First, it’s important to understand a bit about pallet wrap, or stretch film as it’s more accurately referred to. In order to perform at it’s best, stretch film needs to be stretched. In fact it needs to be stretched until there is no more stretch left in it, to the point just before it snaps. At that level of stretch, the film is rigid and will provide the best load stability throughout the journey. When a film is not fully stretched (or optimised), then the film will continue to stretch during the journey, becoming baggy and loose and creating an unstable load. It therefore follows that thicker films do not provide more stable loads. This is an old belief based on the performance of traditional films, but with the emergence of nano technology films such as the Extremus 44 and 55 ranges, thinner films fully optimised will outperform thicker traditional films hands down, every time, whilst also reducing the cost to wrap a pallet, and reducing the amount of single plastic used in the process.
Second, it’s important to think about how and why a pallet collapses. One of the reasons is due to under performance of the film, and we’ve touched on that earlier in this article. The film needs to be optimised, but there’s also an art in getting the wrap pattern correct. You need to pay attention to load holding force on the pallet, and also to the number of revolutions, ensuring that there is enough overlap for the film to be able to work together as one piece, rather than as separate revolutions. But there are other reasons for pallet failure. One of the most common is insufficient locking to the pallet itself, it is incredibly important for load stability that the film is applied to at least 33% of the height of the pallet and then continuously up the pallet, to ensure that the load is held securely to the pallet. In a huge number of pallet failures, this has been the root cause. This is often an issue when pallets are wrapped by hand, as it is quite difficult to get low enough with hand pallet wrap to ensure a good overlap onto the pallet.
Third, think about the make up of the pallet. A pallet that has been block stacked will be inherently less stable than one that has been stacked with a locking pattern (see examples below). In a lot of pallet wrap situations, the pallets simply can’t be stacked securely – you can read a case study here about work we did with a duvet and pillow manufacturer to radically improve their load stability and reduce their costs at the same time. There are special techniques that can be applied to the film in situations like this – such as roping – you can see a video of this here. To give the film even greater strength properties and ensure that your pallets are solid.