Cigarette film and heat seal film are not two parallel products. Heat seal film is defined by one capability, whether the surface can seal; cigarette film is defined by use, standard and market access, and most cigarette film is itself a double-sided heat seal film. Both are three-layer co-extruded BOPP at 18–25 μm, so the eye cannot separate them, yet cigarette film holds ±1.0 μm thickness tolerance, ≥2400 MPa modulus and ≥7.0% shrinkage, and trades about 50% higher per tonne.
Two labels, not two products
Cigarette film is the three-layer co-extruded BOPP shrink film wrapped around cigarette packs and cartons. It has to meet thickness tolerance, stiffness, shrinkage, friction, abrasion resistance and seal strength at the same time, and it has to pass access into the tobacco supply system.
Heat seal film only answers whether the surface can seal, on one side or both, and it serves food, household goods, pharma and gift boxes alike.
Put simply, heat seal film answers “can this layer seal”; cigarette film answers “will this roll survive a cigarette packer”.
Where the specifications separate
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Indicator
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Cigarette film (shrink type)
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Standard double-sided heat seal film
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Typical thickness
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18–22 μm
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18–25 μm
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Thickness tolerance
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±1.0 μm, TD spread ≤1.0 μm
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GB/T 10003, wider
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MD modulus
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≥2400 MPa
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no equivalent requirement
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Shrinkage
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≥7.0% at 120°C/5min, both directions
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usually not required
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COF, outer/outer
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≤0.14, inner differentiated
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slip only
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Haze / gloss
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≤1.3% / ≥90%
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wider than cigarette grade
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Seal strength
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≥2.5 N/15mm
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by agreement
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Standard
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T/GDEIA 14-2019, YC/T 266
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GB/T 10003
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Where the extra 50% comes from
Resin. A high pack rate needs a wider sealing window. Below 400 packs per minute a random bipolymer can hold, above that the trade moves to terpolymer or low-temperature blends, and this grade has long depended on imports.
Equipment. Cigarette lines are mostly imported, capex is heavy, and the cost only thins out on stable volume. Cigarette brands multiply while grades stay narrow, so small batches and many specs keep customisation cost high.
Testing. Thickness is measured to 0.1 μm, sampling follows GB/T 2828.1, every item except water vapour transmission is tested, type testing runs every six months, and one batch caps at 200 tonnes.
Access. Public sourcing usually requires a tobacco monopoly production licence, the seller must be the manufacturer or an authorised agent, and samples go through testing before entering the tender list. Some projects also ask for daily capacity above 3 tonnes.
Downtime risk. A roll that costs a few hundred RMB less is irrelevant once a line stops for an hour. What a cigarette buyer purchases is “this batch behaves like the last one”.
How to tell a real cigarette film
Ignore the label and ask seven questions: which standard applies; what the thickness tolerance and TD spread are; whether MD modulus reaches 2400 MPa; what shrinkage runs in each direction and whether post-shrinkage data exists; what inner and outer COF are at high temperature; what the seal window is and whether strength reaches 2.5 N/15mm; and how a 76.2 mm core, splices per roll, end-face evenness and batch consistency are verified.
What the gap looks like in money
On 9 November 2026, East China BOPP single-side heat seal film quoted RMB 12,800 per tonne. In a November 2025 tender for 18 μm BOPP shrink film, the first candidate quoted RMB 19.68 per kilogram, about RMB 19,680 per tonne, roughly 50% higher.
But “for cigarettes” is not a price argument by itself. Awards for cigarette packing shrink film in the 2026–2028 tender landed at RMB 9,870–10,600 per tonne, while the 2025 Bijie cold shrink film tender capped bids at RMB 12,363.20 per tonne including tax. Film type, thickness and order size decide more than the label does.
When heat seal film is enough
Manual wrapping, gift box wrapping, tea and cosmetics three-dimensional packing, and low-speed machines running tens of packs a minute all work on standard double-sided heat seal film.
Above 400 packs per minute the substitution fails: tolerance, stiffness and shrinkage sit outside the same window, and the result shows up as weak seals or jams on the packer.
Browse our [BOPP matte film] and [OPP composite film for garment packaging]. For the base material, see [biaxially oriented polypropylene]
