Someone in your business is currently tackling the problem of reducing overheads on shrink film. They believe that they can literally cut corners on expenditure by changing your production line's use of thick shrink wrap film. As they have worked out that the thicker the shrink film, the more costlier it gets to wrap each and every product.

 

This person may have  a point so it's worthwhile listening but do pick up the phone and talk to us about your shrink wrap machinery and set up before making wholesale changes. As changing film usually means measurement changes to machinery too. Having dealt with so many niche businesses over the years we pretty much have the instant knowledge to hand which tells us which thin or thick shrink wrap film is best for each usage.

 

Your wannabe accountant is somewhat correct because Polyolefin film and PVC film, while being measured in the same microns and gauges, actually operates differently to each other. PVC is usually bought to prevent tears and rips and is more brittle and less stretchy. Polyolefin on the other hand is more elastic but side by side, a PVC 19 microns is pretty much similar to that of a 15 micron polythene film.

 

The cost of the various thick shrink wrap film is definitely something your bean counter will be looking at. The use of which may escape them however. PVC has been made to work directly with some food stuffs but only certain types that have been food authority approved, whole Polyolefin is pretty much accepted as being food safe. It comes down to usage, transport and wear thereafter whether PVC will be cost effective over Polyolefin.

 

In the end, you don't want an increase in damaged products being returned because of a bad decision on trying to save costs. At the present time, it works out cheaper to buy 1200 metres of 300 x 600 15 micron Polyolefin over that of 1250 metres of 300 x 600 19 micron PVC, though you may be able to get more worth out of the extra stretchy Polyolefin which would make such a choose even more cheaper. And yes most shrink wrap machines can accept both types of film.

 

So should you swap out thick PVC shrink wrap film for the equivalent gauge in Polyolefin? Again, it depends on the journey and handling of the product in the future. PVC will always be more brittle, even though they have the same thickness. It's well worth your time and effort spending a few minutes on the phone asking if you can save costs on changing the PVC thick shrink wrap film for an equivalent gauge in Polyolefin or if there's another way you can drive down costs and improve production and end of line procedures.