{"id":70327,"date":"2016-11-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lantechweb.wpengine.com\/blog\/throwback-thursday-tbt-to-the-first-stretch-wrapper-invented\/"},"modified":"2020-10-13T13:44:49","modified_gmt":"2020-10-13T17:44:49","slug":"throwback-thursday-tbt-to-the-first-stretch-wrapper-invented","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lantech.com\/throwback-thursday-tbt-to-the-first-stretch-wrapper-invented\/","title":{"rendered":"Throwback Thursday – #TBT – To The First Stretch Wrapper Invented"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the 1970s, two brothers named Pat and Bill Lancaster set out to solve a problem. Shipping products meant either loading hundreds of single boxes onto a truck one at a time, or using metal straps or shrink bags to unitize loads. All three options took a lot of time and energy. Loading boxes one at a time was hard work and strapping or shrink bags were expensive. How could they make the process of unitizing better?<\/p>\n
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The Lancaster brothers would introduce the first stretch wrapper at the 1973 Packaging Machinery Manufacturer\u2019s trade show. They developed a way to unitize pallet loads by wrapping them with layers of plastic film. This was faster and cheaper than other methods.<\/p>\n
Four decades later, the stretch wrapper has become the dominant form of pallet unitization. This has saved companies billions of dollars every year by increasing productivity and reducing shipping damage.<\/p>\n
The story isn\u2019t over, however. This is just the end of the beginning.<\/p>\n
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The stretch wrapping quality \u2013 how well the pallet load is stretch wrapped \u2013 of the vast majority of pallet loads being shipped today is not as good as it should be or could be.<\/p>\n
This results in too many products reaching their destinations in unsalable condition \u2013 damaging our environment, as too many of them wind up in landfills.\u00a0It also creates an estimated $60 billion of waste each year in just the consumer products goods, food, and beverage industries alone.<\/p>\n
We believe as much as half those unsalable products can be saved just by stretch wrapping better.<\/p>\n