Here at Best Packaging, we see this all the time. If a stretch wrapper is not actually “stretching” the film to its full potential, you are throwing money out the window. In addition, increasing the stretch of the film will increase the containment force. A load wrapped with a machine which is not stretching the film properly is much more prone to shipping damage. Many companies don’t take these factors into account. They think that as long as their machines are working, they are working properly.
We recently got a call from a customer who has large distribution centers in many states and is wrapping 2500 pallets per day. Their corporate office had noticed a trend that a distribution center in one state was spending much more in film costs per year than their other locations, even though they all used the same machines and the same film. These machines are meant to stretch the film at 250%. When the Best Packaging team arrived we quickly found that some of their machines were working properly, stretching the film to 250%, while others were stretching the film significantly less due to mechanical failures in the film carriage. Using state of the art testing technology we were able to determine that these faulty machines were costing this customer about $600 per day in added film cost. We quickly worked to resolve the issues with the film carriage and this location is now exceeding their film cost benchmark.
If you don’t know how much your machines are stretching the film or how much you are paying per load, give us a call. We can perform a machine audit and provide a report on your machine performance, film cost, and recommend solutions to bring your costs down. A small investment in testing could save you a lot!
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