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Heat Sealer Basics

Here at Boatman Marking, we offer a wide array of heat sealers for your sealing needs. On our website you will find automatic heat sealers and foot sealers for larger jobs and high volume sealing needs, as well as hand held sealers for small, low volume sealing. Although there are many different bag sealers to choose from, there are some general basics that you should know about which apply to most, if not all, heat sealers.

Most heat sealers come in a variety of lengths and seal widths. These are both very important in determining what size and thickness of bag you are able to seal with your particular heat sealer. Common lengths of heat sealers are 4in, 8in, and 12in, but some sealers can come in lengths up to 24in. Although your bag sealer may have a specific length, we recommend that you use bags 2in shorter than your sealer. This will give a 1in space on each side allowing for a strong, uniform seal.

The width of the sealing element of your heat sealer determines the thickness of the bag you can seal. The most popular widths are 2mm and 5mm. 2mm seals can seal bags up to 6mil of thickness and 5mm seals can seal bags up to 8mil.

Some models of heat sealers are called double sealers. This simply means that there are two sealing elements on the sealer, one on the top and one on the bottom. Double sealers are able to seal much thicker bags than single sealers. For instance, a 5mm width single sealer can seal a bag of 8mil thickness, while a 5mm width double sealer can seal a bag up to 20mil. Double sealers can also be used as single sealers by turning off one of the sealing elements.

We hope that these facts and tips will help you to better choose and use the right type of heat sealer for you.
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