Increase Palletising Speeds with a Pallet Wrapper

The world of shipping and packaging has been revolutionised with the introduction of stretch wrap. But this was further the case with the invention and use of pallet wrapping machines. These machines use the same stretch film that you would use to palletise a bunch of items into one on a pallet.

Palletising on its own brings many advantages but when done with the help of a machine the whole experience changes and thus the capabilities of your storage or shipping facility. Relying on a pallet wrapping machine allows you to reduce downtime and makes it a lot easier for workers to palletise loads while being much safer too.

Types of Pallet Wrapping

Automatic

The most ideal type of pallet wrap machine is an automatic one. This type of machinery is able to take care of both the wrapping action and the pallet together. All you need to do is operate the pallet shrink wrap machine by the controls, no lifting or moving stuff around is needed. This is what makes automatic wrapping machines one of the most expensive.

Semi-Automatic

If you don’t want to spend as much as you would on a fully automatic pallet wrapping machine but want to get some of its capabilities, you should consider going for a semi-automatic one instead. Semi-automatic pallet wrappers are able to work on their own when it comes to the wrapping part but they need to be loaded up with both the pallet and the film. The rest is left to the machine.

Manual

Manual pallet wrapping doesn’t involve any piece of machinery or equipment for palletisation. Instead, two workers go around the pallet with a roll of stretch wrap and thus do the palletisation by hand. It may not be the most effective solution but it certainly is the most affordable.

Turntable

With a turntable pallet wrap machine, you essentially get a semi-automatic solution that is able to wrap a pallet by itself by turning the base on which the pallet is placed. Placing the pallet is done by workers who then start the palletisation process with the push of a couple of buttons. These versatile pallet wrappers are also able to work with loads that come on forklifts.

Rotary Arm

A rotary arm pallet wrapper works the other way around as it has an arm that goes around the pallet instead of a rotating base. The pallet stays still in this case but because of the moving arms, there needs to be more clearance around the machine in order to make for a safe operation. Unlike a turntable machine, a rotary arm pallet wrapper is able to work without the need for a ramp or an incline for pallets to be brought in. But it’s because of this design that rotary arm wrapping machines are not as versatile as turntable ones.

Ring

Using a ring pallet shrink wrap machine is like having a quicker rotary arm machine. That’s because a ring wrapper works in the same way it just doesn’t have an arm that goes around the pallet. Instead, it uses a big metal ring that rotates and goes up and down with the film being held by fixed arms. This design allows ring wrappers to palletise loads at much higher speeds, being able to handle up to 180 loads in an hour.

Inline

One of the best fully-automatic pallet wrappers are inline wrappers which can rely on any of the above solutions be it rotary arm, turntable or ring wrappers, it just has a production line hooked up to it. This can help make for a more automated process and also one that could churn out pallets at a much larger scale. Typically, these pallet wrappers are found at the end of the production line so that the product or pallet is ready to be shipped.

What Matters in a Pallet Wrapping Machine

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Film

The type of stretch film you’ll use will have a great impact on how well you’ll be able to protect and package different loads. For instance, if you revert to blown film you should know that it is much thicker than cast film. This makes it a more protective solution but also one that isn’t as versatile when it comes to palletising loads with awkward shapes.

Cast film is the most preferred solution as it’s a thinner and more versatile option. It can be wrapped around in many layers without adding too much weight and it can provide solid protection despite being so thin.

Dimensions

The size of a pallet wrapper be it fully-automatic or semi-automatic will affect how you use it and how your production process changes. Smaller wrappers won’t have as big of an effect but that doesn’t always mean that larger ones will. Depending on the space you have at your disposal, the wrapper can be either too cumbersome to implement into the packaging process or go unnoticed, especially with a well-organised workflow.

Number of Pallets

The number of pallets you go through on a daily basis is one of many determining factors when it comes to the type of pallet wrapper you want to go for. The higher this number is the more capable pallet wrapping machine you’ll need and usually those are larger pallet wrappers.