PackStrat SampleJanuary312020 : Page 2January 31, 2010 2ND OPINION THE ROlE OF WRAP ‘STRETCHES’ One of the most widely used approaches to package sustainability is based on pure reduction -- in the thickness, weight, and overall amount of primary and secondary packaging. Water bottles are just one example, with a major producer cutting half-liter bottles to less than 11 grams, reducing weight 50 percent since 2002, and eliminating cardboard base pads from 24-bottle packs. As manufacturers respond to retailers specifying display packs and enhanced sustainability, package designers will have a tough time engineering a package that can survive delivery to the store. The days of shipping stable pallets of low-profile, square containers are past. As a result, there has been an increase in the performance requirement for one barely noticed packaging technology -- pallet stretch wrapping. Stretch wrapping today is being called upon to provide the protection and load stability that have been compromised with the reduction in primary and secondary packaging. It’s no longer enough to simply ship pallets that look good to the naked eye. If stretch wrapping fails to contain a load during transit and product ends up in a landfill, sustainability gains in primary packaging are instantly wiped out. To meet sustainability goals, it helps to understand that there is a clear relationship between reduced primary packaging and the performance of the stretch wrapping. The basis for that relationship is control of the containment force that stretch wrapping exerts on the load. To manage it, you must first know the containment force needed for a given pallet load. Then, you can establish your containment force standards and ensure they are consistently met. We’ve found that few companies know what their containment force requirements should be, and even those that have established an internal standard rarely apply it on the production floor. Why? Because current stretch wrapping technology leads to an average of three to seven film breaks (and line stoppages) per roll of film. It can be hard to pinpoint the cause of a film break, so machine operators take the easy solution: they turn down the wrap force, reducing containment force and increasing the likelihood of load failure. Sometimes, the operator adds revolutions of film to compensate, wasting material. This makes it almost impossible to have any control or consistency. Fortunately, new stretch wrapping technology has been developed to eliminate essentially all film breaks and return control to the process. It can apply prestretched film over exposed nails without a film break, as well as wrap light and unstable loads (think display packs of vertical paper towels) without corkscrewing or crushing them. This makes it possible to wrap consistently with the same containment force and revolutions. This unique technology maintains the reductions in primary and secondary packaging, while delivering the proper protection and load stability that challenges the current generation of stretch wrapping technology. PS Pat Lancaster is founder and chairman of Lantech, Louisville, KY, the company that invented stretch wrapping technology in the 1970s. “If stretch wrapping fails to contain a load during transit… sustainability gains in primary packaging are instantly wiped out.” Pat Lancaster, Lantech Volume 28, No. 2 January 31, 2010 Packaging Strategies (ISSN 8755-6189) is published 22 times a year (including an annual industry review). 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