If you are storing your stretch films during the winter or in a place where the temperature is always cold, you will need to think about how you store your films and make some adjustments to the process.
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Extreme cold can cause your stretch films to become brittle or crack. This may result in stretch films becoming unusable or even producing a safety hazard in relation to unstable loads.
If you are storing you films in a warehouse or area exposed to extreme cold, you will want to move your films to a warmer area that will not produce brittle films.
Suppose you do not have a warm enough space to prevent the adverse effects of cold temperatures on your films. In that case, you will want to consider implementing climate controls such as heating systems to control the temperature of your stretch film storage area.
Today, countless consumers demand that companies producing their favorite products "go green." Many companies are trying to source sustainable packaging to meet customer needs.
Additionally, many businesses are trying to source recyclable packaging materials in an attempt to meet consumer's sustainability demands.
One question we often get from customers is, "can you recycle stretch film?"
And the short answer is yes! However, while stretch film is recyclable, you cannot just throw the used film into a single-stream recycling bin.
Most single-stream and municipal recycling centers do not have the proper infrastructure to recycle stretch films.
But, specialized third-party stretch film recycling companies have the required infrastructure to recycle these materials.
And, some of these stretch film recycling companies will actually pay you for larger volumes of properly baled and sorted LLDPE used and waste film.
If you want to learn more about recycling stretch film and getting paid to do it, please reach out to one of our packaging specialists.
They will be able to help you find out if you can recycle your used stretch film and if you qualify to make a profit from doing so.
Many companies choose to wrap their pallets manually with hand stretch film. And this is a totally acceptable way to wrap pallets.
But, with an ongoing labor shortage, finding good laborers to work in your warehouse is not always easy. And even if you find the labor you need, you could be saving a lot of money by switching to automated stretch wrapping.
With an automated stretch wrapper, you can partially or fully automate your stretch wrapping.
With automated stretch wrapping, you can reduce the number of laborers in your warehouse, increase production speeds, improve safety, reduce film waste and save some serious coin.
But is automated stretch wrapping right for your business?
Depending on the number of laborers you can replace in conjunction with the volume of products you are wrapping, automated stretch wrapping may be able to save you a ton of money.
But how do you know if automated stretch wrapping is proper for you?
If you want to know if an automated stretch wrapper makes sense for your product palletizing and securing requirements, you will want to speak with a packaging expert.
They will help you understand how much a stretch wrapper costs, whether buying or leasing is the right choice, and how much cost savings you can reap from automating your stretch wrapping.
It should go without saying that when you choose to automate your stretch wrapping, that safety comes first.
Stretch wrappers are a form of industrial equipment that, if operated wrong, can lead to safety hazards. As such, it is imperative to educate yourself about stretch wrapper safety before purchasing, installing, and using an automated stretch wrapper.
Safety concerns that should be studied before implementation include the following items:
In an effort to provide you with the proper safety advice for automated stretch wrapping, we have compiled this guide to stretch wrapper safety that covers each of the bullet points above.
While stretch film is an excellent packaging material for palletizing and securing your loads, it may or may not be the suitable material for your needs.
Depending on what you are attempting to palletize, other materials may be better suited to your requirements (such as strapping).
To ensure transparency about using stretch film, as we suggest here, we need to note the most common problems with stretch film.
Reviewing these items will help you decide if stretch film is the correct packaging material for your business or if you should be using an alternative material such as strapping.
The most common problems with stretch film include:
In order to help you negate all of these issues, we have put together a guide to understanding each of these items.
This guide will help you understand if you can avoid these problems when palletizing your products and will also clarify whether stretch film is the right material for your needs.
After reading this guide, you should have everything you need to identify the proper type of stretch film for your stretch wrapping needs. But, you are probably wondering, where can you buy stretch film?
When it comes to purchasing stretch films, you have a few different options to choose from. Below, we will review the places where you can buy stretch film.
Online retailers are one option for buying stretch films. You can purchase stretch film from online retailers such as Uline, Amazon, or Ali Baba.
Shopping around for stretch film on online retailer's websites such as these may allow you to find the lowest price possible.
For more information, please visit Pallet Stretch Film.
But, sellers on these sites often do not provide in-depth information on the materials, nor do they give access to packaging experts who can consult on whether or not you are purchasing the best film for your needs.
Your next option for buying stretch film would be brick-and-mortar retailers. You can purchase stretch film from department stores such as Home Depot, Lowes, and similar brick-and-mortar locations.
When buying from a store like this, you can physically and visually inspect the stretch film before you buy it.
And while these stores will have sales associates to help you in your buying process, they often do not have the expertise on stretch film to help you buy the proper material.
Your next option for purchasing stretch film is to buy direct from a stretch film manufacturer.
This is a popular choice for consumers as stretch film manufacturers are the premier experts on the brands of film that they manufacture.
Sales reps from stretch film manufacturers are some of the top thought leaders and experts on the stretch films that they sell.
The reps can answer any questions you may have about the films they offer and assist you in making a purchase.
With that being said, stretch film manufacturers only sell the brands of film that they make. As such, in many instances, they may try to sell you their brand of film regardless of whether or not it is the best film for your needs.
It is also essential to understand that not all stretch film manufacturing companies will sell directly to consumers. Some manufacturers only sell their films through packaging distributors.
Finally, we come to stretch film distributors. This is another popular option for many consumers when looking to buy stretch film for their company.
Stretch film distributors are brand agnostic. This means they source and sell multiple brands of stretch film under one roof.
Because stretch film distributors sell multiple brands of stretch film, their sales professionals will help you buy the correct film for your needs.
Stretch film distributors feature knowledgeable packaging experts who can review several brands of film with you to help identify the perfect film choice for your product, budget, and logistics requirements.
We should point out that Industrial packaging is a stretch film distributor. We offer some of the best brands of stretch film on the market today.
To understand how stretch wrapping works you first have to understand why we stretch wrap loads in the first place.
There are many reasons why we stretch wrap. One main reason is unitizing a load for shipment. Building one large package from many small packages makes it easier to transport, ship and protect individual products from damage. Preventing damage is key to getting loads from their point of origin to their destination in “as made” condition. Stretch wrapping allows us to achieve both goals (unitization for easy transportation and delivering goods without damage) in the most cost effective way.
Stretch wrapping loads keeps them from moving and shifting during transportation which is a major source of damage. There are certainly other ways for loads to be damaged during shipment, but stretch wrapping provides a measure of protection that increases the odds of “as made” condition arrival. In turn, that means lower returns, administration duties, credit due to receiver and rework costs – not to mention happier customers and colleagues.
In the ’s, stretch wrapping machines established themselves as the preferred packaging method for unitizing goods for shipment. Meaning that any company that deals with production, reselling, or warehousing of products probably has some familiarity with stretch wrapping.
To make the best decisions about stretch wrapping machines and film, however, it is useful to understand how the mechanics of stretch wrapping work.
Before the stretch wrapping process can begin a load must first be assembled on a pallet. Once the load is on the pallet, the whole ensemble (pallet and load) is stretch wrapped together.
Assembling the load on the pallet is an important step. Load placement on the pallet is key. The load should not overhang the sides of the pallet or be more than four inches inboard. The pallet itself also plays a role and should be in good condition.
It is important when stretch wrapping not to skip steps that secure the load the pallet. One options is to wrap all the way down to the bottom of the pallet. However, this runs the risk of film punctures from forklifts or pallet jacks when picking up the load. Such large punctures to the film can propagate up the load, causing a loss of containment force and increasing the risk for load failure.
Pallet Grip® is a great solution to lock the load to the pallet and avoid film punctures. The bottom few inches of the film web are automatically rolled into a tight cable at the end of the wrap cycle. The cable is driven down just below the top deck boards of the pallet. This strong cable locks the load to the pallet and leaves enough room to clear forks and avoid the puncture problem.
There are three ways to apply stretch wrap to a pallet of products: manual, semi-automatic stretch wrapper, or high speed automatic stretch wrapper.
Hand wrapping, as the name implies, relies on people to manually stretch wrap a load. A worker secures the film to the pallet and then walks the film around the load.
Pulling a heavy roll of film around a pallet is wrapping is physically demanding – especially if done right. Imagine the awful dizzy feeling in a hot warehouse. Hand wrapping generally has the highest material cost because there is no consistency of film usage and no substantial pre-stretch. It is also very difficult to wrap a safe-to-ship load consistently.
Semi-automatic stretch wrappers come in two different machine styles – turntable and straddle. The load is place on or in the stretch wrappers wrap zone and stretch film is applied. Turntable models will rotate the load on a turntable while straddle style models have a wrap arm that will move around the load and apply film.
High speed automated stretch wrappers are similar to semi-automatic styles in that a machine performs the actual stretch wrapping of a load. However, automatic stretch wrappers typically include infeed and exit conveyors to automatically cycle loads through the machine.
There are a number of features that can be added to semi-automatic machines that offer some increased automation. For instance, automatically cutting and clamping the film and a remote start lanyard allow fork truck operators to remain safely buckled in their seats on the trucks even while wrapping loads on a semi automatic machine.
For more help choosing the right level of automation and machine style check out our Stretch Wrapping Fundamentals pages. That’s actually the critical factor to consider – how many loads/day may not capture the surges which often occur late in the day as shipments are picked up. So loads/hour is an important factor.
No matter which type of stretch wrapper you use, containment force is the most important things to get right. Containment force can mean the difference between a load arriving at its destination intact and arriving damaged and unsaleable. So what is containment force?
Containment force is what holds the load together. Officially, it’s the wrap force times the number of film layers. Wrap force is simply a measure of how tightly each layer of film is wrapped around the load. Film layers are the number of wraps applied to a load at a specific point.
There is no magic formula to determine the right amount of containment force. It is done through trial and error. Wrap, test, change and repeat until you can safely say loads are arriving without damage. Using our over 45 years of experience we developed some Containment Force Guidelines. These are not hard and fast rules, but this chart will give you a good place to start.
Once you’ve found the right amount of containment force works and the stretch wrapper’s settings have been set, it is always a good idea to check periodically to ensure every load is being wrapped correctly. We recommend measuring the containment force once a shift for most operations. It is possible the machine was tampered with accidentally or to resolve other issues the machine may have been experiencing, for example repetitive film breaks after a film roll change.
This post was published on June 27, and updated on December 4, .
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