If you want to seal a regular plastic pouch with your home iron, then yes it is possible. However, if you want to seal a standup pouch, I’m afraid it will not be so easy. These pouches are sealed with an industry grade pouch heat sealer in big factories.
Standup bags are generally sealed with specially manufactured sealing machines. They come in different sizes and strengths. Heat sealing is a process that is followed with most custom printed or plain pouches, and is actually the last step in the packaging of a product in a pouch.
There are two types of plastics that are used to manufacture standup pouches – thermosetting plastic and thermo plastic. Generally, barrier bags that are made from thermo plastic can be resealed. However, the results are not very neat or satisfactory. Pouches that are made from thermosetting plastic are permanent and cannot be sealed with an iron.
If you do want to heat seal a pouch with a home iron, you might be able to do it, although we will not recommend it. It is not a safe thing to do and might lead to a fire.
After asserting that standup pouches cannot, or at least should not, be heat sealed with an iron at home, let’s ponder on why someone would want to seal them. The only logical reason can be to keep the contents safe once the pouch has been opened.
Keeping this in mind, it is a good idea for manufacturers to add zippers to the pouch. Zippers come in different types. There are single and double sealing zippers, depending upon the requirements of your product. If you are a manufacturer, it is a good idea to include zippers in pouches so that your customers don’t have to resort to heat sealing.
Installing a zipper in a pouch does not really increase its cost a lot. It just makes storing your product a bit easier. Customers mostly prefer pouches that are easy to store, which means more sales for businesses that do use zippers. In effect, the extra few cents that you would put in for a zipper would result in more sales.
Coming back to the original question, do NOT use an iron to seal your pouch. Instead, buy products that are stored in pouches with zippers. This way you can seal them again after using them once. It’s an easier and safer way to keep your crunchy munchies safe from moisture!
