New challenges in logistics, variety packs and the focus on quarter pallets. What are the future developments?

Recent years have seen major changes in trade, production and logistics: the market has become truly global, closely connecting all 5 continents. Logistics has never been more crucial than in the last few decades.

The way in which goods are transported has also been transformed by the increase in production lines based on the introduction of half and quarter pallets and constant technological development, factors that are necessary to meet the ever-changing demands and needs of the market.

All this has given the world of end-of-line packaging an even more strategic role in terms of productivity, efficiency and safety.

Tosa therefore began to look at its role in the market from a different angle, fully embracing the paradigm shift from an end-of-line philosophy to one of integrated logistics.

The shift from «wrapping machine as the last machine in the packaging process» to «wrapping machine as the first machine in an integrated logistics process» is precisely what we refer to. A focal point, the latter, from which the supply chain of every company unwinds.

If wrapping and strapping machines were once seen as the last machines in the packaging process, they now represent the starting point of the integrated logistics process, where stabilising and protecting goods is the basis for sorting, transporting and delivering loads directly to the end user.

In this context of continuous evolution and change, quarter pallets represent the new frontier for handling and shipping goods.

With the boom in e-commerce, due in part to the pandemic, online sales have increased exponentially, presenting new challenges in the handling and shipping of picking products. As a result, the quarter pallet has proven to be one of the best means of handling goods due to its flexibility of use.

At the same time, the quarter pallet is also being used more and more for retail display in the aisles of supermarkets, following the logic of «display marketing».

Used for promotional purposes, they allow retailers to significantly increase the number of different products displayed in the aisles, stimulating impulse purchases and consequently increasing sales.

Display pallets, including quarter pallets, greatly simplify material handling, eliminating the need for picking from the warehouse and minimising the handling and storage of individual items, allowing distribution centres to send complete display pallets directly to stores.

This format also allows mixed palletising, i.e. palletising products of different types and sizes on the same pallet, so that more different items can be efficiently shipped as ready-to-display units.

Being in direct view of the end user, the integrity of the goods and the pallets themselves therefore presents a crucial factor. This is why tertiary packaging, with wrapping and strapping machines, plays a key role in ensuring product stability and integrity.

Tosa has been a pioneer in the management of this pallet format, a logistics pallet that is experiencing strong growth thanks to the agility it allows, especially in serving the large-scale retail trade.

However, managing this format requires specific know-how, since applying the stabilisation logic of standard pallet formats to a smaller size, such as the quarter, is not sufficient.

For several years now, Tosa’s multinational and non-multinational customers have been expressing the need to use precisely this format, which is particularly in demand in the Food & Beverage and Automotive sectors.

The experience gained in the field and Tosa’s ability to see where others simply look, have enabled the development of dedicated solutions for quarter pallets, skilfully combining the use of modular plastic belt conveyors, destackers and stackers for handling quarters on «mother» pallets, tailor-made recompaction and stabilisation systems, and know-how in managing the wrapping cycle.

The technological solutions developed to handle irregular and incomplete loads, typical of logistical picking, are numerous, and among these we can certainly mention Smart Wrapping and variable pre-stretching unit with double brushless motorisation.

The former automatically optimises film distribution during the wrapping cycle to minimise film consumption and actively controls tension in the corners of the palletised load so not to damage them. This is an essential point, since products placed on quarter pallets are often transported directly from the manufacturer to the end customer.

The second makes it possible to maximise the properties of the stretch film used by ‘pre-stretching’ it, i.e. lengthening it so that the wrapping process can be carried out with a smaller amount of stretch film. Wrapping programmes with variable pre-stretch on different layers of the same palletised load can also be set directly from the control panel. These processes certainly reduce the cost of consumables, as the amount applied to each load is optimised according to the actual characteristics of the product itself, and they also minimise the impact on the environment with a view to greater sustainability.

This pre-stretch model also allows to test the maximum pre-stretch percentage attainable with the film used, thus avoiding possible breakages and machine stoppages that would lower the productivity of lines dedicated to the stabilisation of quarter pallets, in which very high production rates are required.

These technologies, together with many others equipped in Tosa Group’s range, allow optimal stabilisation of palletised loads, also in function of the characteristics of the quarter pallets on which the picking products are placed, always guaranteeing perfect integrity of the products to be displayed or not.