce cup costs a fraction of a cent. A leaking one costs a customer, a complaint and a cleaning bill at the restaurant. Portion packaging lives or dies on rim geometry and lid fit, and both are decided by the tooling that forms the cup.

Shantou Longsheng Industry Co., Ltd. makes cup making machines and precision molds in Shantou City, Guangdong Province, and a meaningful share of the small-format work is condiment packaging.

The Formats

• Ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise portion cups for food service
• Chili sauce and hot pot dip cups
• Salad dressing and vinaigrette cups
• Oyster sauce and seasoning cups for takeaway kits
• Honey and syrup cups for hotels and catering
• Jam and preserve cups for bakery and breakfast service

Cup and Lid Are One Design

A portion cup is only leak-proof when the cup rim and the lid are engineered as a pair. Longsheng produces the cup on a cup making machine and the matching lid on a thermoforming machine, so the interference between rim bead and lid channel is set by the same design team. Three lid styles cover most of the market:

• Flat lidding film for single-use portions, sealed by the filler
• Snap-on flat lids for multi-portion retail packs
• Hinged flip-top lids that stay attached and open one-handed

Where a customer needs a tamper-evident pack, the lid can be formed with a tear tab, and the cup rim formed with a matching locking bead.

Material and Temperature Reality

PP dominates portion cups because it tolerates hot-fill for sauces, resists oil and vinegar, and is microwave safe. PLA and other biodegradable materials are increasingly specified for food service operators under packaging-waste rules. Longsheng machines run PP, PS, HIPS, PVC, PET, PLA, PE and biodegradable sheet.

Output and Tooling Changeover

Condiment producers rarely run one format only. A line that can switch from a 30ml cup to a 60ml cup to a 100ml cup in a shift is worth more than a faster line that cannot. Longsheng builds cup machines in three drive platforms — FS-8556 full servo, HSS-8556 hydraulic servo and HAI-8556 hydraulic — and supplies molds for each format so changeover is a tooling swap with stored parameters.

Longsheng was founded in 1998, operates a 30,000 square metre facility, holds 25 authorised patents and is a high-tech enterprise under the registered "Longsheng" trademark.

For portion packaging projects, visit the official website: https://www.stlongsheng.com