PACKAGING MACHINERY

What is the recommended max film thickness for:

Chamber Machines?

This varies depending on the manufacturer, but most people say 20 microns.

L-sealer and heat tunnel?

An L-Sealer and heat tunnel can do a slighly thicker 25 micron fim. This is because the heat tunnel its consistently at the same temperature whereas a chamber machine isn't permanently running.

Do I need an L sealer, a sleeve sealer or a chamber machine?

A sleeve sealer is what you would use to wrap crates, or bottles or wrap bundles of something. 

A chamber machine is for short run shrink wrap jobs.

An L-sealer is for long run jobs. An L-sealer and chamber machine will completely shrink wrap all of the item whereas a sleeve sealer will have two gaps down the side, similar to a Coca-Cola crate.

How does a L-sealer heat tunnel combo work?

The product is placed inside the film, the lever is pulled down the L-sealer then melts the film around your product. Afterwards a convey belt will take the product into a heat tunnel, the film is then fully shrunk to the product.

Do I need automatic or semi automatic or manual?

A manual machine is good for short run short jobs as they tend to be smaller. L-sealers are good for medium runs, A fully automatic machine tends to be good if you can connect it to another machine that can feed the products rather than hand feed them.

What is an L-Sealer?

An L-sealer seals plastic around a product ready for it to go into a heat tunnel.

What is a shrink wrap flow line?

A flow line is like a sock of shrink wrap, where the product goes into the sock and then each end of the product gets sealed. This is good if you have products of different lengths. It is useful for doing things like baguettes or tubes as it very fast.

Where can I buy film to wrap?

The film is readily available on the internet from many distributors such as http://castleindustrial.com/.

How do I wrap bottles?

You wrap bottles with a sleeve sealing machine.

Do I need a compressor?

Most sleeve sealing machines do require air, some automatic and semi-automatic packaging machines also require air. It all depends on the machine. You tend to find smaller machines don't require air.