All product manufacturers, of any type, must protect their products before shipping them to their destination. They can’t do it willy-nilly, as they must arrive undamaged at the point of sale. Furthermore, they need to apply protective measures to each product individually, and to all products in a shipment as a whole. Therefore, all companies that need to ship the products they manufacture or purchase to another destination need machines that allow them to automate certain tasks to prepare them. Like a pallet wrapper. Find out what it is and what it’s used for.
What is a pallet wrapper?
A pallet wrapper is an industrial machine used to wrap pallets (also known as pallets) with products stacked on them for shipment to a distributor or to the store where they will be sold. It uses a thin and elastic transparent plastic film, also known as stretch film. It is used when the products to be shipped to the same destination are all stacked on a pallet, and the machine wraps the products with this film. This way, they will stay together, and transportation will be easier. Additionally, it will prevent part of the load from being lost or damaged.
The pallet wrapper is not, nowadays, a machine that is operated manually. It is a machine that automates the wrapping process of the pallets with products, making the final result more efficient and secure. It also allows the operators responsible for preparing the product shipments to focus on other tasks that require less effort and need more delicate handling.
How does it work?
Each pallet wrapper has a platform on which the pallet, already with the load stacked on it, is placed. It also has a mechanism that moves to make the film wrap around the load so that the elements are securely fastened together and to the base of the pallet. An example of a pallet wrapper is the Saturn S8, a rotary ring pallet wrapping machine.
In this pallet wrapper, the spool with the film for wrapping the load is mounted on the ring, which rotates around the load. As it rotates, it releases the film over the load, wrapping it. This ensures that the load is securely fastened. On one hand, the components of the load are joined together, and they are also attached to the base of the pallet.
The load moves along a conveyor belt and stops when it is positioned just under the wrapping ring, specifically in the center of the ring. The ring then begins to descend until it reaches the proper height to begin wrapping. On the other hand, this pallet wrapper has a mechanism that places a protective plastic over the load, which will seal it from the top when the wrapping process is finished.
Once the plastic is over the load, the wrapping ring starts rotating and releasing the film, wrapping the entire load. Additionally, it moves up and down so that not only the center of the load is wrapped but the entire load is covered. At the end, when the pallet wrapper completes its task, the load with the products on the pallet will be covered with transparent plastic on all four sides. The plastic that fell over the load at the beginning of the process will also end up attached to it. The entire process can be seen in detail in this video.
A pallet wrapper has to surround and cover the load with transparent film until all the products on the pallet are securely fastened. The weight and dimensions of the pallet products have nothing to do with the number of rotations that the pallet wrapper must make with the transparent film to ensure they are properly protected.
They will only be secure when the products cannot move individually. Only then will the load be properly secured. Only then can the plastic wrapping be sealed, and the pallet removed so that the machine can continue with the protection process on other pallets.
When a pallet of products has already gone through the wrapper and its load is compact and secured, it is ready for transport. However, generally, a single pallet will not be shipped, but several will be sent to the same destination. Therefore, they are stored until all the pallets going to the same destination are ready and the truck picks them up. Since they are secured, each pallet with all the products can be moved at once, making it easier to move and store them.
What is a pallet wrapper used for?
As we have seen, a pallet wrapper is used to cover the load on a pallet with plastic, so it can be moved at once. But that’s not all. By being grouped and protected, the products on a pallet will also not be damaged when stored, moved, or transported. They will be fixed in place, stuck together. This is because the transparent film that covers them is applied tightly. However, it is only tight enough to secure the load, not to damage the products it covers.
This is precisely another goal of a pallet wrapper. To prevent the entire load on a pallet from being damaged, not only the serious damages affecting the products themselves but also their packaging. That is, a pallet wrapper protects both the product and its packaging. The reason is simple: if the packaging of a product gets damaged during transport to its destination, it is less likely to be sold. People will perceive it as defective, even if it is not, and it will be harder for it to leave the store.
But this machine does not only affect the safety and integrity of the protected products. It also helps to make work easier for the operators in a company, who will not have to exert effort to manually wrap the products on a pallet. Additionally, the protection work will be finished faster, and the shipments can be sent to their destination sooner. The machine can also adapt progressively to the needs of the company using it. Therefore, it streamlines the packaging process, saving costs and time.
This makes a pallet wrapper useful not only for all types of companies and sectors that manufacture and transport products. For example, in the food sector or in construction. It is also a future investment and an element that facilitates everything related to logistics and transportation. So, if you need to move pallets of products securely while protecting them, get yourself a pallet wrapper!