Wood and Timber Polyester Strapping
Wood & Timber Polyester Strapping
The terms "wood and timber" are less than precise and have a whole range of meanings including forestry, sawn timber, manufactured product such as particle boards and MDF-boards, laminates, etc but all have something in common and that is that they are all best secured with polyester strapping.
In the early days polyester strapping manufacture there was a good deal of variance in specification and performance, but now regardless of most polyester manufacturers claims, commonality in international manufacturing methods ensure that size for size, virgin or regrind composition, both types of strapping have very similar elongation, recovery and tensile characteristics. There is one difference however that should be noted, and that is that virgin polyester (Green) is best suited for use in automatic strapping machines as it has better feeding characteristics than the black regrind polyester materials which are very cost effective for hand applied applications. How to tell the difference between Polyester and Polypropylene Strapping
Timber, particularly sawn timber handled by timber merchants is still largely - and mistakenly - secured by polypropylene strapping, despite the fact that it slowly rots in sunlight, looses 50% of it's tension within an hour of being applied and is normally joined with low load bearing metal clips suitable only for cartons. Low cost is the attraction but in the event of injury claim arising from accidents no adequate defence could be mounted leaving Companies very vulnerable to high damage awards. Timber and Wood secured with polyester strapping on the other hand produce a much safer and stable pack. The polyester strapping is not affected by sunlight or changes in ambient temperature, stays tighter for very long periods, uses stronger jointing methods and enables users claim best state of the art methods in the event of incident.
For forestry products polyester strapping is used, but instead of being extruded it is frequently made from polyester fibres, this having the same basic characteristics as the extruded polyester strapping but has the advantage of using very simple application methods, the tooling being better suited to 'In Field' conditions. Simple tensioners and metal buckles, which make a very strong joint are used, rather than the more sophisticated battery powered friction weld strapping tools.Strapping Particle and MDF Boards in bulk normally occurs at point of manufacture and here fully automated strapping machines that use polyester strapping are normally used but where packs are broken down into smaller units the battery powered friction weld hand tools are frequently used, often in conjunction with bespoke manufactured, low cost mobile strapping machines manufactured by The Plastic Strapping Company Ltd of Nottingham.
Components manufactured from wood, particle board etc such as furniture, kitchens generally have primary packaging materials applied to protect the product from accidental impact damage and to keep them clean, adding a little resilience to the pack when palletised and permiting the use of polypropylene strapping. For high volume conveyorised output automated strapping machines are best suited, but for lower outputs then battery powered strapping tools and Strap Pokas are ideal.