Custom auger manufacturer Falcon Industries, Medina, Ohio has cut the time required to wrap its pallet loads for delivery by 80 percent by replacing its manual stretch-wrapping method with the automated TAB Wrapper Tornado orbital wrapping machine. Wrapping an average of 20 pallet loads per day, the orbital stretch wrapper secures the heavy, oddly shaped spiral helical flighting to its pallet in one minute or less versus the five minutes or more required when stretch wrapping by hand. The company is saving nearly 450 hours each year in the packaging department while improving the efficiency of its labor force and strengthening the quality of its pallet wrap.

The TAB Wrapper Tornado features patent-pending technology that wraps plastic film 360 degrees around and under the pallet and its load while raised on a forklift to create a strong, unitized load able to keep the round, metal augers in place without shifting in transit or storage. Fitted with the optional wireless automation package, the stretch wrap machine allows a single worker to manage the process from a forklift without touching the pallet, the augers, or the machine while in operation, and without leaving the seat. Banding, strapping, and the cumbersome tensioning process are eliminated. “We’re getting an extremely secure wrap now, every time, with a lot less effort,” says Steve Sogor, general manager for Falcon. “We’re getting more done much faster.”

Previously, workers needed to snake metal and/or plastic banding and strapping around and under the pallet at floor level, tighten it around the product with a tensioner, then fasten with a crimper, often several times per pallet to keep the auger in place. Stretch wrap was then applied with the pallet load suspended from a forklift.“We did a time study of the manual process and intended to do a comparison with the TAB Wrapper but after wrapping the first pallet load, the speed difference was so obvious that we didn’t bother,” says Sogor.