Three Side Seal Bags.

Two sheets of film are laid face to face and heat sealed along three edges, leaving one open for filling. Some runs use a single sheet folded at the bottom, which gives a fold instead of a fourth seal. Either way there is no gusset, so the bag lies flat and the blank uses the least film of any construction.

That is why this format is the cheapest in the range and why it ships and stores flattest.

Pick the flat pouch when shelf presence does not matter and cost does. Sachets, samples, portion packs and wipes are opened once and thrown away, so a standing base would be paid for and never used. The three side seal also gives one uninterrupted printing face with nothing breaking the surface.

The limit is volume: a flat bag holds little per face, so anything bulky moves to a gusseted format.

A tear notch is standard and a zipper is optional, though most runs are heat seal only. Single-use sachets do not need reclosure. Where the bag is opened by hand without scissors, we recommend an easy-peel sealant so the seal separates cleanly rather than tearing raggedly.

A hang hole, punched or die-cut and reinforced where the fill has weight, is available for peg retail.

Gloss lamination is the most common choice, because saturated colour has to work hardest on a small face. Matte lamination is used on beauty and supplement samples where the pack should read as premium. Clear unprinted film is the cheapest route and lets the contents do the work, and spot print puts only the logo and the mandatory copy on otherwise clear film.

A kraft outer gives natural paper positioning for trial packs.

3 by 5 inches, 4 by 6 inches and 6 by 9 inches cover most sachet and sample work. Measurement is width by length, with no gusset figure to add. Very small formats are possible on this construction, well below the smallest stand-up bag.

The film structure is chosen separately: BOPP / VMPET / LLDPE as the standard barrier, PET / AL / PE foil where long shelf life is required, and clear PET / LLDPE where the contents should be visible.

We start at 500 bags for a printed three side seal pouch. Because this construction uses so little film and so few machine steps, the price per unit is already the lowest in the flexible range at that quantity, and the tiers above 1,000 bring it lower again.

Roll stock is also available for form-fill-seal lines at higher volumes, quoted separately.

Three side seal bags run in 7 to 10 business days as standard, and rushed jobs are done in 5 to 7 business days. Samples come through in 5 to 7 business days and the fee comes off the production order.

We would test the seal and the tear on a sample before signing off, especially if you are running the bags through your own filling machine.

They ship better than most formats, because flat bags pack densely with no gusset air to crush. A full case of sachets stacks like a deck of cards and the sealed edges take handling well. The risk points are the corners, which can pierce a neighbour if the film is thin and the fill is sharp-edged.

For that reason we gauge the film to the fill, and a foil laminate adds stiffness as well as barrier.