Basic Heat Sealing Using Flexible Films

An Introduction Into The Basics Of Heat Sealing And Heat Sealers PVC And Polyolefin Shrink Wrapping Film How we use both Polyolefin and PVC centre fold shrink wrapping films The technology that is behind and involved with heat sealing products has gone through a great deal of changes in recent decades and the heat sealer is one of these advancements .Sealers can range from simple bar type ones that sit on the desk top and are sometimes known as Impulse Heat Sealers and are completely manual in operation. They get the name impulse sealer due to the fact that the sealing blade or wire get an impulse of electricity when the sealing frame or arm is pulled down. It is then the heat from the warm heating element and the pressure applied by the operative that makes the seal. This type of heat sealing and shrink wrapping can be slow and cumbersome. Next you have the Semi-Automatic Heat Sealers these Heat Sealers work in the same way with a low voltage impulse used to provide the heat for the seal but either use a foot pedal or magnetic solenoid to bring down the sealing arm and also a magnet or other method of keeping the sealing arm down for a pre-set length of time. The advantages of this are two fold. 1) the seal time and pressure is kept constant which can lead to a more consistent and durable seal 2) the operative is quite often free to prepare the next item for sealing. This type of sealer is often used to seal a pre made bag and not for shrink wrapping applications. There is a wide range of heat sealers on the UK market today and care must be taken when selecting the correct machine for the application. One very important note is that heat sealers normally provide a seal that is upwards of mm in width, for shrink wrapping applications we would always recommend a sealer that has a round wire as the sealing medium as this gives a far neater pack once shrunk down. You cannot always see the difference from just looking at a picture on the internet as they are physically very very similar in appearance as you can see from the pictures below. . Heat sealing enables you to fuse together using heat only the edges of the plastics that are being used to protect and package the product. This can either then stay as a custom made bag or be shrunk down very tight with shrink wrapping films made from materials such as PVC and Polyolefin shrink films,these being the main ones used in this method of packaging often called simply Shrink wrapping. Later we will go into more depth and cover the various types of heat sealers and heat sealing equipment.

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