How to Shrink Wrap at Home
When preparing items for shipment, protecting them against damage or loss is important. Some sellers choose to seal items in shrink wrap to keep them safe from moisture and also to ensure that important paperwork or pieces don't get separated from the rest of the shipment. Shrink-wrapping can also be important to let customers know that their packages haven't been opened. Once a product is ready for shipment it can be sealed in its box or other packaging with shrink wrap to prevent it from being opened by anyone other than the buyer.
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Things You'll Need
- Shrink wrap material
- Item to be shrink-wrapped
- Shrink wrap sealer
- Heat gun or hair dryer with a high-heat setting
Instructions
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Lay a piece of shrink wrap plastic on a flat surface. Place the item you want to shrink wrap in the center of the piece.
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Fold the shrink wrap over your item so the shrink wrap material covers it completely. The shrink wrap piece used should be large enough that the folded-over portion lies on top of the material still on the table. If it does not, replace it with a larger piece of shrink wrap material.
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3
Place the overlapped edges of the shrink wrap into a shrink wrap sealer, starting with the edge opposite the fold. Seal the three open edges and cut them off beyond the seal so that the item is completely contained inside the shrink wrap. When sealing the edges, do so as close to the item as possible without the shrink wrap material being tight against its surface.
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4
Turn on a hair dryer or heat gun and begin blowing hot air across the shrink wrap material. Keep the blower end of the hair dryer or heat gun moving so that the heat isn't focused on any specific portion of the shrink wrap material for too long; your goal should be to let the shrink wrap material shrink uniformly to avoid tears or other problems that can occur when only one portion of the wrap shrinks at a time.
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Move the item as needed to finish shrink wrapping it, ensuring that you turn it over to apply heat to the shrink wrap material on the bottom of the item as well.
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Tips & Warnings
Round or otherwise oddly shaped items can be shrink-wrapped by pulling the shrink wrap material up around the item and tying or sealing it above the item. Apply heat to the bottom portion of the package to create a tight wrap.
Shrink wrap machines can be used to automate the shrink-wrapping process. A number of machines simply require your item to be placed onto the shrink wrap that is loaded into the machine; the machine seals the wrapping and provides even heat to shrink it.
Shrink wrap bags can be purchased instead of sheets of shrink wrap film. Place an item into the bag and seal the open end, then shrink wrap the bag as you would any other shrink wrap material.
Use caution when applying heat to shrink wrap as heat guns and other heating components can cause burns. Concentrated heat placed on one area of the shrink wrap or allowing the wrap to come in contact with the blower of the heat gun or hair dryer itself can also run the risk of igniting the shrink wrap and causing a fire.
References
Resources
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