Stretch-wrap technology leader Lantech will demonstrate another industry first at Pack Expo Las Vegas, showcasing its new Pallet-Grip® load locking system. The patent-pending system is the only stretch-wrap containment method capable of meeting the latest requirements from big-box retailers and mass merchandisers for physically locking the load to the pallet. It greatly improves load containment and significantly reduces the chance for damage on double-stacked loads, winged pallets or those carrying barrels, pails, or rolls that lead to severe inboard load conditions.

"Based on what we have seen and heard from customers, an average of 3-20 cartons is damaged in each truck load of merchandise due to load shifting," says William Caudill, Lantech Product Manager for Automatic Systems. "The mass merchandisers are driving a new standard to reduce this, particularly as they move to greater use of half-height, stacked loads in trucks. It requires wrapping 3-5 inches of the pallet to the load, or wrapping the entire pallet. But then where do the forks go? Pallet-Grip is new technology that secures the load better yet leaves unobstructed access for fork trucks."

Available as a retrofit or option on new machines, Pallet-Grip effectively attaches a load to the pallet with bottom wraps of film that have been twisted into a cable along the lower 4-6 inches of the web. This tightly wound film cable is wrapped with 50% higher wrap force as it is secured below the deck of the pallet, while the remaining film web stays above the deck and secures the load. Pallet-Grip wrapping leaves the fork-truck through holes open and can eliminate the need for load lifts or pop-ups to wrap film under a pallet.

There is no material penalty for using Pallet-Grip – machines equipped with the system maintain a full 250% stretch to ensure lowest operating cost. With Pallet-Grip, the force-to-pallet containment is set with the wrap force of the machine, and the amount of the film web that's twisted into cable is also controlled by the machine.

"Pallet-Grip is not a roper," stresses Caudill. "A rope is just bunched film that can unravel, and usually requires staples, heat seals or hog ties to maintain tension. The Pallet-Grip cable does not unravel, and performs as if it were a wire reinforcement built into the bottom edge of the film web."