Packaging machines for Nagpur

Rail is not road

A rail wagon does not brake like a lorry. It is shunted, and a shunt applies a shock along the length of the load that a road journey never does.

Loads that are held by friction survive road and move on rail. That is the whole difference, and it catches out people who have packed for trucks for twenty years.

For rail, the load has to be tied to the pallet, not merely stacked on it. Film alone will not do it; strapping anchored to the pallet, or banding through the pallet, is what holds.

If a consignment is going by rail, say so at the packing bench. Very often the bench is the last to know and the first to be blamed.

Standing time

Between modes, goods stand — in a yard, on a platform, in a shed, sometimes for days and usually outdoors or half outdoors.

That changes the pack from a transport pack to a storage pack. Film that keeps dust off for a day is not a cover for three days in a yard, and a carton that is fine in a warehouse is not fine standing on a platform in the rain.

Where standing time is normal, add a top sheet under the film and keep the load off the ground. Both are cheap and both are skipped.

Temperature swings in a yard are wider than anywhere in a building, so expect the condensation that follows and let goods reach ambient before wrapping.

Ask your transporter how long the standing leg actually is before you design anything. The figure quoted at booking and the figure that happens in a busy week are rarely the same, and the pack should suit the second one.

Agri produce and the seasonal bench

The agri and food trade here works to a season, and the packing bench that is quiet in March is the constraint in November.

Size the equipment for the peak week rather than the average month. A machine that is comfortable at average volume and impossible at peak forces exactly the shortcuts that cause damage and disputes.

Where peaks are short, two simple machines and a second person beat one large machine that stands idle for two-thirds of the year — and one can be serviced while the other runs.

Order consumables and wearing parts before the season. During it, everybody in the district wants the same items in the same week.

Warehousing, and pallets that belong to somebody else

The logistics belt here stores and moves other people's goods, and the pallet under them is frequently not yours.

A pallet that is broken, damp or the wrong size undoes good wrapping. Check it before the load goes on rather than after the load has failed, because on a shared pallet pool nobody else will.

Mixed pallets need the film force set for the weakest carton on them, held with more turns rather than more tension.

Build in unloading order, not picking order. It is the commonest reason a pallet is dismantled at the first stop and rebuilt badly.

Buying into the centre of the country

Faridabad to Nagpur is a long road move, quoted as one, with the machine run-tested and packed for the distance.

The parts shelf argument applies here as everywhere at this distance: gripper, cutter and heating element for a strapping machine, the blade for a carton sealer.

What to tell us

Load dimensions and weight, quantity an hour, whether the consignment travels by road or rail, and how long it is likely to stand between the two.

Those last two questions are the ones that make a recommendation for this city different from a recommendation anywhere else.

Where a change to the pallet or the pack would do more than a machine, the quotation will say so plainly.