Stretch Film Rolls

Stretch film comes in two families and they are not interchangeable. Machine film is wound for a powered wrapper, in machine widths, and is made to be stretched by the carriage on the machine. Hand film is for wrapping by hand, with or without a dispenser, and is made to be stretched by a person walking round a pallet.

Micron is the other axis, and it is chosen for the load rather than bought as a habit. A light, regular pallet of cartons needs a different film from a heavy load with sharp corners that will puncture it.

Core size matters too, because the film has to fit the carriage on your wrapper or the handle on your dispenser. It is a small detail that stops a delivery being usable.

Choosing the right one

Send us the wrapper model, or if you wrap by hand, say so. That single answer decides the family and usually the width.

Then describe the load: weight, whether it has sharp corners or protruding edges, how far it travels, and whether it is stored outdoors or double-stacked. Puncture and load retention are the two things that actually fail, and both are load-driven.

Then your current consumption. If you are getting through more film than seems reasonable, the answer is often the wrapper's tension setting rather than a thicker film - and it is worth checking that before you buy heavier film for the rest of the year.

What this range will not do

Hand film will not run properly on a machine, and machine film is hard work to use by hand. Buying one for both jobs costs more than buying both.

Film is not weather protection. It sheds a little water and nothing more.

And thicker film does not fix a bad wrap pattern. If the top of your load comes loose, the number of turns and where they are placed matter more than the micron.