What is Film Pre-stretching?
Pre-stretched film is a versatile pallet wrap essential for securing products in transit and storage, available in machine and hand roll forms. It significantly reduces material usage by over 50%, enhancing sustainability and load stability. This film also lowers costs, offers high puncture and tear resistance, and provides superior holding force, ensuring robust protection for goods during transit.
Pre-stretching of pallet wrapping film is the method of elongating and stretching the film, a crucial step in enhancing film performance and maximising its coverage.
This process is integral to the function of a modern pallet stretch wrapping machine, modern machines are generally equipped with a dedicated pre-stretching system, this system is known as the pre-stretch film carriage, this is the part of the machine that travels up and down the machine applying the film to the pallet.
The pre-stretch film carriage, which can either be purely mechanical or driven by an electric motor, is designed to maximise the stretch of the film. It accomplishes this through a set of specialised rollers that are built into the film carriage, which are calibrated to stretch the film to its optimum level. This stretching is tailored according to the properties of the film.
Pre-stretched stretch film presents notable cost benefits for businesses. Its efficient use of material for achieving stable palletised loads leads to considerable reductions in film volume consumption and therefore material costs. This thinner film not only reduces packaging costs but also reduces plastic use, as less material is used to wrap each pallet due to the reduced film thickness.
Despite a marginally higher cost per roll, compared to traditional stretch film, the long-term savings in material usage, coupled with improved load stability, make it an obvious choice for companies focused on optimising their packaging processes and saving on packaging costs. This cost reduction in packaging materials will lead to quicker return on investments in wrapping machine technology.