Control of a load wrapping apparatus may be based at least in part on packaging material grading and/or factory profiles.

The present invention provides a wrapping robot with enhanced safety and reliability, the wrapping robot being able to prevent a safety accident that occurs when a worker or another object hits against a handle protruding outward from a robot body while the robot revolving around a product to perform wrapping by biasing the handle toward the product to be wrapped; and being able to improve reliability of wrapping by stopping operation of the wrapping robot when a wrap is loosened or cut during wrapping, using a sensor that senses loosening or cutting of a wrap.

A method, apparatus and program product control a dispense rate of a packaging material dispenser of a stretch wrapping apparatus by utilizing a combination of a sensed rate of packaging material exiting the dispenser and a predicted geometric relationship between the packaging material dispenser and the load.

An electric stretch film dispenser includes a frame and a power unit. The frame has a top seat and a bottom seat. The top seat and the bottom seat are jointly provided with a film mounting unit and a film dispensing unit. The film dispensing unit has a first roller and a second roller. The first roller is connected with a first power drive unit. The first power drive unit is configured to drive the first roller to rotate. When in use, the film of a film roll is pulled due to different rotational speeds of the first roller and the second roller. Thereby, the electric stretch film dispenser can automatically generate tension when used, so it can be used to pack articles at different heights. The electric stretch film dispenser facilitates the application of the film and increases the tension of the film.

A method, apparatus and program product may utilize various approaches for adapting stretch wrapping to accommodate lower quality packaging materials such as packaging materials including recycled content, including heating a web of packaging material prior to or during pre-stretching, utilizing multiple pre-stretch zones and/or reducing surface adhesion of one or more pre-stretch rollers used by a load wrapping apparatus.

A method of wrapping a palletized load includes providing an apparatus with a first wrapping system and a second wrapping system, banding a top edge and bottom edge of stretch film from each of the first wrapping system and the second wrapping system, overlapping the stretch film from the first wrapping system with the stretch film from the second wrapping system to create a composite stretch film, and wrapping the composite stretch film around the palletized load. The edges of the stretch film may be banded by passing the stretch film through a set of adjustment arms. The composite stretch film may have a plurality of sections, where each section is separated from adjacent section by a banded border, a first section, third section, and fifth section each has one layer of stretch film, and a second section and a fourth section each has two layers of stretch film.

The present invention provides a wrapping robot with enhanced safety and reliability, the wrapping robot being able to prevent a safety accident that occurs when a worker or another object hits against a handle protruding outward from a robot body while the robot revolving around a product to perform wrapping by biasing the handle toward the product to be wrapped; and being able to improve reliability of wrapping by stopping operation of the wrapping robot when a wrap is loosened or cut during wrapping, using a sensor that senses loosening or cutting of a wrap.

A wrap machine assembly including a pallet having a top surface having goods thereon and a side surface. The top surface is located above a floor. The wrap machine assembly also includes a wrapping machine having a base and a wrapping arm including a roll of wrap film. The base of the wrapping machine has at least one front wheel and at least one rear wheel. A portion of the wrapping machine is positioned adjacent the side surface of the pallet. The wrapping arm encircles the goods on the pallet, with a circle of rotation of the wrapping arm forming a periphery of a wrap circle area. The at least front wheel of the base of the wrapping machine is located within the wrap circle area when the pallet is viewed from above. No part of the wrapping machine is located under the pallet.

A system for controlling the temperature of a film before and/or during application, the system including: a heat source for heating a film; and stretch rollers; wherein the heat source heats the film from an ambient temperature to a temperature from about 2° C. to about 40° C. above the ambient temperature, wherein the film is heated prior to or simultaneous to being stretched by the stretch rollers, and wherein the ambient temperature is below 15° C. A system for improving the application of film by transfer of electrostatic charge is also described. The preheating system and/or electrostatic charge system may be used to enhance binding and sealing properties of stretch films used for wrapping palletized products in a reduced temperature environment. Other embodiments of the preheating film system and electrostatic charge system, and methods for their use, are described herein.

A pallet wrapping system with at least two guides sets configured to narrow the width of stretch film to form a banded edge on the stretch film. A plurality of rollers is positioned adjacent to the plurality of guides to facilitate passing the stretch film through the plurality of guides. A first roll of stretch film positioned to pass stretch film to the first set of guides, and a second roll of stretch film positioned to receive banded stretch film from the first set of guides, layer the banded stretch film onto unbanded stretch film to form an unbanded composite stretch film, and then pass the unbanded composite stretch film to the second set of guides to form a banded composite stretch film having a banded first ply with a width equal to the first width and a banded second ply with a width equal to the second width.