Heat sealing cuben…

[Gary Boyd]

I have access to a heat sealing unit, does anyone have a clue whether this would work to join cuben laminate together, or is this a question for the guys that make it?

[Steven Evans]

Hey Gary,
I have a thermal impulse sealer and have tried it on the 0.60 and 0.33 cuben. I found that even when you dial the temperature in just right, the seam is not very strong at all. It rips apart very easily. This is with a small, non-industrial, 18" sealer so maybe you have access to something that would be better suited to the application…my guess is that bonding it is the way to go. That said, there's no harm in trying. Let us know how it works out for you if you give it a go.
Steve

[Gary Boyd]

Steve,

Thanks for the reply, I should have to get the specs on the ones we have at work, they are not heavy industrial sealers, I guess it depends largely on what mils the sealer is designed for as to how well the seal will turn out. Do you know what mil your sealer is capable of. I suspect ours is capable of sealing an 8 to 10 mil polyethylene bag, and it does that very well, now I'm wondering what mil the cuben fiber polyethylene laminate is. I will definitely keep you posted.

[Steven Evans]

Gary, I really don't know the specs of the sealer and I don't have it handy to take a look at it. I bought it to package some parts, but upgraded to a different machine shortly afterwards. When used on plastic bags/sheets, it works great. The seal is dead strong and the material will fail before the seal, but that's not the case when I tried it on Cuben. I don't know enough about the process to give any type of educated guess as to why…all I know is that the Cuben is MUCH thinner then the plastics we seal…wish I had some pictures handy. I thought I took some.

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