May. 26, 2025
Machinery
L-sealers are used every day in manufacturing facilities all over the world to help secure and protect products of all shapes and sizes. Manual and automatic L-sealers are available in various configurations ranging in size and sealing ability. Manufacturers need to choose an L-sealer that will work well with the products they produce, not only in the size of the sealer, but the function of operation and packages per minute they can seal.
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An L-sealer is a piece of packaging equipment designed to enclose a product with shrink film. Commonly, an L-sealer consists of an adjustable product tray where the product is placed and the top layer of center folded film covers the product. Next, the product is moved to the sealing area with a seal head and takeaway conveyor. The seal head is shaped like the letter “L” and uses heat to seal the film together, creating a loose bag around the product being sealed.
Manual and automatic L-sealers are used to wrap products and can be paired with a shrink tunnel to shrink the film around the product. Often, the L-sealer is a separate piece of equipment from the tunnel; however, combo unit L-sealers combine an L-sealer with a shrink tunnel on a common frame for a convenient all-in-one sealing solution, such as Eastey’s VS Value Series Combo Unit.
Manual L-sealers have a simple set up and are easy to operate. The product is first placed on the product tray. The product tray separates the center folded film, allowing the product to be placed between the upper and lower layers of film. Next, the product is transferred to the seal area where the “L” shaped seal bar is pulled down by an operator, and magnetic sealing clamps hold the heated seal bar in place for a length of time based on the user’s dwell time settings. The dwell time is the time required to make the seal, which is adjustable from one to five seconds.
When the seal is complete, the seal head will automatically release, and the next product can be placed in the seal area. Our Eastey L-Sealers are equipped with either the hot wire or hot knife seal head to provide a positive sealing a wide variety of films including polyolefin, polyethylene, and PVC.
After the product is sealed, the takeaway conveyor transfers the product to a shrink tunnel where the film is shrunk. In some cases, users prefer their product to be wrapped in a loose bag, and a shrink tunnel is not needed. For example, if you have ever used a blanket on an airplane, there is a strong chance that it was sealed in a bag by an L-sealer to provide a loosely wrapped enclosed bag.
Automation is becoming more common in the world of manufacturing due to higher production rates and increased productivity. For manufacturers with high product volumes, automatic L-sealers help to automate the sealing process, leading to increased productivity and efficiency. To operate an automatic L-sealer, the product is placed on a running conveyor and is fed through the upper and lower layers of film. Once completely fed through, the seal bar is automatically lowered, and a clean seal is made.
After the product is sealed, it can then be moved along the conveyor to a shrink tunnel. Examples of automatic L-sealers are Eastey’s VSA and VSA, both designed specifically for intermediate applications that require simple operation, small footprint, or a limited budget and yet will handle the day to day abuse required for automatic sealing. For large industrial products, Eastey offers Professional Series Automatic L-Sealers for automated sealing efficiency.
Related links:If you want to learn more, please visit our website automatic vertical L-Bar sealing machine.
Do you still have questions about which L-sealer might be right for your production line? Our team of experienced packaging professionals is here to answer your questions.
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A: Center folded film is folded in half before it is wound on the roll, flat film is not. Most machines such as L-bar sealers and side seal machines can use either form but a center folder device is needed to fold flat film before it goes into the wrapper. Lap seal wrappers use only flat film which is wrapped around the former or plow to form the wrapping tube. The advantage of using flat film on any wrapper style is that the roll length is double that of folded film which reduces the number of times production has to be stopped to load a new roll of film.
A: We understand that our film formulas are conservative (they do include scrap). The reason we estimate film width on the high side is that our years of experience tell us that doing a minimalist estimation based on ideal product dimensions from a chart are not real world and, while it gives a prospective customer a theoretical lower film usage projection, those results are often not achievable in actual production.
Customers' products are often not perfectly square as they bulge slightly and vary in size slightly due to small inconsistencies or variations in the forming/packing equipment. Other real world issues can include the need to make the film bags larger than the theoretical smallest size in order to give different films the time and space to shrink completely to eliminate wrinkles or dog ears.
Rarely is it the case where a smaller bag results in a more acceptable package appearance. Slightly wider film size also allows the user to eliminate sealing issues in real production, at real production rates, by increasing the bag size slightly to eliminate film tension at the points where the seals are made which is the cause of most poor or weak seals.
Very frequently new users find that, as their operators become more familiar with the equipment, they find small ways over time to hone the film usage and run with narrower widths. For all of the above reasons, we find that our customers are happier and have smoother startups if they approach their film selection in this way.
For more information, please visit Automatic Shrink Wrapping Machine Manufacturers.
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