Shrink Wrap Bundlers and Packaging Machines

Whether you need to package and protect your products for storage, pallets or transport, we’ve got the right solution for you.

Holland Packaging offers the Autopack line of shrink film packaging machines that deliver versatile shrink wrap options like total enclosure, clear wrap, registered print and bullseye wrap.

These machines offer high standards of performance and reliability. With sturdy stainless-steel construction and simple operation, they are well-suited for distribution packaging in the food & beverage, dairy, personal care & cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries.

With the easy-to-use Allen-Bradley interface, these shrink film packaging machines provide quick changeovers with less downtime or end of line defects.

With over 25 years of engineering and manufacturing experience, Holland Packaging provides expert packaging solutions with reliable customer service and support.

Faster Cycle Time, Overlap Seal, Multi lane, and Multi Track Configurations, click above for information.

Shrink Wrapping, Shrink Packaging, or Bundle Wrapping is a packaging process in which a group of products are wrapped in shrinkable plastic film which, after exposing them to hot air, holds the products firmly together for transport as either a sales unit or for ease of inventory management.

Like any packaging process, shrink packaging involves preparation of wrapping material (film), preparation of products, enclosing (wrapping) in a sleeve of LDPE film, then shrinking / cooling and discharge.

The shrink wrapping process consists of 3 main steps:

Product grouping

– The products are arranged into a group (e.g. 3×2 bottles to form a 6-pack). In slower machines, the product is fed in a single lane and grouped inside the machine by successive strokes of pneumatic or electric pushers (or lifters). In faster machines, the product is introduced in multi lanes or pre-collated outside of the machine.

Bundle forming

– A sheet of shrink film is wrapped around the products, forming a bundle. There are currently two main ways of wrapping the product:

– Using two rolls with hot knife cutting and sealing

– Using single roll with cold knife cutting and overlap sealing in the tunnel

Heat shrinking

The bundle passes through a heated zone of the shrink tunnel, where re-circulated hot air causes the film to shrink and conform to the shape of the enclosed products. Once outside, the pack is cooled by forced air to tighten the film; this creates a semi-rigid pack that’s ready for stacking on pallets or to be moved further down the packaging line.

Weld Bar Sealing vs Overlap Sealing

There are two ways of wrapping the shrink film around the products.

Weld Bar Sealing

– This is the traditional way of Sleeve Wrapping: two top and bottom film rolls are joined to form a film curtain. When the product is ready, it is pushed through. The Welding Bar (Sealing Bar) then comes down to form a sleeve on the collation of product simultaneously, cutting the film and rejoining the curtain for the subsequent pack.

Overlap Seal

– This process uses a single film roll: a pre-cut sheet of film is wrapped around the product with the loose ends overlapping beneath the pack. The overlapped region is partially fused in the shrink tunnel while the rest of the sleeve is shrunk to enclose the contents.

– The main advantage of Weld Bar type machines is lower cost and smaller footprint.

– The main advantage of overlap machines is that they produce higher throughput.