When to Buy a Stretch Wrapper

As companies mature from survival mode (just trying to consistently make payroll) and move into a growing profitable business, their first major machine purchase is a stretch wrapper. This is a result of several factors. Their reasons include the daily volume of pallets requiring wrapping, allotted warehouse space and budgetary constraints.

HAND WRAPPING OR MACHINE WRAPPING?

A simple analysis of a customer’s hand-wrapping process by a trained Piedmont National sales rep will quickly determine if the end-user is ready to forge ahead from hand wrapping to machine wrapping. Also during this process, our reps will suggest the best stretch film(s) to provide optimal load containment so the load will remain on the pallet without the film breaking during wrapping and during the trucking process. As a quick guide, the Lantech G-series stretch wrapper is a rugged, proven and reliable stretch wrapper that provides a fast payback and ROI. Since this is Lantech’s entry level machine, it pays for itself rapidly based on 15-20 pallets per day.

WAREHOUSE SPACE

Another factor for purchasing a semi-automatic stretch wrapper is allotted warehouse space. As with most companies whether it is a recent start-up or an institutional organization (meaning no one remembers what life was like prior to its inception), warehouse space is extremely limited and especially important when one considers the cost per square foot. The best companies maximize the amount of product they can squeeze into a square foot of space (predominately through racking). As a result, those entities that purchase a stretch wrapper will choose a central location (close to the racks) or near the shipping dock(s). Using our G-Series example above, since most entry level machines are turntables, the diameter of the G-Series is 65”. This means that organizations that use the most common 40×48 pallet will find it fits perfectly on the turntable with no overhang.

BUDGETING FOR YOUR STRETCH WRAPPER

The final item used to determine if a stretch wrapper is right for your company is budgetary constraints. As the old cliché states, ‘Money talks’, let’s look at how this G-Series can save you time, money and labor. One of the hardest (most despised) jobs is hand wrapping pallets. No one prefers walking around in circles 10-15 times per pallet while trying to evenly apply film to the pallet while not breaking the film in the process. In these instances, the majority of the wrapped film is around the middle of the pallet as compared to the volume of film applied to the top and bottom. A stretch wrapper will apply an equal about of film on all 3 areas of a pallet (holding the product to the pallet). In addition, the machine is designed to run around circles (pun intended) of humans applying film but without getting dizzy whether it applies one revolution or thousands of film. Finally, this same machine will apply the same amount of film whether it is the first pallet of the day or the 20^thpallet of the day (try that with the person wrapping by hand).

The question we propose to you – are you still hand wrapping pallets after meeting this 15 pallet a day threshold? If so, let one of our PNC sales reps assist you with analyzing your stretch wrapping needs to provide the best solution for your application.