How Are Reclosable or Seal Top Bags Made?

What Is a Reclosable or Seal Top Bag?

A reclosable bag is a thrifty little reusable, sealable and resealable baggie that comes in many sizes and dimensions, and can be used for many different things. You can use reclosable bags to freeze meat or vegetables, keep track of extra buttons, carry loose change, organize scrapbooking supplies, art supplies, beads, store snacks, to bread meat or vegetables for frying or even to keep a child’s small toys together. All in all, the uses of seal top bags can be as endless as your imagination. You can use them to protect anything you want to keep clean and dry.

Seal top bags are offered by many different brands from the Hefty brand to the more commonly known brand name, and many different store brands. Being a staple of any household, you can find reclosable bags at most any convenient store.

Who Invented Reclosable Bags?

Patented in May 1954 by Robert W. Vergobbi, seal top bags have undergone many design alterations to become what they are today. The Dow Chemical Co. began manufacturing bags in 1968, but today the common brand name is marketed by S.C. Johnson & Co.

How Are Reclosable Bags Made?

Polyethylene plastic is melted down to a point in which it is pliable. It is then poured into a very thin mold that is in the shape and size of the bag being made. The closures on the bags are formed in separate molds out of stronger, thicker plastic. The closure tracks are then transfixed to the lips of the baggies. The most common brand bags are made a little differently. The common brand bags offer a zipper closure bag as well; these zipper bags have a plastic slider zipper used to push the lips of the bag closed and to fasten them shut.

How Does the Zipper Closure Work?

The tracks on each lip of the bag, connect together like puzzle pieces. There is male and a female track. The male track locks into the female track fastening closed and requiring quite a tug to be opened again. The closure is durable enough that you can hold the bag upside down and the contents will not spill out onto the floor.

The Uses of Seal Top Bags

Already seal top bags are being used for everything. Bakery companies offer them to customers so that they may reclose a bag of cookies. Seal top baggies are being used for chip bags, bags of grapes, salad mixes; hundreds of other manufacturers are investing in reclosable bags to make their own products fresher and more efficient.

The Seal Top Bag For You

Reclosable bags are rather inexpensive and can be purchased at most grocery and convenience stores. You can find the size that best fit your needs, and you can shop around to discover the bag you find most durable.