A self-propelled wrapping machine movable around a load to wrap the load with a plastic film in a wrapping cycle, comprising a self-propelled carriage; a upright fixed to the carriage and slidably supporting an unwinding unit provided at least with a reel of film; a first gripping unit that is supported by the carriage, and is movable and arranged to hold and unwind an initial flap of film from the unwinding unit in an initial step of the wrapping cycle; and a second gripping unit that is supported by the carriage, and is movable and arranged to position and release an anchoring element on the initial flap of film in the initial step of the wrapping cycle so as to fix the initial flap of film to a supporting plane and to grasp and lift the anchoring element from the supporting plane so as to disengage it from the initial flap of film after at least one turn of the self-propelled wrapping machine around the load wrapping the load with the film supplied by the unwinding unit.

Machine for stabilising palletised loads includes a functional arrangement, a first movement apparatus generating relative motion about a revolution axis, a second movement apparatus generating relative translation motion of the functional arrangement in a direction parallel to the revolution axis. The functional arrangement includes a support shaft, a motorised drive roller, a contrast roller, and actuator members to create relative movement between the drive roller and the contrast roller in transversal direction with respect to the respective rotation axes between a distanced configuration, in which a gap is defined between the drive roller and the contrast roller to be crossed with clearance by the covering tape unwinding from the reel, and a neared configuration, in which the drive and contrast rollers clamp the covering tape. The support shaft and the contrast and/or drive rollers are mounted on the functional arrangement and oriented in the same direction.

Disclosed is an M-shaped fully automatic winding machine provided with a main controller, a film clamping device, an automatic film cutting device, and a film lifting device. The film clamping device is provided on an M-shaped turntable, is driven to work by a second electric motor and uses a storage battery as a power source. A secondary controller controlling the second electric motor to work is also provided on the M-shaped turntable, is in a communication connection with the main controller via wireless data and is controlled by the main controller. A film clamping working position of the film clamping device is in front of an upright post when the M-shaped turntable turns to the angle of the original position. The M-shaped winding machine is also provided with a storage battery charging connection device. When the M-shaped turntable turns to the angle of a charging position, a turntable upper part and a turntable outer part of the charging connection device can be electrically connected. A driving electric motor of a film frame lifting device, the driving electric motor of the M-shaped turntable, and the power devices in the automatic film cutting device and the film lifting device are controlled by the main controller. The M-shaped winding machine can realize automatic film clamping and fully automatic film winding.

Packaging material may be profiled to generate an incremental containment force per revolution (ICF) attribute that is represented by a function that is variable as a function of wrap force. Moreover, the performance of different packaging materials, e.g., in terms of speed or cost, may be compared for a particular load through simulation of wrap operations based upon dimensions of the load and a desired load containment force requirement for the load.

A method for wrapping a load with a film, strip, band of extensible material comprises: unwinding a film of extensible material from a reel; making a pleat on the film by means of a pleating system; stretching the film by means of a pair of pre-stretching rollers; welding the pleat by means of at least one of the pre-stretching rollers; wrapping the load with the film provided with the pleat.

Packaging material may be profiled to generate an incremental containment force per revolution (ICF) attribute that is represented by a function that is variable as a function of wrap force. Moreover, the performance of different packaging materials, e.g., in terms of speed or cost, may be compared for a particular load through simulation of wrap operations based upon dimensions of the load and a desired load containment force requirement for the load.

The apparatus for automatically wrapping a load with a film of stretch material includes a guide carriage including moving means, operable to move said guide carriage around a load to be wrapped; a column associated with said guide carriage and adapted to carry a reel of said film of stretch material, said reel being rotatable to release, in operation, said stretch material around said load to be wrapped; a control unit.

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.

A conveyor system includes a plurality of conveying surfaces spaced apart from one another. An upper floor between the plurality of conveying surfaces has an uppermost surface that is lower than an uppermost surface of the plurality of conveying surfaces and higher than a returning portion of the plurality of conveying surfaces. This permits the conveyor system to be used with nestable pallets and base board pallets. The conveyor system may be part of a pallet wrapping system having an infeed conveyor and an outfeed conveyor for receiving loaded pallets from tines of material handling equipment and for transferring wrapped loaded pallets to tines of material handling equipment.

Control of a wrapping apparatus is facilitated by enabling an operator to input a load containment force requirement and/or a minimum number of layers of packaging material to be applied to a load, with a wrap control system automatically determining wrap force and other parameters required to meet user input requirements and/or parameters to minimize the expertise required of an operator and to provide more consistent and reliable wrapping of loads. In addition, a wrapping apparatus may be controlled to apply at least a minimum number of layers of packaging material to a load throughout a contiguous region thereof.