Food manufacturers face an array of packaging challenges as they try to meet growing consumer demand, stay ahead of ever-changing consumer tastes, and maintain production efficiency despite rising ingredient costs and volatile labor issues. Add the strict FDA and USDA regulations for hygiene, tracking, and traceability, and earning a profit in this low margin – high volume industry becomes even more challenging.

Food and beverage companies have to pay close attention to protecting product integrity and minimizing waste to survive and succeed. The true costs of wasting time, wasting ingredients, and wasting perishable products have become so severe that many operations are simply unsustainable under present conditions. Since many food manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers have already cut most upstream costs to the bone, packaging and material handling are getting more and more attention as areas ripe for improvements in efficiency. In today’s economy, that often means automating key processes such as pallet wrapping, cartoning, and multi-packing using semi-automated and automated machines.

Automatic Stretch Wrappers Save Time

Food manufacturing facilities use some of the most advanced, automated processing machinery in the world from the latest mixers, conveyors and ovens to automatic carton forming machines. But at the end of the line, even many of these companies require their workers to stretch wrap palletized loads by hand. This manual process often takes three workers five – 10 minutes per pallet load and causes quite a number of cuts, scrapes, injuries – and dangerous packaging fails.

The newest pallet stretch wrapping technology enables one forklift driver to manage the entire pallet wrap process automatically without leaving the seat of the forklift – without pressing buttons or even using remote controls. Instead of diverting three workers from productive work for 10 minutes, the new, award-winning Genius Controls TAB Wrapper Tornado food pallet stretch wrapper automatically wraps 360 degrees around and under the raised pallet load in 30 seconds or less.

This is a contactless process that speeds the entire operation and eliminates any bottlenecks in packing and shipping. Now the packaging team can keep up with the increased pace of production.

Turntable Stretch Wrappers and Orbital Stretch Wrappers

Plastic stretch wrap offers a wide range of proven benefits in food packaging and transportation. It acts as a barrier against moisture, dust, pests, and dirt to safeguard product quality. It prevents contamination and extends shelf life. It also helps keep packaged food products securely in place on the pallet in transit as well as on warehouse racks. That’s why the horizontal turntable stretch wrapping machines were quickly adopted. But over time, a number of owners realized these pallet wrappers only wrap the load around itself, leaving the top and bottom unsecured and exposed to the environment. This invites the food products to shift in transit, slide off of the pallet, and damage the product. These machines also lack versatility since they restrict pallet sizes to the size of the turntable.

By contrast, the patented TAB Wrapper Tornado orbital stretch wrappers wrap around the entire pallet and load. It unitizes the load and locks it in place as a tight, secure load. It can be entirely encased in stretch wrap to seal every side plus the top and bottom. If ensuring proper hygiene throughout the supply chain is a key objective then cocooning the pallet load in stretch wrap is the surest way to achieve superior food product protection. Even with mixed loads and odd shapes, everything stays put. What’s the point of protecting your potato chips from breakage through the entire food production and packaging processes only to have them arrive at the supermarket shattered into crumbs?

Stretch Wrap Options for Safe Food Packaging

The latest stretch wrap materials we offer for the food industry promote airflow between the film and product to allow foods, pet foods, nutritional products, vegetables, and other products to breathe while in transit or storage while maintaining the integrity and durability of the wrapping. Try clear stretch wrap for a quick quality inspection or opaque for extra security. For refrigerated and frozen foods, our latest Cold Force stretch wrap is designed specifically for cold environments. For transporting pallet loads of cartons, multi-packs, and boxes, we also offer a choice of extra tough, puncture-resistant stretch wraps in a wide range of colors to suit any pallet load on any size pallet.

In industries such as food and beverage faced with constant cost pressures, demanding quality expectations, and burdensome regulations, automating the pallet wrapping process with the TAB Wrapper Tornado orbital stretch wrap machine provides immediate cost savings, labor savings, and quality controls along with a slate of intangibles that may not be quantified but directly impact the bottom line.

To test a Genius Controls model with your product, contact sales@tabwrapper.com or 610-921-0012, or see here.

When we developed the TAB Wrapper Tornado orbital wrapping machine, our first customers were other metal fabrication companies that needed a better way to deliver their palletized metal parts and products – just like we did. Word of our clever pallet wrapper spread within the metalworking industry and orders began taking off. Then we started getting calls from resellers like material handling equipment distributors, manufacturer’s rep firms, and a variety of local dealers. At a time when everything seemed to be moving to e-commerce as direct to the end user, we wondered whether investing in reseller relationships made any sense.

Yet they kept calling, emailing – and selling.

Resellers Recommend TAB Wrapper Tornado for Stretch Wrapping

Today, a handful of top packaging machinery and material handling equipment resellers represent between 10% and 20% of our stretch wrapper sales at any given time by units or revenue. We appreciate these relationships because it streamlines and speeds the sales process and helps introduce the TAB Wrapper Tornado to companies in a wide range of industries that need our orbital stretch wrapper but would otherwise be very costly for us to approach.

Our distributor partners appreciate speed, too, like our fast lead times. We know distributors go through a significant amount of work to help a customer get to the point of recognizing there’s a problem in the packaging department, asking for a price quote, and then signing a purchase order. By the time the customer accepts there’s a problem, the bottleneck in pallet wrapping has probably become quite desperate and the need for our speedy machine has become immediate.

Our distributor partners feel great telling their customers that when they buy a new orbital stretch wrapping machine from us, we’ll deliver it in a few weeks depending on the model – not a year, not six months, not whenever the container ship arrives. We can often deliver some models in two weeks.

The Orbital Stretch Wrapper Made in USA

The key reason we can deliver a new orbital wrapping machine in a matter of weeks and feel confident when our distributors quote lead times in weeks is we design and manufacture every TAB Wrapper Tornado in our Reading, Pa. headquarters using durable, long-lasting, laser cut and fabricated parts that we design and manufacture in the same facility. Upwards of 90% of the parts used to build our pallet stretch wrappers are made in USA and we stock them in quantity to be sure we can meet tight delivery deadlines. We don’t have to wait for parts to show up to build your machine.

These Pallet Wrappers Are Easy to Install, Easy to Use

When the new TAB Wrapper Tornado arrives at the customer’s facility, it’s already tested and ready to plug in and operate. Nearly anyone on staff can handle the setup without specialized electrical or mechanical knowledge. There’s nothing for the distributor to do except celebrate the arrival. Anyone who drives a forklift can learn to use it and be comfortable wrapping pallet loads in stretch wrap within 20 minutes – again with zero distributor involvement needed.

Reliable Stretch Wrapper Helps Distributors Sleep at Night

As many of our customers have reported, the TAB Wrapper Tornado just works and works and keeps working, year after year. We designed our orbital wrapper with a streamlined, minimalist approach so there’s almost nothing really serious that can go wrong, and almost no reason for a distributor to get a call or text with a problem. There’s very little maintenance involved – nearly anyone working in the plant can check a few common wear parts and replace them when worn in a matter of minutes without any real downtime. Swapping out a dull cutting blade, for example, is the most common task.

Keeping the wrapping machine up and running is not only easy but it also requires zero distributor involvement. There just aren’t very many calls for technical service so no headaches. If anything more serious happens, TAB stocks spare parts in Pennsylvania and can often send them out within hours – plus there’s quite a solid warranty included with every orbital wrapper.

It’s also a comfort to know that you’re recommending a dependable wrapping machine that’s designed for safety and proven after many years in the field. Installing a TAB Wrapper Tornado typically reduces injuries and eliminates workers compensation claims from incidents caused by stretch wrapping pallets by hand.

Quality Machine by Family-Owned Manufacturer

We’re a family-owned and operated manufacturer so when distributors call they often get connected to one of the owners. This makes it quick and easy to talk candidly about contracts, payment terms, marketing support, and any expectations at the outset.
While direct to end user stretch wrapper sales continue to grow, our sales involving industrial distributors and other equipment resellers also continue to grow as the distributors operating today are proving their high level of service and dedication to their customers.

To setup a distributor reseller account, contact sales@tabwrapper.com or 610-921-0012.

You could invest a lot of money offering a 401(k) plan, invest a lot of time in cross-training staff, and invest a lot of effort reconfiguring the metal shop workflow all to boost productivity, support employee retention, and save on costs. But ask a human resources consultant to calculate the actual returns in productivity or the payback period on any of these considerable investments and the answer is likely a blank stare.

Of course, it isn’t possible to calculate exactly how or when every investment would yield a quantifiable return at the time of purchase. Some may never yield any ROI. But now it is possible to calculate exactly how an investment in automating the stretch wrapping process with an orbital wrapping machine would boost productivity and cut labor costs – and by how much – and you could find out before signing the purchase order to buy a pallet wrapper.

In fact, this calculator also reveals how quickly the investment in packaging automation would pay for itself. Try the Pallet Wrapping ROI Calculator now.

Calculate Returns on Pallet Stretch Wrapper Machine

Few investments could be counted on as a sure thing. But our customers insist the TAB Wrapper Tornado is exactly that with zero downside and they have the numbers to document the results. With a fast payback period of about a year, it doesn’t just save money, it starts making money relatively quickly, and the savings recur year after year. Here’s how:

Your company needs two workers to stretch wrap 25 pallet loads per day by hand at a cost of $4.65/pallet load, based on wages, time, and benefits.

You think about buying a TAB Wrapper Tornado to automate the stretch wrapping process.

Now your company only needs one worker to stretch wrap the same 25 pallet loads per day, each in about 30 seconds (and you’re getting a tighter, stronger wrap on the pallet load). Total labor costs per pallet load plummet from $4.65 to just $0.44.

This translates to a total annual savings in labor costs of $27,349.40 – and these savings recur forever. And we haven’t even addressed the productivity gains, safety improvements, or upgrades in employee morale that enhance ROI yet defy proper quantification.

How Much Does a Pallet Stretch Wrapper Cost?

A pallet stretch wrap machine like a TAB Wrapper Tornado orbital wrapper costs about $27,000.00 so if a company typically saves upwards of $27,000.00 in labor costs during the first year alone like in the above example, then the payback period on this investment averages one year. After that it becomes a cash generator.

The greater the volume, the faster the returns and the shorter the payback period.

In fact, even a used pallet wrapper machine for sale would deliver comparable ROI to a new orbital pallet stretch wrap machine built in our Reading, Pennsylvania facility given it has been reasonably well maintained.

Meanwhile, your other worker has been freed from manual stretch wrapping to run a CNC machine, laser cutter, press brake, or other machinery that generates real revenue – it’s found money that can also be credited to your orbital pallet wrapper investment. And no one needed to hire anyone.

To determine your ROI with a TAB Wrapper Tornado, use the ROI Calculator here or contact sales@tabwrapper.com, 610-921-0012.

Like many growing manufacturers, we’re always on the lookout to hire good people willing to work. But we’re finding it more and more difficult to find good people even willing to show up. And we’re hearing similar reports from our metalworking, material handling and packaging colleagues all over the country.

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the latest data shows 8.5 million job openings in the U.S. but only 6.5 million unemployed workers. The math points to a labor shortage and the demographics suggest it’s here for the long term so for those of us in metal fabrication, laser cutting, machinery manufacturing, and other industrial positions, we need to figure out how to adjust our workflows to be more productive with less staff.

And rather than complain about the lack of staff or the available pool of talent, let’s focus our attention – and gratitude – on the dedicated workers who do show up and still get the job done even when short staffed.

How can we make their jobs easier to prevent burnout and retain these prized people without sacrificing productivity or missing delivery deadlines?

Automation Compensates for Labor Shortage

Automation typically enables workers to get more work done faster and safer than with manual methods. With less workers available, many manufacturers turned to automation just to keep up with existing levels of business. At City Pipe & Supply, Odessa, Texas, for example, Charlie Justice and his team were struggling to keep up in the packaging department and had to pay overtime to stretch wrap 80 pallet loads of metal pipe per day by hand. By automating the stretch wrapping process with a TAB Wrapper Tornado orbital wrapper, they’re now stretch wrapping 80 pallet loads by lunchtime – 150 per day – and with only one worker instead of two.

Nearly double the production with half staff – not bad! Increasing production gets the headlines but the extra boost in efficiency comes from reassigning the second worker to other tasks. For example, take a look at what Steve Lewis did at Oregon Powder Coating, Tangent, Oregon. He needed to assign a two- to three-person crew to handle pallet wrapping by hand. Since cutting it down to a one-person job with the TAB Wrapper Tornado, the other workers have been freed to manage other tasks such as part production, quality assurance inspections, and even paperwork.

Misallocation of Human Resources

At a time when getting good people to work has become a challenge, can we really afford to deploy three perfectly capable workers to a dirty job like manual pallet wrapping that no one likes to do and often causes cuts and injuries? In some cases, fully trained machine operators, welders, and laser cutter programmers are being diverted from their real jobs to apply stretch wrap around pallet loads of metal parts. This misallocation of resources compromises productivity. What’s the point of investing in automated laser cutting and CNC machining equipment if the machines are left idle while the operators are working on stretch wrapping pallets for delivery?

There’s a better way to clear a bottleneck in the packaging and shipping department.

One Person Packaging Department

Instead of assigning two or three of your best workers to a physically demanding job that often feels like punishment, take a look at automating it with the TAB Wrapper Tornado. One worker can manage the entire stretch wrapping process from the seat of a forklift with a wireless remote control. Wrap pallets in 30 seconds or less. Every one of our customers we’ve asked has said the workers love it, they show up happy to work, and they would never want to go back to wrapping by hand.

Your TAB Wrapper Tornado may not appear in the employee benefits handbook, but for the people who use it every day, the benefits are as real and quantifiable as the ROI.

To quantify your ROI with a TAB Wrapper Tornado, use our Pallet Wrapping ROI Calculator here. Or contact sales@tabwrapper.com or 610-921-0012.

We know that once you make the right decision to buy your TAB Wrapper Tornado, you want it immediately, even if it has taken years to choose the best orbital stretch wrapping machine. So we’ve setup a seamless, transparent process to ensure your new orbital wrapper arrives as fast as possible.

When we receive your purchase order, it triggers a series of steps. First, we immediately send a formal confirmation in writing that documents receipt of the purchasing contract and verifies the stretch wrapper model and choice of upgrades such as wireless automation or dual dispensing. The lead time, freight terms, shipping address, and any special requirements are also detailed in writing. Then, we’ll send a partial down payment invoice. Every financial detail is communicated clearly to ensure there are no surprises.

Building Your Orbital Stretch Wrapper

With the deposit received, our expert production team begins the meticulous construction of your orbital stretch wrapper. Since we manufacture more than 90 percent of the parts in-house and others are sourced locally, this process moves quickly and with certainty as scheduled. It starts with the steel frame, the installation of drive and guide wheels with the wrapping ring, and then the stretch wrap roll dispensing system. The automated cut and wrap system, thermal cutting system, air recycling system, and other options are added here.

The controls are installed last along with a fresh roll of stretch wrap. Then we test every function from the wireless remote control to the automated safety door and emergency stop to confirm your wrapping machine is optimally built according to our rigorous quality specifications. Then we test your wrapping machine with an actual pallet load – we’ll take a video, if you like.

Delivering Your Orbital Wrapping Machine

Once your TAB Wrapper Tornado has passed quality testing and inspections, it’s ready for packaging and delivery. We carefully secure your new wrapping machine in custom wooden bumpers and envelop the entire unit in thick bubble wrap before finally enclosing it in… our own TAB brand stretch wrap. When loading it on the delivery truck, we also cover it in a tarp for weather protection during transit.

Our logistics team expertly manages the delivery to ensure your orbital stretch wrapper arrives on time and ready for operation. We’re very well versed in delivering to Canada, Mexico, and Europe, too, so we can prevent any delays at the border. Upon delivery, we’ll send the final invoice and look forward to your call, email, or text letting us know it arrived on time and just as fast as planned.

One reason we can deliver your orbital stretch wrapper within a few short weeks instead of waiting many agonizing months is we’re also a metals manufacturing company. We’re constantly laser cutting parts, assembling steel frames, welding wrapping rings, and powder coating machine guarding to get a head start on building your orbital stretch wrapper. When you send us the purchase order, we’re already halfway to shipping your TAB Wrapper Tornado out the door.

To check current lead times, contact sales@tabwrapper.com or 610-921-0012.

FABTECH Expo provides an excellent forum for introducing new product innovations to metal fabricators and others in the metalworking industry. So at our FABTECH 2023 booth in Chicago with our friends at Bescutter, we made sure to introduce a slate of our engineering team’s favorite innovations for the TAB Wrapper Tornado line of orbital wrapping machines. For pallet wrapping metal parts and finished metallic products, our latest new product launches and ideas offer serious operational upgrades in packaging and material handling:

Orbital Wrapper Innovations
The coolest upgrade is also the hottest. Instead of using a blade to cut the stretch wrap after wrapping a pallet load, our new Hot Wire Cutting System automatically draws a thin, heated wire through the plastic film. Then it retracts and hides the wire for safe, quick cooling in time for the next pallet to wrap. No blades to sharpen or replace.

Our engineering friends may especially appreciate the elegance in how we upgraded the counterbalance. When the stretch wrap dispensing unit rotates around the wrapping ring applying stretch wrap around the pallet load, its weight needs to be balanced by an opposing weight. The new counterbalance design replaces a fixed weight with a steel bar laminated directly into the wrapping ring. This more evenly distributes the weight around the circumference of the ring and reduces the impact of any vibrations for smoother operation.

But wait, there’s more to how we upgraded the wrapping ring. We also replaced the nine-piece, welded steel design with a single, rolled steel tube and repositioned a new, concave guide wheel assembly on the ring. Now, the movement around the wrapping ring is even smoother and quieter. As an added bonus, it’s quicker to build so we can deliver our stretch wrapper machines up to two days faster.

But it’s not only about what’s inside the machine that counts. From a look at the outside, it was clear to everyone who packed our booth at the trade show that we’ve upgraded the overall look and feel. After more than a decade with the same paint, our new machine guarding is now powder coated in a textured, wrinkle gray finish. It better resists scratches and scuffs and hides any dust and fingerprints. We work in busy, industrial facilities but there’s no reason our work environment can’t look as clean and professional as our wrapped pallet loads.

Easy Machinery Maintenance
It’s also important to keep the machine working like new, not just looking like new. Several attendees at the booth mentioned they were having trouble keeping technical staff on board and that was making routine maintenance even less routine. We get it. We introduced new preventative maintenance kits that pre-package the exact OEM replacement wear parts and assemblies in one, convenient box. Any kits we brought to the show were spoken for before we left. We keep them in stock in Reading, Pennsylvania for immediate delivery but it’s good to keep them in your building just in case.

Packaging Automation in Metalworking
These new product introductions were shown installed on our Smart Controls TAB Wrapper Tornado and after skipping a couple of FABTECH shows, it was almost startling to experience the intense interest in this automated orbital wrapper compared to our base model, which, ironically, still offers a far greater level of automation than the manual stretch wrapping some of these people were trying to replace. In fact, there were a number of people who said they were planning to purchase the base model until they saw the Smart Controls demonstration in live action and realized that this is the future of packaging automation in metalworking. Then, with the show discount, bringing Industry 4.0 into the present was an even easier decision.

FABTECH 2024
We’re planning to introduce even more innovations at our FABTECH EXPO 2024 booth in Orlando at the Orange County Convention Center. We look forward to seeing you at the TAB Industries booth with our newest TAB Wrapper Tornado orbital wrapper.

See the Smart Controls orbital wrapping machine here.