Maschinenfabrik Möllers GmbH of Beckum, Germany, exhibited a groundbreaking innovation at Achema 2009 with its Palletless Stretch Wrapped Packages using the Möllers Reverse Hood System. This innovative unitized load has numerous outstanding economic and technical advantages, providing significant user benefits. Eliminating the often high cost of pallets is regarded as a major advance.
The palletless stretch-wrapped load consists merely of the cargo itself, and a polyethylene film sheath. It is formed by placing one inner hood of ultra-stretch polyethylene film over the machine-stacked goods, then turning the load through 180° and placing an external hood, called the reverse hood over it. Including two film bracing plinths it took just 3 kg of film costing about 6.50 Euros, to wrap the 1.5 tonne load exhibited; this compares to an average cost of 12 Euros using pallets. Since the palletless load unit wraps the goods tightly as a sealed unit, protecting it from stress in transit and handling, the true comparison is with a pallet plus a stretch hood or shrink hood, which increases the comparative cost to over 14.50 Euros. The palletless stretch-wrapped load cuts the transport packaging cost by more than 50 percent – excluding savings from handling, transporting and storing the empty pallets.
The technical benefits of the palletless despatch load include both the high degree of handling and transport stability of the load, and the fact that they are completely watertight. This means that even moisture sensitive materials can be stored in the open, handled, and transported on open vehicles in all weathers without further protection. This yields additional savings such as reduced need for covered storage space, and faster loading and unloading of readily accessible open vehicles. Efficient use of the units is enhanced by ease of load handling due to the reduced base footprint, and convenient handling geometry for cranes and forklifts. The palletless unit on display was formed from bags containing chemicals but the new packaging method is suitable even for other types of cargo like cardboard boxes or buckets.
The palletless load unit also yields considerable savings in consignments using containers. One user reported by the additional layer of goods replacing the pallet he could increase the utilization of the container volume up to almost 100 percent. The product weight loaded per container rose by 7.2 percent eliminating the need for 2,740 40-foot containers for an annual production output of 1 million tonnes. On the other hand the good handling and stowing characteristics of the palletless packages makes them ideal for direct loading into ships, opening up the prospect of cost-effective transport in favourably to be contracted general cargo vessels instead of container ships.
In cooperation with the Dow Group, which used its Versify elastomer technology in developing the ultra-stretch film which is also used for its own despatch operations, Möllers has invested a significant development effort in this new technology. Now that this system is operational, the benefits of palletless load unitizing have been combined with the benefits of forming loads without applying heat. This in turn provides an important saving in terms of ecology, as the stretch process reduces energy costs by almost 90 percent compared to the shrink-wrap system. That is why the motto “For the sake of the environment” provides a further motive for users to adopt the new technology and its benefits – an energy-saving packaging technology using a packing material that contains no harmful substances and can be recycled into new packaging material after use.
Möllers (U.K.) Ltd
Tel: 0161 406 9824
Email: info@moellers.co.uk
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