The encyclopedia · Engineering & Operations · Technical decision · 1972–1979
Lantech wrapped pallets in film instead of strapping or heat.
Lantech's stretch wrapper unitised a pallet with tensioned film and later halved film use by pre-stretch.
Lantech
the move
Securing a pallet of goods for shipment used to mean strapping it with steel bands or shrinking a plastic bag around it in a heat tunnel, both of which were expensive, slow and could damage the load.
In 1972 Pat and Bill Lancaster started Lantech and invented the stretch wrapper, which unitises a pallet by wrapping it in layers of tensioned plastic film instead of heat or strapping. They showed the first stretch wrapper at a 1973 packaging trade show.
In the late 1970s the brothers added pre-stretch, drawing the film thinner before it was applied, which cut the amount of film needed to secure a load by about half and made the wrapper a cheap and safe way to ship almost anything.
why it works
- Tensioned film holds a load without the cost and bulk of a heat tunnel.
- Pre-stretch reduces film use, so the unitising cost falls again.
- No flame means no burn risk to workers or the load
- Any pallet can be wrapped, so the machine serves almost every shipper
what transfers
Replace a costly, dangerous step with a cheap physical principle, and then strip the cost again with pre-stretch.
what came after
Stretch wrap became the standard way to secure pallet loads for shipment, and Lantech grew into a large packaging-machinery maker. Pre-stretch set the benchmark for reducing material use on a global scale.
references
- Our Company
- 60,000 Machines Later, Lantech Marks 35 Years Since Company Developed First Commercially Successful Pallet Stretch Wrapper
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