Industry Information
Strapping Machine
Strapping machines are various types of equipment that perform the
action of bundling together products or parts by way of a strap or
several straps that fasten an item to a material handling product,
usually a pallet. Strapping is performed for many applications,
including the reinforcement of packaging, which is the primary method of
fastening products to a pallet. Strapping is also used as a method of
combining many small products into one large bundle for easier material
handling purposes.
As a result of the many functions of strapping machines, they are utilized in a wide range of industries. Construction utilizes strapping machines for the bundling of building materials such as lumber, bricks, tiles and pavers for convenient handling. The agricultural industry uses strapping machines in the baling of straw products such as wheat, barley and rye and the industrial manufacturing industry uses them to fasten products such as billets, coils and metal parts to shipping pallets or crates for easier distribution as well as the reinforcement of wooden or paper containers. Printing and paper companies employ strapping machines for the distribution of books, journals, newspapers and more, while food processing needs strapping machines for the packaging of food products such as poultry, meat and fish. As an efficient method of securing products, the major benefit of strapping machines is the reduction of packaging time.
Also known as bundlers, strapping machines can have either horizontal or vertical orientations. More commonly vertically-oriented, this type of strapping machine is used to provide strapping that is upright or situated at right angles to the plane of the base line. Horizontally-oriented strapping machines, instead, are parallel to the base line or at right angles to where a vertical line would be. Horizontal strapping machines are more likely to be used for reinforcement of primary packaging, while vertical strapping machines are commonly used for primary fastening or packaging of the products. All strapping machines must be supplied with straps, which are defined as thin flexible strips of material, of which there is a broad range of options. In fact, straps may be manufactured from almost any kind of material. However, the most common materials used to manufacture straps include steel, various types of plastic, woven materials and paper or composites. While
steel is the oldest form of strapping and has the highest tensile strength, various plastic materials have become much more popular. The three main types of plastic materials used as strapping are
polypropylene (which is the most common), polyester and nylon, though nylon is expensive and used more frequently for special purposes.