Two Approaches To Wrapping Skids
Posted on: 10 October 2019
When it comes to skids you want products to stay on these support systems so that it is easier for a forklift to slip in through the slats under the skid and lift and move the skid anywhere you want. The trouble is, not every load on a skid is going to stay right where you expect to stay. Sometimes you get lopsided loads that only fill half a skid, or oddly-shaped loads that wobble the minute a skid is even so much as tapped. That is when you know that you have to wrap the whole thing in plastic shrink wrap just to immobilize it before you move the entire skid.
There are two approaches to skid wrapping. Each has its own pros and cons. Depending on how much wiggle room exists in your warehouse budget, you might consider skid wrappers for sale. Otherwise the other approach will work.
Ring Around the Skid
Initially, this sounds kind of funny, but it is the only way to manage this approach to wrapping a skid. Five or more people stand around a single skid. Some are just trying to hold parts of the load still and keep parts of the load on the skid while everyone else is attempting to wrap it. At least two people are unwinding and wrapping the plastic wrap around the whole thing, starting at the base of the load and around the top edge of the skid itself.
Until the first complete loop is made and plastic wrap overlaps the first edge, one person holds the first edge in place while several others unwind the plastic and walk around the load in a tight circle. This is no easy feat because they have to avoid accidentally wrapping up those employees who are holding the load in place. They continue to walk around the skid and the load, unwinding the plastic while winding it around the load, from bottom to top. Then they apply heat with a heat gun or a hair dryer so that the plastic shrinks. The whole process usually takes about ten to twenty minutes.
Skid Wrappers
Skid wrappers are electronic versions of the above process. A skid is placed on the base of the skid wrapper. The wrapper is turned on, and it rotates the entire skid and shrink-wraps it in plastic as it goes. No extra hands or bodies are needed, and the whole process takes five to ten minutes or less. Additionally, it is very simple to grab the wrapped skid from the skid wrapper with a forklift and move the skid to storage.
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