Page 8 - The Inside Scoop Archive

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The Next Generation of New Technology Stretch Films

Just when the stretch film industry was beginning to make some progress on developing stretch films to try
to match up with Pliant's Revolution R122 machine film, Pliant has raised the bar with their development of
the Stratos line of machine film. Quoting from the Pliant website: " Stratos: Films for palletizing in
environments where the wrap must be 100% reliable. The ultimate in performance and yield, Stratos Films
also feature the lowest per-pallet packaging cost in the industry for uniform A and B loads."

While Stratos is still in its pre-rollout mode, I had the opportunity to do some field evaluations with the
Stratos machine film this past week with some pretty amazing results. Here is a quick overview of three
evaluations in which I participated:

One: We ran the 42 gauge 20" Stratos on a overhead rotary tower at 22 rpm with 240% pre-stretch. The
product being wrapped was bottled water in 24 count trays. The result was an up to 50% increase in force
to load on the pallet and a cost reduction over their current film. The Stratos ran without any tears of
breaks in the film. A very nice package.

Two: We ran the 45 gauge 20" Stratos on a low profile with 200% prestretch gears. The product was
mixed cases shipping to a customer, and was a B - C type load. The customer was using 80 gauge film. The
end user worked the machine and turned the force to load on the machine all the way to 10 without any
tears or breaks in the film on box or pallet corners. He told us that he could not do that with his 80 gauge
film. A better wrapped pallet, and a cost reduction so big we can't put it in print.

Three: We ran the 51 gauge 20"Stratos on several robot machines at a distribution warehouse of a major
supply company. They were using a premium 70 guage film, and wrapping B and C loads that needed to be
wrapped very tight for shipment. The result was that the 51 gauge Stratos performed beautifully without
any tears or breaks, and provided the tight package the customer required.

We were also able to do a case study with one of our customers recently. He had been using a premium 80
gauge film before we introduced him to the 63 gauge R-122 type film that he has been using for the past
year. This change gave him a cost reduction in the area of 20%. Recently we had him evaluate the Stratos
45 gauge film. He could not tell the difference in the finished package. The result was an additional cost
reduction in the area of 20%.

Please note that each application and stretch machine is different, and needs a thorough analysis for the
best film and cost performance recommendation. You can see that by my selection of 45 gauge Stratos to
down gauge an 80 gauge competitors film, and the selection of a 51 gauge Stratos to replace a 70 gauge
competitive film.

While Stratos is still in the pre-release mode, it is already a proven product as the next generation of new
technology stretch film. The bar is being raised once again. Cost reduction through new technology films is
real, and not some smoke and mirror game that is being played in the market place. To find out how new

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