Popularity of Stretch Hood Machines in the Packaging Industry
by
Nick P.
Stretch hood machine techniques make use of a film hood with smaller circumference than the pallet. The stretch hood machine stretches the film without using heat and applies it on the pallet. It offers a five sided protection and package stability, once the stretch assembly dispenses.
Here we shall explore the different segments into which the stretch hood packaging machines are categorized:
General Purpose: Applications of stretch hood packaging machines are divided into three different categories that are based on different criterions such as performance of the stretch hood, user segments, and the size of the load. The general purpose application belongs to the lowest performance market segment. The main function of the stretch hood machine in this market is to ensure environmental protection. It requires little load retention and thus a low stretch is applied to the film that is less than 35%. Polyethylene films generally perform well under this little or mild stretching conditions.
White Goods: Now let us look into a more demanding packaging industry of chemicals like bags of pallet, fertilize, cement, polymer pellets etc. high holding capacity is required in these cases. The stretch hood film is stretched between 35-75% to meet the load retention, when applied to the pellet. In this case more sophisticated films are used with more elastic polymers, including elastmer copolymers or EVA and polythylenes made of metallocene catalysts. To ensure the best performance, coextruded films are used at times. Packaging of the white goods such as bottled items, beverages, dishwashers, refrigerators includes the highest performance segment. A stretch of 75% is employed to get highest degree of product protection along with attractive display characteristics. The films used are very strong and the elastics are very clear.
Stretch Hood Technology:
The environmental sustainability initiative has streamlined new age stretch hood film technology enables creation of a new line of stretch hood films that are affordable and comes with plenty of other benefits such as exceptional clarity in display, improved protection as compared to the shrink conventional films, cardboards, stretch films etc. the new line of stretch hood films are 30% less cheap than their traditional counterparts.
The Latest Trends:
The stretch hood wrapping technology of today is available for load more than 10 in length. Unlike the conventional systems, the modern wrapping system inverts and applies stretch hood films horizontally over a given unit. This has given rise to a new market segment for moldings, beams, plywood, lumber, treated wood, gypsum, cement boards, OSB etc. this efficient system reduces the material costs, production costs, maintenance cost, chances of product damage and is additionally 100% recyclable, which is unthinkable with the traditional counterparts.
The five sided protection, package integrity and display properties that stretch hood machine offers, have made it one of the most popular choices in packaging industry. Stretch hoods have become one of the fastest growing markets in the packaging industry that will gain huge momentum in the coming years.
Bryan Wilks
is a certified packaging specialist, who specializes in stretch hood machine packaging and a variety of other flexible packaging options.
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duties of production managers in packaging industry, you may also visit Wiki.answers.
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Popularity of Stretch Hood Machines in the Packaging Industry
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