Food manufacturers face an array of packaging challenges as they try to meet growing consumer demand, stay ahead of ever-changing consumer tastes, and maintain production efficiency despite rising ingredient costs and volatile labor issues. Add the strict FDA and USDA regulations for hygiene, tracking, and traceability, and earning a profit in this low margin – high volume industry becomes even more challenging.
Food and beverage companies have to pay close attention to protecting product integrity and minimizing waste to survive and succeed. The true costs of wasting time, wasting ingredients, and wasting perishable products have become so severe that many operations are simply unsustainable under present conditions. Since many food manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers have already cut most upstream costs to the bone, packaging and material handling are getting more and more attention as areas ripe for improvements in efficiency. In today’s economy, that often means automating key processes such as pallet wrapping, cartoning, and multi-packing using semi-automated and automated machines.
Automatic Stretch Wrappers Save Time
Food manufacturing facilities use some of the most advanced, automated processing machinery in the world from the latest mixers, conveyors and ovens to automatic carton forming machines. But at the end of the line, even many of these companies require their workers to stretch wrap palletized loads by hand. This manual process often takes three workers five – 10 minutes per pallet load and causes quite a number of cuts, scrapes, injuries – and dangerous packaging fails.
The newest pallet stretch wrapping technology enables one forklift driver to manage the entire pallet wrap process automatically without leaving the seat of the forklift – without pressing buttons or even using remote controls. Instead of diverting three workers from productive work for 10 minutes, the new, award-winning Genius Controls TAB Wrapper Tornado food pallet stretch wrapper automatically wraps 360 degrees around and under the raised pallet load in 30 seconds or less.
This is a contactless process that speeds the entire operation and eliminates any bottlenecks in packing and shipping. Now the packaging team can keep up with the increased pace of production.
Turntable Stretch Wrappers and Orbital Stretch Wrappers
Plastic stretch wrap offers a wide range of proven benefits in food packaging and transportation. It acts as a barrier against moisture, dust, pests, and dirt to safeguard product quality. It prevents contamination and extends shelf life. It also helps keep packaged food products securely in place on the pallet in transit as well as on warehouse racks. That’s why the horizontal turntable stretch wrapping machines were quickly adopted. But over time, a number of owners realized these pallet wrappers only wrap the load around itself, leaving the top and bottom unsecured and exposed to the environment. This invites the food products to shift in transit, slide off of the pallet, and damage the product. These machines also lack versatility since they restrict pallet sizes to the size of the turntable.
By contrast, the patented TAB Wrapper Tornado orbital stretch wrappers wrap around the entire pallet and load. It unitizes the load and locks it in place as a tight, secure load. It can be entirely encased in stretch wrap to seal every side plus the top and bottom. If ensuring proper hygiene throughout the supply chain is a key objective then cocooning the pallet load in stretch wrap is the surest way to achieve superior food product protection. Even with mixed loads and odd shapes, everything stays put. What’s the point of protecting your potato chips from breakage through the entire food production and packaging processes only to have them arrive at the supermarket shattered into crumbs?
Stretch Wrap Options for Safe Food Packaging
The latest stretch wrap materials we offer for the food industry promote airflow between the film and product to allow foods, pet foods, nutritional products, vegetables, and other products to breathe while in transit or storage while maintaining the integrity and durability of the wrapping. Try clear stretch wrap for a quick quality inspection or opaque for extra security. For refrigerated and frozen foods, our latest Cold Force stretch wrap is designed specifically for cold environments. For transporting pallet loads of cartons, multi-packs, and boxes, we also offer a choice of extra tough, puncture-resistant stretch wraps in a wide range of colors to suit any pallet load on any size pallet.
In industries such as food and beverage faced with constant cost pressures, demanding quality expectations, and burdensome regulations, automating the pallet wrapping process with the TAB Wrapper Tornado orbital stretch wrap machine provides immediate cost savings, labor savings, and quality controls along with a slate of intangibles that may not be quantified but directly impact the bottom line.
To test a Genius Controls model with your product, contact sales@tabwrapper.com or 610-921-0012, or see here.