The Right Amount Of Pallet Wrap For The Application

Pallet wrap, stretch film, stretch wrap, pallet wrapping film no matter what you call it, it’s the plastic film applied to the outside of your pallet.

It’s designed to keep your goods secure and protected during transit and in storage. Remember when unitsing your product the "Chain of responsibility" legislation puts the onus on you to do it right.

With so many different stretch films on the market, FROMM wanted to shine a light on stretch film and provide you with some tips on selecting the right stretch wrap for your business.

Over-Stretching Your Pallet Wrap  

It is important to know the maximum stretch, tensile strength & tear strength of your stretch film in order to fully utilize the film's elasticity to your advantage. The process of stretching your film around your load increases the load integrity as the film tries to revert back to its original length, much like a rubber-band. However, over-stretching your film will compromise the latent elasticity, reducing your load stability.

Stretch film must be stretched to 'just under' its maximum stretch, creating the best possible security & reducing the amount of film required to secure your load.

Over Using Stretch Wrap

If a load moves while in transit or on the production line, it can cause significant delays and even injury. Too often we see companies simply apply a few additional layers of stretch film, believing they are increasing the load integrity - this is not the case. If not applied properly, with the optimal amount of stretch, applying extra stretch film is not only a waste of time and money, it can be risky.

It is the elastic aspect of stretch film that really unitises a load, pulling everything together as the film tries to return to its original length before being stretched. To eliminate the risk of a moving load and avoid needless film wastage, heavy loads should be wrapped with a stretch wrapping machine.

Poor Quality Stretch Film

One of the biggest costs to companies wrapping high volumes of product is poor quality film.

Firstly, you use more film when trying to compensate for a lower quality film. You are not saving any money using 40 meters of low-quality film to secure a load when you could be using 20 meters of high quality film to do the same job. You could be losing money on the added time needed to secure a load.

Secondly, you need to think in terms of 'applied meters' not simply the meters on the roll. The cheapest price per meter isn't always the cheapest price per applied meter. Higher quality stretch film will stretch further, even exceeding 200% stretch, meaning you are getting 3 meters of 'applied film' for every meter on the roll.

Lastly, low quality stretch film can be inconsistent from roll to roll. It is very common for film to snap or tear during application. Rolls of film could be tossed out regularly due to poor quality. If 1 in 5 rolls are deemed unusable, you could be throwing thousands of dollars in the bin.

Not all stretch film rolls were created equal

If you don't know what to look for, you could be getting ripped off. Here are some tips on selecting the right supplier.

• Check The Length – Have you ever actually checked that you are getting the length you're paying for? It is becoming increasingly common to supply less stretch film than is declared; you could be paying for 1000m and only receiving 800m, unless you check, you’ll never know.

• Core Weight – Common method of increasing roll weight. A roll of film on a cardboard core with a bigger diameter and greater weight will not normally have the same amount of film as a roll on a smaller, lighter core. Cardboard is cheaper than stretch film.

• Too Thick – Don't be fooled into thinking that you need super thick film to secure your heavy loads, thickness doesn’t create load security, elasticity does. If you are using a thinner film with greater elasticity with a high quality stretch wrapper, you'll achieve greater security whilst using less film. Win – win.

At FROMM Packaging we have built a reputation as the trusted packaging supplier in Australia and we go above and beyond to meet and exceed our customer needs. We take great pride in ensuring that we provide the right products and services to all our customers. 

The benefit of partnering with FROMM is that we offer a total packaging testing solution. We take the guess work out and provide you with detailed information and make recommendations to help improve your packaging performance during transit.