Get Strapped—6 Advantages of Automated Strapping Machines
Get Strapped—6 Advantages of Automated Strapping Machines
Get Strapped—6 Advantages of Automated Strapping Machines
Depending on the products and packaging, stretch-wrapping may not be the cost-effective solution your production needs. In many cases, straps will be more effective for keeping your packages tightly packed together on pallets or in shipping bundles, although some bundles may call for both strapping and wrapping. In addition, quality strapping helps to keep heavy packages from shifting around during transport to prevent loss and damage.
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Automated strapping machines are the dependable solution, increasing your packaging efficiency and minimizing labor expenses. This advanced equipment offers more control and consistency. Here are six of the best advantages of automated strapping equipment, according to our packaging experts:
Efficiency
Naturally, an automated strapping machine will give you a more efficient packaging operation. Sizes and strap settings can be pre-set or easily adjusted based on the specific bundle or pallet. Then, the machine will do the work for you with minimal oversight.
Accuracy and Consistency
Another significant advantage of strapping equipment is that they produce accurate and consistent results from package to package, which isn’t the case with hand-strapping or other hand-wrapping processes. This equipment efficiently and effectively straps large quantities of packages.
Safety
Automated strapping machines are safe and easy to operate with minimal oversight. They can help eliminate employee injury concerns that can come with hand packaging techniques.
Reduced Labor Costs
Although automated strapping equipment is a significant investment, you will save money over time by reducing your labor costs. Time saved allows you to focus on more critical projects and reduces the need for a large packaging staff.
Productivity
Suppose you are dealing with a large number of packages and pallets. In this case, automated equipment like strapping machines will boost your overall productivity by making the strapping process much more efficient.
Product Protection
Quality, consistent strapping will protect your packaged products. There will be less shifting around during transit, and tighter bundles can help prevent costly product loss and damages.
Types of Automated Strapping Machines
There are two main types of automated strapping machines:
Table-Top Strapping Machine
Table-top strapping machines are ideal for smaller package bundles. They feature lockable casters, adjustable legs and variable height settings. The equipment is simple to use and can handle a wide variety of machine-grade poly strapping. Table-top machines are available in either semiautomatic or fully automatic configurations.
Arch Strapping Machine
Fully automated, large-scale strapping machines, ideal for bulk printing, mailing, package bundling, pallet bundling, and other applications. Apply different strap widths and other settings customized for each package to achieve higher throughput with minimal maintenance and employee oversight.
Strapping Machine Manufacturers
At FPS, our goal is to connect our customers with the best automation equipment and custom packaging systems. We’ll help you select, configure, install, and maintain the ideal automated strapping machine for your specific packaging applications. We work with two of the world’s leading strapping machine manufacturers, Strapack and Polychem. We’ll make sure you get the perfect equipment for the job.
To learn more about automated strapping equipment, packaging materials, and efficiency-boosting packaging solutions, contact First Packaging Systems!
What Are Strapping Machines And Their Benefits
One of the best ways to improve overall productivity and increase your work floor efficiency is by investing in automated strapping machines. Not only can these wonderful inventions free up your workers for better effort elsewhere, but they can improve your profits in the long run by increasing your product readiness by several orders of magnitude.
If the idea of better profit margins interests you, keep reading for more benefits and in-depth explanations.
What Is A Strapping Machine?
Strapping machines are mechanical devices which can speed up the process of wrapping pallets or products in cabled plastic or similar material, preventing the product from splitting apart or falling to pieces in transit. These machines can come in a variety of sizes and types.
There are hand battery operated machines which are capable of being used by workers on a factory or warehouse floor. The advantage here is that they rely on small batteries and are very portable.
Then there are archless strapping machines that are about the height of an assembly line, allowing for easy integration into any product assembly structure. Arched strapping machines can also be placed near an assembly line and can handle larger products, reaching speeds of up to 60 or so straps per minute. These machines are entirely automated, reducing the amount of time you need to spend on preparing your product for transportation.
All strapping machines use a dispenser to wrap plastic or other material strips around the product. Some machines, such as the hand-held types, have the dispenser built in.
Larger, arched machines have a separate, powered dispenser that loads new coils or bundles of plastic strapping when the old one is depleted. A series of pulleys are used with the larger machines that can store strap and prepare it for easy wrapping around the target product.
Most of the time, you'll find vertical strapping machines as opposed to horizontal versions. Automatic strapping machines of this type use photocells to find where the bundle is, when to begin wrapping, and when to cease operation. This level of automation is great for your business since it can allow your workers to move onto other projects or only require one worker for maintenance.
Summary: Strapping machines are automated or hand-held machines that speed up the strapping process, using cable-like material to bind products or packaging together for easy transport.
How Do Strapping Machines Work?
Strapping machines generally work by using sensors to detect the presence of a targeted product or box. They are then fed strap material via a spool or pulley system and mechanical spinners or arms rotate the straps around the target. This motion is mechanical and quick and can be integrated into an assembly line.
Rotation of a product can be performed by employees or is automated with larger, more expensive plastic strapping machine models.
This process is distinct from stretch wrap film, which involves wrapping a thinner film of plastic around the target pallet or product. Strapping, which is the purpose of these machines, uses tougher, thicker straps of plastic-based material. These are more like cables and have greater overall strength than a thin film.
Summary: Strapping machines work with mechanical spools, sensors, and proper placement on an assembly line to speed up the strapping process.
What Is A Strapping Machine Good For?
Strapping machines are great for quickly wrapping small or large amounts of product. A lot of the time, boxes of product need to be securely fastened together to facilitate faster transportation both to and from a truck or train. These machines also help to prevent individual boxes or units from falling apart and scattering over a warehouse floor.
While you can wrap these things by hand, using a strapping machine will cut down on time and costs by automating or speeding up the process. You can look at the results from time for yourself: a hand-operated strapping machine, such as those used by manual workers, can only wrap about 10.2 inches of space per second. While that sounds fast, it’s nothing compared to the speed at which a strapping machine works.
Additional reading:5 Things to Know Before Buying Multi Stage Hydraulic Cylinder
Are you interested in learning more about Pallet Wrapping Machine? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!
For instance, archless machines can wrap between 6-10 total straps in a minute. This is increased as you get into the larger machines. Arched machines can wrap around 60 or so straps in a minute, allowing you to add them to an assembly line and streamline your warehouse organization even further.
This increased speed and efficiency can have a rippled effect and positively change your entire business.
Summary: These machines are great for wrapping large amounts of product quickly and securely. Fewer human errors mean less time correcting for them, too.
How Can A Strapping Machine Help Your Business?
For starters, a strapping machine lowers the number of workers you need to have strapping product. Whereas before you might need a small team to accomplish this work, with a strapping machine you might only need one employee to keep an eye on the machine and perform occasional maintenance. This frees up employee time and energy to be devoted to other pursuits or sources of revenue.
This will, in turn, increase your profits since you will have more man hours to spend elsewhere. You can either have fewer employees or put their efforts towards more profitable pursuits, such as product creation or management.
The initial cost of a strapping machine will vary, depending on the model that you pick, however, you will quickly recoup this investment cost by saving your business time and money in the long run. In addition, you'll be able to produce more ready-to-ship product as a result of the higher efficiency brought about by the strapping machine's efforts.
Summary: Strapping machines can boost your overall productivity by allowing you to redirect your workers to other efforts and by improving the amount of product you can prepare for shipping each day.
The Many Benefits Of Strapping Machines
Strapping machines are a great way to boost the overall productivity of your warehouse or production floor. By improving your business’s efficiency, you’ll save time and money by redirecting your workers’ efforts to other areas.
A good strapping machine can double or triple your output in product that’s ready to be shipped, saving that human labor for use elsewhere. You’ll also be able to increase your profits since you’ll have more product ready to go!
There are virtually no downsides to purchasing a good strapping machine, so please don’t hesitate to contact us, and be sure to follow us on Facebook! We’d love to help your business reach its maximum potential.
Benefits of Strapping
Strapping, also known as bundling and banding, is the process of applying a strap to an item to combine, stabilize, hold, reinforce, or fasten it. The strap may also be referred to as strapping, strapping is most commonly used in the packaging industry. Strapping is most often used in complete horizontal or vertical bands.
Edge protectors are used to help spread the load at corners and reduce damage to the load by the tensioned strap. Strapping can also be used in loops attached to holding locations on rail cars, skids, etc.
Uses of strapping
- Bundling items together for handling and shipment: newspapers, pipe, lumber, concrete block, etc.
- Attaching items to pallets, skids, and crates
- Reinforcing wooden boxes, crates, and corrugated boxes, such as gaylords
- Attaching items to flatcars, flatbed semi-trailers,
- Securing a unit load of bricks, packaged glass, metal parts, etc.
- Closing corrugated boxes and shipping containers
- Securing coils of steel or paper
- Holding bales of agricultural products or textiles
- Load securing items within intermodal containers, boxcars, and semi-trailers
Joining methods
After the strap is tensioned, the strap is often sealed to itself. Steel strap is sealed with a seal and notch joint, a seal and crimp, seal-less joint, or via welding. Seals come in various shapes depending on the application; some can be put on after the strap is tensioned, while others must be installed before tensioning. To create the seal, the seal and strap are notched on both sides; if one set of notches are created then it is called a single notch joint, if two sets of notches are created then it is called a double notch joint. Crimp joints also use a seal, but crimp undulations are used instead of formed notches. These crimps form great frictional forces which keep the joint from seeping. Seal-less joints are created by forming interlocking keys into the middle of the strap.
Plastic strap is most commonly joined by melting the straps together by adding heat to the joint. For lighter gauge strap, usually 16 mm (0.63 in) and narrower, heat is introduced with a hot knife system. First, the hot knife moves in between the straps. Then a platen comes up and compresses the straps and hot knife against an anvil on the order of tens of milliseconds. The platen then drops and the hot knife is removed. After the hot knife is completely clear of the straps the platen comes back up and compresses the joint so that the melted portions of the strap mix and harden.
For thicker plastic strap, usually 0.73 mm (0.029 in) and thicker, friction is used to create heat within the joint. The process starts with the strap compressed between the platen and the anvil. There is a vibrator built into either the platen or the anvil, which has teeth; there are also teeth on the opposite component that does not move. The vibrator is quickly vibrated, which creates enough heat to melt the interface between the two strap, because of friction. To complete the weld the vibrator is stopped, and the pressure held until the joint has solidified. Polypropylene and Polyester strapping can also be sealed in a similar manner with the heat being produced by sound in the form of Ultrasonic waves passing through the materials and exiting the molecular structure. They are then compressed as in a heat seal. In ultrasonic welding of plastics, high frequency (15 kHz to 40 kHz) low amplitude vibration is used to create heat by way of friction between the materials to be joined. The interface of the two parts is specially designed to concentrate the energy for the maximum weld strength.
It may also be joined manually by crimping a seal or via a buckle.
The joint is the weakest part of the system, therefore the type of joining method used is very important if strength is an issue. The strength of a joint is defined as the force required to break the strap in uniaxial tension. This is then compared to the uniaxial strength of the strap and recorded as the percent difference (e.g., a sample of steel strap may have a 5,000 lb (2,300 kg) break strength and the seal may fail at 3,000 lb (1,400 kg), so the seal is said to have a 60% strength). Hot knife welds have a minimum break strength of 55%. Friction welds have a minimum break strength of 65%. Well set up strapping machines or friction weld tools will aim for around 80% of break strength. Metal clips/seals are surprisingly low with circa 100 – 120 kg slip resistance.
For pallets strapping based on norm ASTM D Standard Specification, the number of the strapping procedure is around 10 times for a minimal.
Equipment
Hand Tools & Strapping Machines
There are two major types of equipment available for strapping: hand tools and strapping machines. A dispenser is used with both types of equipment to dispense the strap. Some strapping machines have the dispenser built-in, others (typically those on large arch machines) have a separate powered dispenser, which can automatically load or thread new coils. Non-powered separated dispensers have a pulley which releases and activates a brake to stop the inertia of the coil to keep the strap from over-running onto the floor. Typically, dispensers used on large arch strapping machines have multiple pulleys to act as a way to store strap in a way that can be quickly dispensed. Smaller arch machines such as table top machines will feed strap into a pool box/accumulator instead. In both cases this is required otherwise the strapping machine will draw the strap faster than the dispenser can pay off.
Within hand tools there are manual and automatic tools. Manual tensioners and crimping systems are available for low volume applications. Automatic hand tools are used for higher volume applications. Automatic tools are available using a battery power source or compressed air. Both manual and automatic tools are available as combination tools, which perform the tensioning, sealing and cutting, or as separate tensioners, sealers, and cutters. Manual sealers for plastic strap always use a seal and a compression (serrated seals) or crimp joint (smooth faced seals). Manual and automatic hand sealers for steel can use a seal or a seal-less joint. Automatic hand tools for plastic strap use a friction weld.
Strapping machines, also known as bundlers, are used for higher volume applications or special applications. They are available in horizontal and vertical orientations; however, the vertical orientation is far more common. They are also available in bottom seal, side seal, and top seal orientations, which define where the joint is located on the bundle. They are available in semi-automatic and automatic varieties. The automatic versions can additionally to be used in line with conveyor systems. A photocell is used to detect when the bundle is in the correct location, stop the conveyors, and activate the strapping machine. Most however will be found in standalone applications.
Benefits of Cord Strapping Compared to other forms of Strapping
- No sharp edges
- Can be cut while under tension without the possibility of recoil injury
- withstand additional shock loading (18% more elasticity than steel) without failure
- Ease of disposal
- Safer work environment
- Ability to re-tension and reuse strap
- Polyester strap shrinks or expands with loads
- High retention memory
– stays strong and tight on product
- Will not rust or damage product
- The plastic strapping system is lighter than the metal strapping system.
Depending on the Load or Product being secured when it comes to securing heavy loads, it is very important that we have deeper understanding how different types of strapping works, which one will serve our purpose best because in the end we don’t want any accidents, injuries and damages to the operators and to the products we transport.
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