Poly Strapping Types and Benefits

Poly strapping, including polypropylene and polyester strapping, offers a variety of advantages when it comes to securing your load for shipment and transit. While steel strapping is still widely used, industry trends show that it is currently experiencing a downturn in popularity, primarily due to cost and safety concerns. This is where durable plastic strapping comes into play. What Kinds of Poly Strapping are Available to Me? There are two main types of plastic strapping, polypropylene and polyester. Each offers incredible capability for tight holding and durable protection but have different applications where they work best individually. Before getting into the specific details of these choices, it’s important to understand two key terms that are essential knowledge for anyone using strapping for packaging, palletizing, or shipping. Elongation Recovery To put it simply, elongation recovery refers to how much a piece of poly strapping will revert to its original state once stretched. In order to absorb impacts when dropped or tossed, the plastic strapping needs to elongate. After that, it must recover as much as possible so that it doesn’t stay loose and leave your items susceptible to damage. Keep in mind that elongation recovery can be negatively impacted by extreme temperatures. Retained Tension The second term that is necessary to understand is retained tension. This is the amount of tension, or tightness, that remains in a length of plastic strapping after a given amount of time. You need good retained tension so that your packages stay secure and in place while on the pallet. This leads to fewer damages, and less package and product damage always benefits your bottom line. Polypropylene Strapping As a lightweight plastic strapping, polypropylene is ideal for light to medium applications. Polypropylene strapping is both cost effective and offered in an impressive range of widths, thicknesses, and polymer variations. In addition, this inexpensive poly strapping provides excellent elongation recovery and is fully recyclable, meaning you’ll get a great product that you can feel good about after you’re done using it. On top of all this, lightweight polypropylene strapping gives you a number of other exciting benefits that many people may not think about. One such example is that it can be printed on. This makes it an exceptional option for businesses looking to market their products or enhance their brand in any way possible. Additionally, this means it works phenomenally as a warehouse organization tool when wrapped around pallets or other shipments. Another exciting advantage to polypropylene strapping is the versatility it offers in how it can be applied. This easy-to-use plastic strapping can be placed on your shipments via hand application, manual equipment, power tools, or semi-automatic and fully automatic machines. Polyester Strapping In terms of being the most rigid, most durable, and strongest plastic strapping on the market, polyester strapping is at the top of the charts. While it does cost more than its counterpart, polypropylene strapping, polyester does come in at a lower sticker price than your steel alternatives. This makes it a great substitute for anyone looking to move away from steel strapping, as well as an outstanding choice for heavy-duty shipments. It also works very well to secure oddly shaped loads that might feature random points sticking out, sharp corners, or funky angles. One of the most significant advantages to polyester strapping is the fact that it provides incredible retained tension and recovery capability. This allows it to absorb harsh impacts without breaking and after those events occur, it will continue to provide impressive tension throughout the handling and storage processes. Just like polypropylene strapping, it is fully recyclable. Unlike polypropylene, it offers better resistance to nicks or dings and cannot be applied by hand. However, manual tools, battery-operated equipment, power tools, and semi-automatic or fully automatic machines will all work beautifully to apply polyester strapping to your packages, pallets, or loads. The Challenges of Applying Poly Strapping No matter what type of strapping you use — polypropylene strapping, polyester strapping, or even steel strapping — it’s important to note that they are all susceptible to problems. Most of the time when strapping fails, it’s due to poor application rather than a flaw with the strapping itself. This simply means that you should always use the utmost care and pay close attention when strapping your loads. Choose the Right Poly Strapping for Your Needs Overall, you primarily need to recognize whether your operation requires lightweight plastic strapping or heavy-duty poly strapping. For the former, polypropylene strapping will do the trick, while the latter will almost certainly necessitate the use of polyester strapping.