You see HDPE or LDPE seamless polyethylene layflat tubing all of the time in Sydney and probably never notice it. If you get home delivery of your local newspaper, more likely than not that plastic sleeve that your paper comes in was once layflat tubing. That plastic envelope filled with prepared food that you are putting into the microwave was once layflat tubing. Having a wide range of applications, layflat tubing can be use to mass produce bags of specific sizes or to be custom sealed after enclosing the product by heat sealing the two open ends.
With a wide selection of stock material to select from in Sydney (some manufactures offer layflat tubing in widths ranging from 1″ to 78″ and thicknesses ranging from 1 mil to 10 mil) sometimes the most difficult question to answer is what size is best for a given application. Some ways to calculate are:
- To determine what layflat tubing width is needed to cover a round item multiply the diameter of the item x 3.1416 x .5 = layflat width
- To determine what diameter can be covered with a given layflat width multiply the layflat width x .6386 = diameter
With layflat tubing being made using a “blown” process that uses air to create the inner cavity of the tubing, one can be assured that the finished tubing will be pinhole free which lends to its use for containing products with fluids associated with it (like sauces that come with certain prepared foods). Widely used by institutional food packaging companies in Sydney, the contents are often put into these USDA approved packages and heat seal clipped at both ends with the contents being “cooked-chilled” for later use.
