How do I measure the length of my hand wrap?

Knowing how to measure the length of your hand pallet wrap is important to monitor supplier quality and compare potential suppliers during a tender process.

It is common practice for pallet wrap suppliers and manufacturers to include a length variance tolerance in their product specification. Having your own way of measuring the length can help you to ensure that your supplier is within tolerance and true to their specification.

There are two main methods of measuring hand pallet wrap length:

 

Roll Length Testing Machine

To accurately measure hand pallet wrap length, we use a purpose built machine. This tool unwinds the pallet wrap over a length counter and rewinds onto an empty core. This is the most accurate method of measuring hand pallet wrap length as it measures the film metre-for-metre as it is dispensed.

The downside of this method is that the necessary machine is not readily available.

 

Weight Based Calculation

This method involves using the weight of the film and the core to estimate the length of the roll. To calculate the length of your hand pallet wrap, follow the steps below:

1. Carefully unwind and cut off 3 metres of film, try to ensure you do not stretch or put and tension on the film.
2. Weigh this sample and record the weight.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 another two times.
4. Next weigh the rest of the roll including the core.
5. Now weigh an empty core. You can either cut the rest of the film off the core or find an already empty core in your warehouse.
6. Add up the weights of the first three samples you took.
7. Work out the weight of the remaining film by subtracting the core weight (step 5) from the weight of the rest of the roll (step 4).
8. Add the results of steps 6 and 7.
9. Divide the result of step 6 by 9 to work out the average weight per metre.
10. Finally divide step 8 by step 9 to calculate an estimate of the length of you hand pallet wrap.

We have made a simple calculator to help you measure your hand pallet wrap length using this method which can be found here.

This method requires no specialised equipment making it more accessible and although it is not as precise as using a Roll Length Testing Machine, it is surprisingly accurate.

 

For more information on how to measure you pallet wrap against the specification, please watch the recording of our webinar: Wrapping it right.