4 Key Questions About Possible Stretch Film Failures

Does your business require boxes to be placed on a pallet wrapper along with your product? If so, you've probably investigated and researched your options, starting with stretch film. It is one of the most typical products used to hold items together and protect them throughout the shipping and storage space.

At SMARTWASP, we sell stretch film every day and see many benefits to covering your products with stretch film. Using stretch film to properly contain your products can trigger a host of troubles due to human error, improper manufacturer set-ups, and failure of different other resources. In the following article, we will explore the 4 most common problems when using stretch film and provide guidance on how to eliminate and prevent these problems.

1.Tearing Stretch Film

Tears in stretch film are the bane of performance, consistency and most importantly, safety issues. When a tear occurs, it indicates that the safety, batch control, and security of your product packaging pallets have actually been compromised. Choose to ignore tears and you risk safety risks, injuries, product damage, downtime, unwanted cleaning, and slower production times.

Depending on whether you use physical labor in combination with a stretch wrapper or stretch wrapper, tearing can occur due to a variety of factors. To avoid tearing, it is recommended that you utilize an automatic or semi-automatic stretch wrapper with proper setup and proper load control in advance.

After analyzing your equipment, dispensers, labor force and operators in your daily packaging process, your representative should have the ability to recommend how to optimize your product and equipment to reduce and/or eliminate tearing.

Incorrect Density

Just as using the wrong stretch film can lead to a host of problems, so can using the wrong thickness (or gauge) of stretch film. Using stretch film that is too thin for your product can lead to constant tearing, resulting in wasted material, money and time.

You can also lose product, and essentially cash, if you use stretch film that is too thick for a product that doesn't need said film gauge.

Incorrect Type

Using the incorrect type of film when wrapping pallets with stretch film can lead to discarded material, lost time, wasted cash, safety issues, injuries, expensive repair work, breakdowns, downtime, and other unnecessary dynamics. First, you need to understand the different types of stretch films, the correct machines to apply and use them, in addition to the various other components of each type of stretch film and how to use them effectively.

There are different types of stretch films, each with a different application and the proper way to use them. Get a comprehensive summary and information on each type of stretch film and the proper application for each.

Incorrect Sizing

Although at first glance it may not seem important, stretch films come in all sizes for all types of applications and products. You may be asking yourself, why? Nonetheless, you can utilize any size you want, as long as you are sure you are loading enough layers and the trays are still loaded, right?

Technically speaking, yes, you can do that. However, if you use the wrong size stretch wrap to wrap your items, you'll lose wrapping paper, as well as time and money, in addition to the potential for incorrect loading control. If you're not sure which size stretch film you must utilize to wrap your pallets, call SMARTWASP for advice.

Ultimately, all of these hassles can be avoided with some planning and research. If you are currently struggling with any of these issues, please feel free to call us for guidance or details. You can also have our packaging professionals evaluate the dynamics of your manufacturer and related product packaging lines for direct optimization.