How do I wrap my pallets efficiently?

Your options are split into two camps, one by hand, and the other using pallet wrapping machinery. The decision on which to go for comes down to your operation and what you want to achieve. If you only wrap a small number of pallets per month, it may be more cost-effective to wrap pallets by hand. But, if you have a larger operation and need to decrease costs whilst increasing load integrity/packing speed then a pallet wrapping machine would be ideal. Below we run through the top three options.

By hand

The first option is to wrap your pallet by hand using pallet hand wrap film. The film is manually wrapped round the pallet by an employee, who circles the pallet with the film. Dispensers are available to make the task easier and to try and encourage consistent wrapping. This solution may be ideal for businesses that send out a low number of pallets each month. Although in operations where staff levels are at a premium, adding machinery can make a huge difference.

Mobile walk-around pallet wrapper

The mobile walk-around pallet wrapper is a portable machine capable of wrapping pallets up to 2 meters high. It can accommodate various types of film and makes wrapping pallets very easy for the operator. The wrapper has a small footprint, so it’s easy to store, and also reduces operator fatigue and eliminates the need for bending and stretching. It also improves the overall quality of the wrapped pallet and reduces film wastage.

The mobile pallet wrapper lends itself to a number of situations:

• Small pallet volumes
• Where the load cannot be brought up to the fixed wrapper or is too big to go on a machine. Most fixed wrappers can only safely accommodate a 1200x1000mm pallet on the standard 1650mm diameter turntable
• Where pallet wrapping is carried out outdoors
• Where pallet wrapping is required in several locations, it’s prohibitive to put electrical power to a number of fixed wrap stations. In this instance, the mobile pallet wrapper can be used in addition to a fixed pallet wrapping machine that’s closer to a power source.

Using a semi-automatic or fully-automatic pallet wrapper

Semi and fully-automatic pallet wrappers are fixed machines that carry out the stretch wrapping of a pallet. Loads are brought up to a turntable and the machine wraps the pallet, in film.

With a large variety of models available offering wrapping speeds of between 25 and 180 pallets per hour, you can select the best machine for your current and future requirements.

Overhand wrapping, an automatic pallet wrapper will decrease the cost to wrap a pallet whilst at the same time increasing the speed to wrap and enhancing load security. On a traditional turntable machine, it only requires one person to operate the machine, on a fully automatic system the task is virtually operator-free, allowing workers to perform other valuable tasks, and because they eliminate much of the bending and lifting associated with hand wrapping, health and safety is vastly improved.

Pallet wrappers are proven to reduce film usage, with some companies experiencing huge reductions in material costs/consumption of film, whilst improving transit load stability.

For more information, please download our systems brochure here: