Heating and Shrinking Heat Shrink Tubing: How to Do It

You make heat shrink tubing shrink by heating it. First, you place the heat shrink tubing where you want it to be shrunk: for example, on a cable. Then you use a heat source, such as a heat gun, to gradually make the heat shrink tubing shrink. Move the heat source slowly and evenly along the length of the heat shrink tubing so that it shrinks uniformly.

There are several ways you can heat heat shrink tubing to make it shrink. The method we recommend is heating heat shrink tubing with a heat gun. With this you can set the temperature well and stably, and the heat is well concentrated. This gives you a lot of control and allows you to shrink the heat shrink tubing evenly by moving the heat gun along the heat shrink tubing.

Alternatives are using, for example, a hair dryer or a soldering iron. However, with these you can work less accurately, giving you less control and the heat shrink tubing may not shrink evenly.

Yes, that is possible. Provided the hair dryer reaches the temperature required to make the heat shrink tubing shrink, it is possible to shrink heat shrink tubing with a hair dryer. You can read more about the required temperature to properly shrink heat shrink tubing below.

The required temperature to make heat shrink tubing shrink differs per type of heat shrink tubing. The wall thickness is important in this regard, for example. With our heat shrink tubing, two shrink temperatures are displayed:

• Minimum shrink temperature (°C)
• Minimum full shrink temperature (°C)

The minimum shrink temperature indicates from what temperature the heat shrink tubing starts to shrink. The minimum full shrink temperature indicates what temperature is required to make the heat shrink tubing shrink completely.

With our H-2(Z) heat shrink tubing, for example, which is thin-walled and suitable for most general applications, the minimum shrink temperature is 70°C and the minimum full shrink temperature is 100°C. However, with our thick-walled HRTH heat shrink tubing, the minimum full shrink temperature is 120°C.