3 STEPS FOR AVOIDING DAMAGE DUE TO PALLETS THAT ARE WRAPPED THE WRONG WAY
You devote a lot of attention and a lot of effort to your product and its packaging. At least as important is that your product ends up on retail shelves in perfect condition! This is only possible if the products loaded onto the pallet are stable, in other words: pallet stability. Optimal pallet stability means fewer damaged loads, fewer accidents and the lowest possible logistics costs. In other words, avoiding damage.
The best way of achieving pallet stability is by using stretch film to wrap the pallets. For example, when you stack bricks on a pallet, they will not become damaged. But if you do not wrap the stacked bricks the right way, with the right film, things can still go wrong, because a pallet is subjected to considerable forces during transport. In an emergency stop, these forces can be as high as 0.8 G. The G-force also comes into play in sharp curves, and can reach up to 50 percent of the weight.
Goods can therefore become easily damaged when the load is wrapped the wrong way. This actually happens with approximately 4 percent of all products transported by pallet. This means that every year, hundreds of millions of products are rejected in Europe due to damage during transport.
USE THE RIGHT STRETCH FILM
Okay, you should use stretch film. With the right stretch film, the pallets stay upright, as a result of which the chance of damage during transport is reduced to a minimum. You should therefore look for a high-quality stretch film, focused on your specific application, and use that film the proper way. The right film stretch ensures that the products are firmly wrapped, thus creating optimal pallet stability.
Stretch film that is not used in accordance with the right specifications can lead to unsafe situations in the warehouse and on the road, because the pallets may tip over, for example’
USE THE RIGHT MACHINE SETTINGS FOR THE WRAPPING PROCESS
The key therefore is the combination of the right stretch film of a high consistent quality and a high-quality wrapping machine with the right machine settings.
A basic machine can only wrap a pallet, but cannot stretch the film, which clearly defeats the purpose of stretch film! The manufacturer often sets the wrapping machine it delivers to a standard programme, rather than a programme focused on the customer’s needs. Unfortunately, wrapping machines and film are end-of-line products and most companies do not have the resources required to gather a great deal of knowledge about all of the different machines. From a technical perspective this is often not a problem, but you need specialists for the techniques used in the wrapping process.
The right wrapper can be adjusted to optimally stretch the film. The machine settings are always dependent on the pallet being wrapped. With in-depth knowledge of the various machines, it is always possible to optimise settings. Testing institutes can subsequently measure and demonstrate that a pallet wrapped in accordance with a certain wrapping pattern and a specific film is stable.
CONNECT THE LOAD TO THE PALLET
Another extremely important consideration is that the load must be connected to the pallet. Wrapping film is also used for this purpose and this process is known as roping. We curl the stretch film a little upwards, which creates film rope, which is then wrapped around the pallet base. This way, you ensure that the load always stays upright on the pallet, avoiding damage.
A STANDARD OPTIMAL WRAPPING PROCESS
But to really optimise the process and achieve zero truck returns with damaged loads, you need more than just the right film. You must ensure that the right wrapping pattern is used. But exploring this in-depth is a true specialism and rather labour intensive.
This is how we can provide our customers with a full-service solution: we assess the technical condition of the wrappers and the film’s properties. We load the associated settings into a recipe that enables you to achieve the ultimate pallet wrapping. And that recipe is the standard that you can continue to use, the perfect combination for avoiding damage during transport.
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