How to Set to Ensure Safer Pallet Packaging

Whether your products are shipped by land, sea or air, they face a very real risk of damage during transit. When packing pallet boxes with pallet wrap, there are several steps you can take to ensure successful and safe pallet packaging.

Evaluate and load

When initially loading your product on a pallet wrapper, don't try to stack too many boxes in an attempt to save a few dollars in shipping costs. You need to evaluate the stability of your product by learning how to calculate the pallet load. A general rule of thumb is that the heavier the load, the less stable it will be and you should use more stretch film.

Initial Setup

After you have loaded the pallet onto the box and placed it on the pallet wrapper, go to the pallet wrapper's control panel and make the following adjustments. SMARTWASP machines are equipped with smart panels that you can operate to your heart's content and the computer will help you out.

Rotation speed

Set the speed to the proper level. If the chassis rotates too fast, you may risk tipping over the load and leaving uncovered gaps. Too slow and you may waste film and cause a lag in progress.

Cargo weight

As a general rule of thumb, standard boxed shipments weighing less than 2,000 pounds should have no more than ~3 turns of top and bottom packaging set up. Of course, in some cases, you will need to use more film, but be careful not to waste time and money on too much stretch film.

Film tension

Another basic setting you need to dial in to get the tray wrapped properly. Set the film force tension so that the film used will fit snugly on the product. If you set it too tight, you could risk the film tearing, which could cause the case to be crushed.

Testing

For the first pallet load, you should perform an initial test. This will take a little time, but once you get up to speed, you will have a good idea of what speed you will need when packing subsequent pallets.

In general, it's best to start with slower speeds on turntables and carts, then gradually increase to faster speeds. This will help reduce the likelihood of the film tearing on the pallet or load and give you a better idea of how much film to use.

Smart Wasp Smart Technologies specializes in the design, research and manufacture of smart pallet wrappers and provides packaging automation solutions. For more information, please do not hesitate to contact us.