Leading Dairy Distributor

An interesting case study where by switching to a thicker stretch film, we could cut costs and plastic consumption while increasing pallet stability.

In the packaging industry, the common and present perception of being more environmentally sustainable is to replace or reduce – with many packaging suppliers competing to offer the thinnest and most optimised films on the market, the importance of practicality is sometimes overlooked. While we can help most our customers by switching to one of these thinner optimised films, we extensively test and demonstrate these options to make sure they meet or exceed the client’s requirements in terms of pallet load containment and stability before proposing them, as if palletised goods are not held securely enough and the film fails, this can create serious problems from financial and safety perspectives for all involved.

In this case study, the customer was using a new turntable in good operational condition to wrap their pallets – due to the type of products the customer was handling this resulted in pallets gradually increasing in weight, eventually weighing in excess of 1 tonne at a time. As they were using our 12mu ATX+, the customer found that with the increase in palletweight, load stability became an issue. In an attempt to overcome this, they tried to address the issue quickly by wrapping the pallet twice, doubling the amount of film applied, as well as increasing cost and the time it took the operator to complete the wrapping, proving their solution unsustainable for a number of reasons.

One of our technicians visited the site to assess the pallet wrapping, and noted that the modern capabilities of the machine were not being fully utilised. With the machine’s wrap program settings reviewed, the suggestion of using a thicker 17mu ATX+ RC was made and a new, optimised wrap program written to maxmise the film’s full potential.

With 17mu AT+ RC’s capabilities for higher tensioning, it allowed our techician to write the new programme to sufficiently complete the pallet wrapping with 15 fewer revolutions using a standardised wrapping pattern – this resulted in a 17% decrease in overall plastic consumption per pallet (despite the film being alost 50% thicker than before), and increased load containment forces by 19% – the latter being crucial for the heavier pallet load weight being experienced.

With the 17mu ATX+ containing 30% recycled content, this made the film’s use exempt from Plastic Tax, which resulted in the cost of wrapping a pallet being reduced to £0.53, down from £0.74, equating in a cost saving for the customer of almost £3,300 annually.

A key example of the importance of having the right film for the application, and that lightest film is not always the best because every customer’s expectations and requirements vary – in an industry where a one-size-fits-all solution does not exist, Manupackaging UK always endeavours to find the best one.

(All data and figures correct at the time of auditing, and may not reflect current rates)