Maklaus has renewed the pre-stretch accessory dedicated to work in conjunction with the RES-UNI rewinding unit. The founding concepts of Maklaus’ RES rewinding range are based on versatility, efficiency and reliability.
Pre-stretching films with a RES-UNI is now an option available both to new and existing customers. A simple plug-in kit will be supplied to customers who already own a RES-UNI.
During the production process, the stretch film passes through rollers which are purposely positioned to evenly distribute the force required when stretching the material. 
The pre-stretch rollers are driven by a dedicated motor, which is electronically controlled to obtain an optimal elongation of the material. Such elongation can reach over 300% of the material’s initial length, depending on the type and quality of material being processed and the finished roll requirements. The pre-stretch accessory is supplied with an edge folding device (to obtain resistance on the edges of the finished rolls which assist as a shock absorber during transport or handling), an oscillator device (to obtain a homogeneous and evenly distributed diameter of the finished roll for enhancing finished rolls strength and at the same time reducing stocking spaces) and a hole counter system (to monitor the processing quality and indicate if there are any abnormalities in the processed material that are not apparent to the naked eye during production).
The advantages of pre-stretch films are multiple over traditional stretch films, from packaging costs savings to more efficient and practical packaging methods in palletized load wrapping and safety of the load during transport and also a reduction of wasted materials and carbon footprint.
During the stretching phase, the film’s elongation properties are modified, thus resulting in useful wrapping features such as:
- Pre-stretch film is much more rigid than standard stretch-films meaning a lower number of layers and consequently a reduced amount of material is required during the wrapping phase to guarantee the same stability of the load, also reducing the wrapping time.
- Pre-stretch film is thinner, (less than 70% of the thickness of standard stretch film). This allows to use a smaller amount of material (in terms of weight) and cut down the environmental impact along with lower storage space required when stocking the finished rolls.
- In case of manual – by hand application, the pre-stretch film can be applied by the operator with much less force than traditional film, making it easier for the operator to apply pre-stretch film to unitized loads and at the same time guaranteeing better packaging stability.
The RES-UNI pre-stretch accessory is designed as a “plug-in” component, thanks to a sliding support rail and quick connectors that allow simple installation by a single operator in a few steps. 
This cuts down on production times and avoids unnecessary interruptions during the swapping of the accessories for the different applications requirements, regardless of the operator's ability.
The use of the pre-stretch accessory is just as easy: thanks to the touch screen control panel and the optimization of the dedicated software, it is possible to set the necessary parameters with a few steps and save favorite recipes. This speeds up the production start up when switching production.
One day of additional training is required compared to the standard training provided when a RES-UNI is supplied. It consists of a training day accessible to all operators and will be provided by an official Maklaus technician on the customer site according to the needs and requests of the customer.
