A Guide to Stretch Wrap Film: Secure Your Products While in Storage and During Transit

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, online marketing has gained greater significance, thus increasing the demand for more secure packaging. Therefore, to secure your merchandise for shipping, you should seriously consider the versatile and ever-reliable stretch wrap.

It’s a thin plastic sheet that can be used to cover or bind objects together. Most frequently, it is produced from linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) resins, which are artificially obtained from petrochemicals. In a nutshell, this plastic is related to gasoline, but the synthetic manufacturing process yields a stable material that is generally safe to use.

The Advantages of Using a Stretch Wrap Film

Unfortunately, shipping damage occurs from time to time. And, when it does, it costs as it makes customers unhappy. It deducts funds from your earnings. Additionally, it wastes your time by doubling the logistical work required and could damage your brand. That’s why picking a high stretch-ability stretch film plastic wrapping can protect your brand and investment in the long run.

One of the many reasons why this versatile type of plastic packaging is a common choice for hundreds of thousands of companies worldwide is because the stretch film will shield your loads from environmental contaminants like moisture, dust, and grime, keeping your product clean and dry while maintaining full visibility. When stored outside, UVI stretch films can shield items from UV rays as well.

It also enables you to tightly wrap your product, resulting in a more stable load that is less likely to shift while being carried by a forklift around your warehouse, minimizing product damage.

In addition, the stretch film combined with angle boards enables you to maximize your cube space when storing or shipping your product by stacking your load higher on pallets. It makes it simple and quick to secure your cargo with wrapping, which boosts worker productivity and enables them to complete more work each day. You can use it to support awkwardly shaped or difficult-to-stack loads that can’t be placed neatly in a square arrangement.

By grouping similar products, it is possible to inventory them more precisely and easily, decreasing the possibility of product separation, which can make inventory counts laborious and wasteful. On the other hand, utilizing a clear stretch wrap will allow you to scan straight through it. Since the load must first be unwrapped, unitizing your merchandise makes theft more difficult. An opaque stretch film helps to hide the item and adds protection. Most stretch films are completely recyclable and can be sold for recycling if they are kept generally clean, which helps keep them out of landfills.

What to Look for in a Stretch Wrap?

Now that you’re familiar with all the advantages a stretch film plastic wrapping comes with, it’s time to pick the right one for your business. But it can be a real challenge with so many options available. Your choice should be based on a lot of factors, but primarily, you must assess each one by the following criteria:

Package Characteristics

Are you sending a single tiny package or multiple large ones? If aesthetics is important, you can think about using clear, glossy packing wraps for tiny products like food and cosmetics. On the other hand, durability matters more than appearance when transporting multiple big boxes.

Product Value

In this regard, consider utilizing an opaque stretch wrap for expensive objects like luxury goods and technological devices. However, you can use the coloured translucent plastic stretch wrap on lower-priced items for which tamper-proofing is still crucial.

Destination and Mode of Transport

The distance travelled by the package is a very important consideration when exploring the different stretch film types. When transporting heavy loads over long distances, the carriage method—which decides how fast and choppy the travel will be—becomes increasingly important. Strong material would be ideal for long journeys, especially arduous ones.

The stretch wrap’s memory, thickness, and resistance to tearing and puncturing work together to give it its breaking strength. The term “memory” describes a plastic’s propensity to return to its initial size after being stretched. High-memory film wrap is very tenacious. Meanwhile, resistance to tearing and puncturing is determined by thickness. It has a close connection to breaking strength.

Speed of Production and Machine Use

Startups may start with low volumes before increasing them as their business expands. Additionally, this implies that their initial shipping requirements are less.

Small business owners might prefer to employ hand stretch wrap for minimal cargo volumes, or less than 100 pallets each day. Stretch wrap devices that are automatic and semi-automatic can pack larger cargoes more effectively. A stretch wrap made by hand is typically thinner than those made by machines.

The “cling” or stickiness of your film wrap also enhances the efficiency of your logistical process. With cling, loads are more stable, and portions of the same film can adhere to one another without the use of tape.

Optical Properties

Stretch wrap’s optical characteristics explain how it responds to light. The majority of them are best understood graphically. Stretch polymers have a wide range of optical properties that can be measured technically. However, for practical purposes, we just need glass to worry about UV light inhibition, transparency, clarity, colour, and gloss.

Transparency is the property of a substance that allows light to travel through it or that simply allows you to see through it. Stretch film can be translucent or opaque. As was already said, transparency plays a crucial role in package security.

Customers may also see the colour of your fragrance or the freshness of your food by using a clear stretch wrap. Additionally, it makes it easier for RFID tagging and barcode scanning, both of which are done for efficiency.