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Machine stretch wrap for turntable and rotary-arm wrappers

Machine film is long film on a heavy roll, made to be stretched hard by a wrapper's carriage. The everyday roll is 20 inches by 5,000 feet on a 3 inch core, about 9 inches across and about 32 pounds.1 It is bought by the pallet of rolls, and the right one is the one your carriage can stretch furthest while the load still holds.

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A pallet of cartons on a turntable stretch wrapper, part-way through wrapping, the film roll on the carriage beside it
A pallet of cartons part-way through its wrap on a turntable, the machine roll riding the carriageIllustrative image, generated; not a photograph of our stock

The machine range

Two widths and one page on matching film to a wrapper.

Pre-stretch

Where the film savings are.

A power pre-stretch carriage pulls film between two rollers turning at different speeds, so it reaches the load already two or three times its length. Machine films run at 150 to 350 percent; a person wrapping by hand gets 25 to 100.2 One wrapper maker puts it in numbers: typical gauge has fallen from 80 to about 65 over fifteen years, and 65 gauge stretched 250 percent is about 26 gauge on the load.3

That is why the same pallet can often run on thinner film once the carriage is set right. It is also why thinner is only right if containment force holds: measured at the top, middle and bottom of the load, at least once a shift.4

The wrap pattern

What the carriage lays down.

Extra wraps at the base,carried down onto the palletEach pass overlaps theone below as it climbsExtra wraps at the toptie in the top tierPalletBottom: extra wraps, carried onto the palletMiddle: each pass overlaps the one belowTop: extra wraps tie in the top tierA spiral wrap, seen from the side
A spiral wrap: extra turns at the base, an overlapping climb, extra turns at the top.

Base wraps tie the load to the pallet; skip them and the stack can slide off its deck even when the film is tight above. The climb overlaps each pass on the last; top wraps hold the top tier in. Most wrappers let you set all three. How to wrap a pallet goes through them.

Sources

  1. Uline, machine-length cast stretch film, 80 gauge, 20 in x 5,000 ft (product listing) (reviewed 2026-11-13)
  2. Colony Packaging, "4 differences between stretch film and shrink film" (reviewed 2026-11-13)
  3. Lantech, "Blown vs. cast: how is stretch film made?" (reviewed 2026-11-13)
  4. Lantech, "Use the force: containment force is the key to safe pallet loads" (reviewed 2026-11-13)

Facts on this page last reviewed 2026-11-13.

Ask for a stretch film quote

Give the wrapper make and its pre-stretch if you know them, the roll size and how many rolls a month.

  • Step 1 asks what you need, how much a month, the delivery ZIP and how to reach you
  • Step 2 asks the film, the width and the gauge; skip what you don't know