Stretch Wrap Equipment – Guidelines in Deciding Whether to Purchase New Or Used

Equipment

New or Used stretch wrapper? Decisions, decisions….

A used or rebuilt pallet stretch wrapper can provide excellent performance while greatly reducing your capital expenditure. However, it is important to understand that while used pallet stretch wrappers can offer great value, not all stretch wrapper models age well. Like the automobile industry, some used packaging equipment depreciates quickly and are expensive to maintain after the warranty period, while in other cases used stretch wrappers can be quite reliable.

Dont’ buy a Desoto!

With the consolidation of packaging machinery manufacturers in recent years, a number of stretch wrapper manufacturers “Like the good old Desoto” have either went out of business or have been purchased and the manufacturing facility closed. This reduces the availability of replacement parts and engineering support for the equipment. The engineering knowledge of the older equipment models gets lost as facilities are moved or closed and personnel are let go orbital stretch wrapper . Companies like Infra-Pak, Liberty, Muller Mima and Orion are examples of companies whose facilities have been closed and/or moved, with key personnel and knowledge being lost in the transition. This can make maintaining these used older models difficult and costly.

Remember that with stretch wrap equipment just because it is rotating and applying film, doesn’t mean the machine is working properly. Stretch film is a raw material and requires the machine to properly prestretch the film to get the required strength and holding properties of the film. If this critical function of the wrapper is not working correctly then the performance and results will be poor. You can do this “60 second Test” to check if the used wrapper you are interested in is operating efficiently. It would save you thousands of dollars.

Caveat Emptor (Buyer beware)

For this reason, used stretch wrappers are not uncommon. However, properly functioning used pallet wrappers are very rare. Often companies sell their used stretch wrapping equipment on an “As Is” basis, thus effectively passing their pallet wrapping problems on to you.

For those in need of a used stretch wrapper, a reliable company that sold used and refurbished stretch wrappers is CAPS (Can Am Packaging Systems). CAPS inspects and recondition all used stretch wrapper equipment prior to offering it for sale. CAPS is also one of the largest providers of wholesale stretch wrapper replacement parts in the North American packaging industry.