Machine history
Tea bags hold pure flavour and provide a unique and high-quality tea experience.
The foundation for the manufacture of fine tea bags by machine was laid in 1928. Since then, TEEKANNE has worked together with competent partners to continuously improve the quality and capabilities of the machines.
- The Pompadour
- The Reliance
- The Constanta
- The Perfecta
The Pompadour
The first machine-produced tea bag in the world was the Pompadour gauze bag, introduced in 1928.
This was manufactured on a machine owned by the TEEKANNE subsidiary Seelig & Hille in Dresden. The first automatic tea packing machines were the Pompadour portion tea bag packing machine and the Teefix paper bag manufacturing machine.
The Reliance
In 1937, the first generation of tea packing machines was replaced by the Reliance fully automatic cellophane portion tea bag packing machine installed after a perforating machine.
The Reliance was the first machine to fill tea bags with a shape similar to the now common double-chamber tea bag. However, these bags had only one chamber.
The Reliance produced a tea bag that was packaged in a protective covering, making it more hygienic than the predecessor bags of silk.
The Constanta
In 1949, Adolf Rambold introduced for TEEKANNE not only a revolutionary tea bag in terms of quality and design, the double-chamber bag that is now used around the world, but also the machine that made the manufacture of this bag possible, the Constanta. This rang in the era of modern tea bag packing.
The Constanta was built by the subsidiary Teepack and allowed the fully automatic manufacture of tea bags without compromising the flavour of the natural tea.
The new manufacturing process proved to be so superior that the principle of the double-chamber bag was adopted on markets around the world, especially the USA. As the double-chamber bag spread around the globe, tea consumption also rose. This created international demand for the Constanta. Over 2,000 units have been sold in 50 countries since the 1950s, and many of these machines are still being used today.
Constanta technical data
- Tea bag capacity: 3 grams of tea
- Output: 150–180 tea bags per minute
- Weight: roughly 1,550 kg
- Overall length: 2 m; width: 80 cm; height: 160 cm
- Electrical components: 1.8 kW motor
The Perfecta
Technical innovations led the engineers at Teepack to develop a new, more powerful machine – the Perfecta. Over 200 units have been sold to customers around the world since 1990.
Perfecta technical data:
- Tea bag capacity: 3 grams of tea
- Output: up to 400 tea bags per minute
- Weight: 2,500–2,800 kg
- Overall length: 2.54 m
- Width: 1.4 m
- Height: 2.1 m
- Electrical components: 2.8 kW motor that requires compressed air at 6 bar
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