Gamma Heat Shrink Product Numbers Breakdown: What Do Those Numbers Mean?
Heat Shrink comes in so many variations that it can be easy to purchase the wrong heat shrink product by mistake, and if you’re purchasing a good amount of heat shrink the problem is compounded. For this very reason our team at Gamma has worked to make sure our heat shrink product numbers make clear exactly what heat shrink you are purchasing.
Granted, it may not seem the most enthralling topic but even getting a simple overview of our heat shrink product numbers and you’ll be able to easily navigate between products and feel confident you are purchasing the heat shrink you need.
Gamma Heat Shrink product numbers can be broken into 6 parts, as show below.
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In case you can’t see the graphic above, the 6 parts, or segments of the part number are:
- Gamma Tubing
- Shrink Ratio
- Unique Properties
- Heat Shrink Size
- Heat Shrink Color
- Length
We’re going to breakdown each of these segments below, but just be aware that it’s common to talk about different heat shrink models/part numbers by identifying them only by the first 2-3 segments of the part number, (since the last few numbers are pretty interchangeable depending on what size, color and length heat shrink you need).
1. Gamma Tubing
This one is seemingly simple in that it simply identifies that we, Gamma Electronics are the manufacturer of the Heat Shrink product. This segment of the part number can change from time to time however as we sometimes swap it to make some of our specialty heat shrinks more quickly identifiable.
Some specialty heat shrinks where those GMT letters get swapped out are:
- GDR (Gamma Diesel Resistant)
- VIT (Viton 200)
- NP (Neoprene)
- KYN (Kynard)
- MWHG (Medium Wall Heavy Glue)
2. Shrink Ratio
Again, this is pretty straightforward but most of our heat shrink products tend to have the shrink ratio built into the product number. We offer heat shrink at four different shrink ratios:
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There are some exceptions to this rule but they tend to be with our more specialized heat shrinks, for which we encourage you to look at the product page/data sheet to verify the shrink ratio.
3. Unique Properties
Unique properties are those additional attributes that separate some heat shrink products from others. For example, we manufacture a number of 3:1 heat shrink products and four of them start with the same GMT-321 part number. It’s only when looking at their unique property that you can see where those heat shrink products differ:
- GMT-321AL (Adhesive Lined)
- GMT-321ALHW (Adhesive Lined, Heavy Wall)
- GMT-321ALSR (Adhesive Lined, Semi-Rigid)
- GMT-321-FLT (Flat)
We offer a number of Adhesive Lined Heat Shrinks and it is probably the unique property you’ll see pop up the most often. However, we offer a number of Specialty Heat Shrinks and you’ll want to check the product page/data sheet to make sure you fully understand what these letters mean.
Full disclosure: there are times where these abbreviations get moved around in the part number. Specialty heat shrinks are a good example as we often times move these unique properties to the front end of the product number to help make it clear that these are specialty heat shrinks, (examples below):
4. Heat Shrink Size
Every heat shrink product is available in various sizes and this portion of the product number is intended to make that sizing information as clear as possible. As an example, below are the different sizes (left column) and part numbers for our GMT-321AL Heat Shrink (right column):
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Please note that the sizes shown in the table above are specific to GMT-321AL heat shrink. Sizes will vary with different heat shrink products.
5. Color
Just like heat shrink sizes not all colors are available for Gamma’s various heat shrink products and you’ll need to check to see what we have in stock. We have 11 different options we use in our part numbers that directly correspond to a different color heat shrink:
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6. Length
At times we add on “SP” or “4FT” to some heat shrink products to indicate if the part being purchased is being purchased as an entire spool (SP) or as a 4 foot (4FT) piece. Not all of Gamma’s heat shrink products come in different length options so you won’t always see this added onto the part number. When different length options are available it is almost always as a Spool (SP) or a 4 foot piece (4FT).
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Conclusion
There are always exceptions to the rule but for the most part Gamma Heat Shrink tends to follow the format shown above. We know that oftentimes customers need to order large quantities of heat shrink and confusing part numbers can make that process difficult. Our hope is that this post provides clarity and can be a helpful guide for those researching our heat shrink products.
