Stretch film plays a critical role in your supply chain. If your stretch wrap tears or breaks, you can lose a significant amount of money in product damage. More importantly, faulty stretch wrap can cause unstable pallets and create a dangerous situation for your employees, business partners, and anyone else who comes into contact with your pallets. Don’t let pallet wrapping mistakes mess up your operations. Learn about the common causes of stretch film failure and how to fix them with this guide.
Poor Containment Force
Containment force refers to how much force your stretch film exerts on the product load. Too little containment force creates loose, unstable pallets that can fall apart once they’re in motion; too much containment force can crush the load and lead to product damage.
Containment force is one of the most common causes of stretch film failure in the supply chain, but how do you fix it? The trick is to establish a precise and consistent containment force for each pallet load to keep products stable, secure, and safe. Powerful pre-stretch, consistent wrapping layers, and the ability to vary your containment force to suit the bottom, middle, and top of the pallet help achieve a reliable containment force.
Inconsistent Wrapping
If you want every product load to be stable and safe while in transit, you need to create consistent standards for workers and machines to follow. Establish clear guidelines that cover how you apply stretch wrap, including details like the amount of pre-stretch, the number of film revolutions, how you secure the film to the pallet, and so on. Setting up these guidelines makes it easy for workers to create high-quality loads or inspect loads to ensure they meet your standards.
Manual Wrapping and Human Error
Manual wrapping can lead to a lot of mistakes; it can also cost you money due to product damage, material waste, and other expenses. That’s why one of the most dependable ways to prevent your pallet wrap from breaking is to upgrade to automatic secondary packaging equipment like stretch wrappers.
Automatic pallet wrappers offer more power, consistency, and speed than the best manual wrapping processes can achieve. With precise programmable settings and significantly stronger pre-stretch capabilities, automated stretch wrappers are paramount in protecting products and workers throughout your supply chain.
