According to Aetna UK, ROBOPAC’s Spiror horizontal stretch wrapper range, which tightly wraps long bundles or stacks for protection and handling, has enjoyed market domination for the past 15 years, but they say 2004 has proved to be the best year ever for sales in the United Kingdom.

The Spiror has been particularly well received within various niche markets including aluminium extrusion, UPVC extrusion, insulation boards, panels, and flat pack furniture.

The range is fully guarded to CE standard and has electronically variable conveyor and ring speeds to give optimum film overlap and linear speed. Standard 250mm wide plain and printed film can be used from 15 to 50 microns thick.

The popular 400 machine can handle products from 25 to 300mm wide and from 20 to 300mm tall, without adjustment. Minimum length is 800mm and maximum length is infinite! For larger sections, Robopac make 8 ring sizes up to a maximum 2500mm.

The Spiror provides a quicker, cheaper and safer method of wrapping without damaging the product. An international extruder in Banbury recently purchased a Spiror 400 HP which was equipped with all the features required to wrap aluminium without damage, including polyurethane drive rollers, automatic top pressure rollers, infeed and outfeed conveyors and automatic side roller adjustments.

For many customers, transport ‘fretting’ is a problem for boxed goods and they have to use tissue paper and strapping to try and deliver their products in pristine condition. The Spiror uses stretch film, which is both cheap and highly effective in keeping the packs tight during transportation. The stretch film holds the individual pieces so tightly that they cannot vibrate together, yet it is very gentle because the load is spread over a larger area than, say, plastic strapping, so there is no distortion.

The robustness and reliability of the Robopac Spiror is backed up by advice and guidance from expert technical consultants and top class after sales service from Aetna’s team of professionals.

Managing director Mark Tucker sees after-sales and customer service as the key to their future and investment continues to be made. He said that customers expected that little bit more from their relationship with Aetna and the testimonial from the Logistics manager of Smart Systems of Yatton typified their satisfaction.

“Aetna has been extremely helpful to us, both during the installation of the new Spiror 400 HP, and in training our operators. During the learning period when operator error is frequent, whenever we asked for help, they never let us down and I personally am very pleased with the relationship we have developed. I can see why many of our suppliers recommended Aetna as they had found the same professional approach when they purchased Aetna products.“

Looking to the future, Aetna see an increasing demand for horizontal stretch wrapping and interest is growing in the larger sector where several of the larger systems have been installed over the past year and demand for the smaller ones remains buoyant.