Shortlisting a tray sealer is harder than it should be, and not because the machines are complicated. It is because the industry publishes so little. You can compare two cars on a dozen numbers before you ever visit a showroom. Try that with tray sealing equipment and you will spend an afternoon collecting brochures that end in “contact us for details”.
What follows is a comparison of what three vendors — Proseal, Ilpra and Hefestus — actually put in public, checked on 30 August 2026. It is not a claim that one machine beats another. It is a map of what you can and cannot know before you pick up the phone, and the questions that close the gaps.
What each vendor publishes
This is the honest starting point, because a specification you cannot see is a specification you cannot compare.
| Published specification | Proseal | Ilpra | Hefestus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Named models | Yes, 20+ | No model names | Yes: Apollo, Athena, Hera, Hera-S, Hera-X |
| Throughput per model | Yes | No | Yes |
| Machine dimensions | Yes | No | Yes |
| Machine weight | No | No | Yes |
| Power requirements | No | No | Yes |
| Tray sizes | No | No | Yes |
| MAP capability | Stated for the range | Stated for the range | Stated per machine class |
Proseal is the most forthcoming on the numbers buyers ask for first. Its published range runs from roughly 6 packs per minute on a manual bench unit up to about 240 packs per minute on twin-lane and conveyor configurations, with height, length and width printed for nearly every model. If you are laying out a line on paper, that is genuinely useful.
Ilpra takes the opposite approach. Its tray sealer range is presented as five categories — semi-automatic, automatic, in-line, bucket line and paper shape — with no model names, no throughput figures and no dimensions. The company directs buyers to contact it for tailored advice. That is a legitimate way to sell configurable machinery. It also means you cannot shortlist Ilpra on paper. You can only shortlist a conversation.
How to read a throughput claim
Packs per minute is the number everyone leads with and the number most likely to mislead you, because it is a ceiling measured under favourable conditions. Before a speed figure means anything, you need three things it rarely arrives with.
- The tray size it was measured on. A machine rated at its top speed on a small single-compartment tray will not hold that rate on a large or multi-compartment one.
- Whether the cycle included gas flush. Sealing only is faster than sealing with modified atmosphere. Some vendors publish both — Proseal lists its TT-G at up to 6 packs per minute seal-only and 4 with gas flush, which is an unusually candid way to put it.
- Whether your infeed can sustain it. A sealer rated well above what your filling or loading step delivers is capacity you have bought and cannot use.
Hefestus tray sealing throughput depends on tray size, product, sealing format and machine configuration. Read any vendor's headline rate the same sceptical way you should read anyone else's: as a range across a machine class, to be pinned down against your tray and your cycle.
The specification almost nobody publishes
Of everything in the table above, the row that stands out is power. Neither Proseal nor Ilpra publishes electrical requirements for their tray sealers. Very few vendors in this category do.
That matters more than it looks. Electrical load determines whether a machine drops into your existing panel or whether you are also commissioning an electrician, a new circuit and possibly a supply upgrade. It is a cost that lands outside the machine quotation and tends to surprise people late, when the equipment is already on order.
For reference, the Hefestus Apollo runs on 220V, 25A, 2.0 kW, seals up to 40 trays a minute and holds a maximum 1% oxygen in the container. It measures 1,672 × 1,586 × 1,600 mm at 420 kg, and takes a single tray up to 315 × 260 mm. Hera is 2,115 × 1,080 × 1,490 mm at 360 kg, runs up to 7 cycles a minute across up to three sealing heads on a 710 mm film, and draws 3.5 kW. Athena is 1,170 × 1,145 × 1,510 mm, 280 kg in MAP form at 3.0 kW and 386 kg in vacuum form at 6.5 kW.
Those numbers are published not because they flatter us — several are simply facts about heavy machinery — but because a buyer planning an install needs them before a sales conversation rather than during one. Ask every vendor on your shortlist for the same figures in writing.
Where each one genuinely fits
When Proseal is the right call
If you need a specific published throughput at the high end, want to choose from a wide model ladder, or are designing a line where twin-lane or conveyor configurations matter, Proseal has the broadest public catalogue of the three and the deepest documented range. If your requirement is 200 or more packs per minute, Proseal belongs on the shortlist and we do not.
When Ilpra is the right call
Ilpra spans tray sealing, filling and skin packaging, and sells a consultative, configured-to-brief process. If your product is unusual enough that a catalogue model was never going to fit it, that approach has real merit: you are buying engineering attention rather than a listed machine.
Where Hefestus fits, and where we are new
Hefestus Technologies has built packaging automation since 1993 — thirty years of experience in MAP sealing. The tray range is Apollo, Athena and Hera, with tray footprints, film widths, cycle rates, weights and electrical load published for every one of them.
The honest qualifier: our food line's presence in the United States is new. We operate a US office in Las Vegas, but we are not going to point you at a long list of American food manufacturers running our tray sealers, because that list is still short. If a deep domestic reference list is what makes you comfortable, one of the established German or British brands will satisfy that better than we will today.
What we offer instead is the thing this page has been about. We publish the specifications, including the ones the category tends to hide, and you deal with the people who build the machines rather than a layer of distribution.
The questions that close the gaps
Whoever you shortlist, these are the questions that turn a brochure into a comparison. Ask them in writing.
- What is the throughput at my tray size, with gas flush, sustained across a full shift?
- What is the electrical requirement — voltage, phase, kW — and the compressed air demand?
- What is the changeover time between my tray formats, and what tooling does each format require?
- What is the seal integrity rate, and how was it measured?
- What is the lead time from order to commissioned, and who commissions it?
- Where is the nearest engineer, and what is the response time on a line-down call?
A vendor who answers all six plainly is telling you something useful about how they will behave after the invoice clears.
Frequently asked questions
Why can’t I find power requirements for most tray sealers?
Most vendors publish throughput and footprint but not electrical load, because it varies by configuration and they would rather discuss it during a quote. Ask early: it determines whether your existing panel can carry the machine, or whether you are also buying electrical work.
What does ‘packs per minute’ actually mean on a spec sheet?
It is a ceiling, not an average. It usually assumes one tray size, a seal-only cycle with no gas flush, continuous infeed and no changeover. Gas flushing lowers it. Ask what tray size and cycle the figure was measured on.
Which tray sealer is fastest?
Among published figures, Proseal’s range runs from about 6 packs per minute on the manual T2 to about 240 on twin-lane GT6eX and AP60 configurations. Hefestus does not publish a single throughput range for the tray class; it depends on tray size, product, sealing format and machine configuration. Ilpra does not publish per-model throughput. Fastest is rarely the right question; sustainable throughput at your tray size and cycle is.
Do I need modified atmosphere packaging?
If you are extending chilled shelf life, usually yes. MAP costs cycle time and gas, so confirm that a quoted speed is a gas-flush figure and not a seal-only one.
What is vacuum skin packaging, and do I need it?
Vacuum skin packaging draws film tightly around the product on a board or tray, used for premium meat, fish and ready meals. It is a different machine class from tray sealing, not a setting on one. Hefestus publishes no vacuum skin machine; Athena seals trays under vacuum, which is a different pack. Ask us before you specify around it.
Is Hefestus established in the United States?
Hefestus Technologies has built packaging automation since 1993 and operates a US office in Las Vegas. The food line’s US install base is new, which is why this page compares published specifications rather than pointing at American reference sites we do not yet have.