Ensure stability and security with strapping materials
Strapping materials are used to secure, bundle, seal or close pallets, packages and boxes. They work to support load stability and product security.
Strapping is used across all industries and for a wide range of packages and loads. This can range from bundling packages like newspapers or closing and sealing boxes of consumer goods, to securing pallet loads, such as chemical drums or heavy construction materials being transported on wooden pallets.
Streamline your strapping processes with ErgoPack
Introducing ErgoPack – a unique technology to streamline and simplify the way you apply strap to pallets, and improve worker comfort and safety.
Ergopack is a semi-automatic pallet strap machine. By feeding strapping around a pallet, it removes the need for operatives to manually apply strapping; reducing the risk of worker fatigue, strain or injury. It also saves times in your packaging operations while delivering the right tensioning to strap to ensure load stability.
This pallet strapping machine is intuitive and easy-to-use, compact to fit on your shopfloor, and certified to international standards.
Benefits of strapping
Strapping used to bundle products or close boxes – typically polypropylene strapping – supports both process efficiency for packaging operations and product security during handling and transit. This strapping can be low cost and quick and easy to apply while offering good parcel security and without adding to parcel weights.
Strapping used to secure loads to pallets – typically steel strapping or polyester strapping – supports load stability and product security and worker safety. This strapping can also be low cost while offering high load security. Suitable for a range of applications, it can be used anywhere from low cost and low volume usage, to high speed usage.
Types of strapping materials
Steel strapping
Steel strapping is commonly used in the steel and construction industries, holding heavy materials. It offers high tensile strength to loads but has very limited elasticity. It is ideal for heavy duty applications where materials may have sharp edges that would cut through alternative strapping types, such as holding or shipping large industrial equipment.
Polypropylene strapping
Polypropylene strapping is used across a range of applications, perhaps most commonly on paper and print materials. It is also used in e-commerce to seal boxes for postages, as well as to close or secure white goods during transit. It is ideal for packaging goods for short periods of time, as it is flexible, offering good elasticity, but offers only low to medium tensile strength.
Polyester strapping
Polyester strapping is versatile in its usage and offers good tensile strength. Different types are available, including three different types of corded polyester – hot melt, woven, and composite – and also extruded polyester. Each type of corded polyester strapping offers high tensile strength and is suited to low impact packaging. While these have lower elasticity, it is possible to retension this strapping. For better elasticity, extruded polyester strappingoffers both high tensile strength and good flexibility.
What strapping material is best for my packages or pallets?
Whether you use steel strapping, polyester strapping, or plastic strapping will depend on your loads. This includes what products you are bundling or palletising and the level of stability or security required, the primary packaging they are held within (such as plastic drums or carboard boxes), the overall load weight, and the mode of transit for moving loads.
How strapping works:
How is strapping applied or dispensed?
Strapping can either be applied manually using a tool or sealer. Battery-operated hand tools are also available, able to tension, seal and cut the strap. For these tools, other devices are also available to pass the strap around the package or pallet by hand or semi-automatically.
What is a tensioning tool?
A tensioning tool is typically used with a ratchet system to tension straps around a package or pallet. It is mostly applied manually but can also battery powered, or, although less common, using compressed air.
What is meant by system strength?
The system strength of any strap is how secure the strapping is once it is sealed. Plastic strapping types can be sealed in different ways, typically using heat seals but also able to use a metal seal or metal or plastic buckles. Steel strap is secured using crimpers either with or without a seal. Corded polyester strapping can be fastened using buckles where extruded polyester strapping will use either a heat or friction seal or serrated metal seal.
Related Services
Packaging Stability Audits
Audits and support to maintain the integrity of the products being transported – ensuring the safety of the workers and fulfilling regulatory requirements.
Managed Packaging Services
Services to supply the right packaging products in the right volumes at the right time – all tailored to your operations and requirements.
Packaging Costs Audit
Audits and support to assess packaging processes and materials – ensuring goods are shipped securely without any unnecessary packaging costs.
Frequently asked questions
There are a range of strapping material types. The most common types are polyester, polypropylene and steel.
These are both types of plastic strapping, which are both applied in similar ways, but each has different characteristics and usages. Polypropylene is used for lighter applications to be bundled or packed for shorter periods, while polyester is used where high tensile strength is required, typically heavier applications to be secured for longer periods.
Yes, we can advise on the different types of strapping for different applications, whether you need steel strapping for heavy duty use or a type of plastic strapping for light weight or medium applications. In principle we look at the system strength of the strapping type compared to the weight of the package and the number of straps applied.
