In order to be familiar with poly bags and/or drum liners, it is important to know some key words in the industry. Please use the following as a tool from IPS Packaging to help identify some of the packaging terminology behind poly bags and drum liners:
Can Liner
Term used for garbage, trash or waste bags. Used in industrial, institutional and medical applications. These bin liners tear off rolls for easy use in many applications such as bin liners, gaylord liners, pallet top covers, and dust covers
Can liners come in standard colors: clear, black, white, gray, red, blue and yellow. (Other colors available.)
Food and Utility Bags
Small clear bags designed to hold a variety of small objects (e.g., bread, poultry, vegetables, etc.), food bags are FDA approved, they make great ways for storing and keeping food fresh.
Film Strength
Refers to the physical strength of the can liner. Some resins have a higher film strength than others. Our can liners are made from highest quality resins, giving them the highest quality film in the market place.
Dart Drop Test
ASTM test used to determine the resistance of a bag to local failure or puncturing of the film.
Elmendorf Tear Test
ASTM test used to measure the resistance to tearing.
Wet Load Capacity
Measurement of how much wet weight a can liner will hold.
Dry Load Capacity
Measurement of how much dry weight a can liner will hold.
Term used to describe thickness. LDPE and LLDPE can liners are measured by mil thickness and HMW-HDPE can liners are measured by micron thickness.
(One thousandths of an inch) Term used in the measurement of LDPE and LLDPE can liners. One mil is .001”. Can liners range between .35 to 4.0 mil.
Term used in the measurement of HMW-HD can liners. 25.4 microns equals .001”. 1,000 microns (M) = 1mm. HMW-HDPE can liners are 6 to 24 microns.
Short term for Polyethylene (PE) resin. The three types of PE resins are LDPE, LLDPE and HMW-HDPE (see below). Other plastic resins include vinyl, polypropylene, styrene and nylon.
(Low Density Polyethylene) This resin was used with older can liner technology. Resin has good clarity but week film strength. Today it is used primarily for Food and Utility bags.
(Linear Low Density Polyethylene) This is the primary type of resin used in modern can liner manufacturing technology. Bags made from LLDPE film provide excellent combination of film strength, puncture resistance and tear resistance.
(High Molecular Weight – High Density Polyethylene) Bags made from HMW-HDPE resin provide excellent film strength and puncture resistance, but less tear resistance than LLDPE.
(Higher Alpha Olefin resin) A high-grade Hexene or Octene-based resin used in all Heritage LLD liners. The properties of this resin allow for a higher-quality can liner.
One of three types of LLDPE resin. Butene has weaker film-strength properties than Hexene or Octene.
One of three types of LLDPE resin. Heritage uses Higher Alpha Olefin (High Grade Hexene) in the manufacturing of can liners. Properties include high film strength and increased tear resistance.
One of three types of LLDPE resin. Heritage uses Higher Alpha Olefin (High Grade Octene) in the manufacturing of can liners. Used in other applications because of its excellent physical properties.
Prime Resin
Refers to the usage of high-quality, “fresh from the reactor,” resin. We use only the prime resins in all of the products we produce, unless specified otherwise.
Blended Resin
Refers to the combination of two or more types of resin.
Reprocessed Resin
Refers to resin that has been used at least once before. Can be post-industrial (scrap) or post-consumer (recycling). Property of resin is decreased each time it is reused.
Term used to describe bottom of a can liner. The three types of seals are flat, gusseted and star.
Flat Seal
Straight seal along bottom of a can liner (looks like a pillow case). Though Flat Seals are strong, they may have a tendency to leak wet trash from the corners.
Gusset Seals
A flat-style bag manufactured with both sides tucked in to form gussets. Has a tendency to leak wet trash from the center at gusset points where four layers of film meet two.
Star Seal
This multilayered seal is full gusseted and then folded prior to sealing, allowing for the trash to be evenly distributed.
Top-Side Dispenser Box An innovative style of box that allows stacking in small spaces. It is just as easy to pull a can liner from the side as it is the top.
Individually Folded
Can liners are separately folded, then stacked on top of one another. This allows the end-user to pull liners out of the box with much more ease vs. bulk-folded bags.
Cored Rolls
Can liners are rolled together on cardboard cylinders (looks similar to a roll of paper towels). Can liners come inside a special box that dispenses them with ease.
Coreless Rolls
Can liners are rolled in groups of 25 or 50 per roll. There are 4 to 10 rolls per case. Rolls are perforated or interleaved.
[message_box type="note" icon="yes"IPS Packaging is a leading provider of packaging supplies, packaging equipment and packaging solutions. If you would like to know more about IPS Packaging, call 800.277.7007 or contact our Sales team.
