Industrial shrink wrap protects and groups products during shipment. The shrink wrap film is plastic and, when heated, it shrinks and conforms to the products' shapes to protect them from dirt, moisture, and damage in transport. Different types of shrink wrap film as well as different types of shrink wrap machines are available for the different needs of companies that use shrink wrap. Smaller, portable machines are used by artists to wrap their paintings for a professional look that protects the art. These shrink wrap machines start around $200. Larger, more expensive and electronic shrink wrap machines are used to seal items like letters, boxes, linens, and videogames, either individually or in bulk. These shrink wrap machines can cost up to $35,000, and can process hundreds of items an hour. The type of shrink wrap equipment needed depends on the size of the item to be shrink wrapped and how fast it needs to be wrapped. Some machines are designed to package items small like CDs; other machines package large boxes. Some machines can package a few items an hour, others hundreds. The larger, faster machines must often be permanently installed, whereas the smaller, slower, and cheaper shrink wrap machines can be easily moved. There are several types of shrink wrap sealers. Straight bar sealers seal items like CDs, DVDs, and videotapes. A separate heat gun shrinks the film. These can process only a few items per hour. L-Bar sealers seal and cut the film in one movement. Electricity, not heat, cut the plastic, so the machines do not produce smoke. They use Polyolefin film. Mail bagging systems can order and pack several boxes. Continuous band sealers seal packages continuously and are useful for containing easily spilled items. Sleeve wrappers can handle many package shapes. Vacuum sealers remove the air from a package before sealing it and passing it through a heat tunnel to shrink the film. The film can be shrunk with a small, hand-held heat gun, or a heat tunnel with a conveyor belt. |
