From cereal to concrete, stretch wrapping plays an important role in the shipping journey of many kinds of products. In our industry, we often say that anything can be stretch wrapped. Some items just need special considerations and planning before they are wrapped, but for the most part, you can stretch wrap anything.
However, because of the wide variety of items that depend on stretch wrapping to reach their destination in as-made condition, there are a lot of choices that need to be made when purchasing a new stretch wrapper. After all, the same stretch wrapping set up and solution that works to wrap concrete isn’t necessarily the best way to wrap boxes of cereal.
You Don’t Need to Be the Expert. You Just Have to Find an Expert
If you’re in the market for a new stretch wrapper, chances are you know the ins and outs of your business. You know your products, customers, and shipping standards. What you probably don’t know are the ins and outs of stretch wrapper machine options and wrapping effectively. That’s okay! As long as you find someone to work with who does.
Like so many things in life, stretch wrapping expertise often comes from experience. Understanding the difference between stretch wrapping standards for concrete versus cereal, for instance, isn’t something you’re likely to know. An experienced stretch wrapper manufacturer or distributor, however, will know the difference and their experience and knowledge will help you find the right solution for your products. That is why it is so important to do your research when looking for a new stretch wrapper.
Finding Your Stretch Wrapping Expert
Before you dive into the details of machine models and features, you need to find the right partner to work with, but evaluating manufacturers can be tough. What is important and what’s not? How much support should a manufacturer provide?
The Checklist for Buying a New Stretch Wrapper is the perfect place to begin if you are purchasing a new stretch wrapper. The checklist offers a quick, concise, and actionable list of key features and services a stretch wrapper manufacturer should offer.
What Can You Expect in the Checklist and Where to Find It
The checklist breaks down the key features and services into four categories; safety, easy to use, reliability/durability, and create safe-to-ship loads. Each of these categories represents the most essential and necessary features or services that your stretch wrapper and stretch wrap expert should possess.
Safety should always be paramount in your purchasing decision, and when you’re dealing with a large piece of machinery this is especially true. The importance of reliability and durability is also self-evident as features that impact these aspects of a machine also impact the costs and ROI as well.
However, ease of use and the ability to create safe-to-ship loads are just as important to the long-term life and usefulness of your stretch wrapper. The ability to properly use the machine and make changes on the fly is essential to creating effectively stretch-wrapped pallet loads. Safe-to-ship loads, as well, are necessary to minimize loss and shipping damage.
Together, these four categories represent the most important keystones by which to evaluate a manufacturer. This checklist will help you make a quick evaluation of a manufacturer and give you a solid foundation from which to begin buying a stretch wrapper. Once you’ve downloaded a copy of the Checklist for Buying a New Stretch Wrapper, you can contact us or call us at (502) 815-9109 to take the next step.
You can also check out one of our stretch wrapping fundamentals pages, Buying Your First Stretch Wrapper, to learn more information!
You may be interested in these posts on purchasing a stretch wrapper:
- Don’t Forget Support When Purchasing a Stretch Wrapper
- Figure Out How to Stretch Wrap Your Loads Before You Buy a Machine
- The Maintenance Checklist: What to Look for When Purchasing a New Stretch Wrapper
This post was published on May 17, 2017 and updated on November 22, 2019.
May 17, 2017
