How to Get the Most Stretch for Your Film

Whoever would have thought that stretch film – that miniscule layer of film that keeps stacked pallets from toppling during warehouse handling and overland transit – would have a total consumption weight of 1 billion pounds per year? Keep in mind that figure accounts for just the United States’ total alone. Given the rising global popularity of stretch film, especially in the newly industrialized nations of Asia, one can only forecast ever more billions of pounds of potential wastage. In sum, all that wafer-thin plastic would require a pretty big wastebasket to fit in.

Part of the reason that so much plastic stretch wrap is used is due to sheer human inefficiency. The typical warehouse day-shift worker will stretch a sheet of film only to 25-50% of its full stretch capacity. Compare this fact to just how far a stretch wrap machine can stretch plastic film around a load of pallets: some machines are in fact capable of stretching well beyond 100% of the theoretical intended amount. If you’re new to buying one of these machines, keep a watchful eye on the web for sales deals at any number of companies, or check out Chicago’s own biannual Pack Expo and meet the manufacturers face-to-face.

The Unseen (But Much Overheard) Problem of Noise Pollution

Deafness isn’t just a problem for aging rock-stars. Every year according to the CDC, 22 million American workers are exposed to hazardous levels of noise when on the job. While musicians form a disproportionately sized slice of the epidemic, other occupations make their numbers seem trite in comparison. Machinists and welders in automotive assembly plants, soldiers overexposed to munitions discharges, miners, steel- and sawmill workers, meat processing plant personnel, and construction workers are just some of the larger demographics who regularly experience hearing impairment on account of their work conditions.



3M Ear Muffs with a
Noise Reduction
Rating of 24dB



But before you scramble to run an online search for hearing aids, consider that hearing-loss prevention might actually be the goal you’re seeking. Hearing loss – particularly in obvious, heavy industrial settings – is a problem that can be anticipated – for the most part – years in advance. It shouldn’t just be that you don earplugs at night when you’re trying to get to sleep to the tune of the neighbor’s dog yapping away. Nor should earplugs serve a specialty purpose and only that, like when you’re on a firing range. The modern world, specifically the modern-urban-industrial daytime world, is rife with noise pollution. To that end, Stamar provides hearing protection devices such as high-grade 3M ear muffs and ear plugs.

Loudness is an essential part of 9 to 5, a necessary evil of the workaday world. But there’s no reason that either you or your company need to grow deafened or defeated by the jobs you have to do.

Plastic Truck Seals Keep Your Supply Chain Safe

It is a staggering amount of money that is lost per annum to cargo theft. Every year, you can count on somewhere between $10 - $30 billion to be stolen from overland big rigs, cargo ships, railroad depots, and highway gas-stations. It’s a sum that dwarfs the GDPs of more than one country on Earth, and it’s a shame that such hard work can be snatched away with such little effort. Oftentimes, all it takes for many thousands of dollars of merchandise to be lost to the wind is one trucker leaving his rig unguarded for a few minutes at an overland truck stop. One unsuspecting bathroom break, or a quick stop for a coffee at the cashier, and suddenly one’s credibility as a trucker lies in jeopardy.

In these trying economic times, we’re sensitive to our customers’ needs when it comes to protecting their goods, as well as their good names. By using the plastic truck seals we provide at Stamar, you can ensure that if theft occurs, that theft will be made instantly apparent. If the seal has been disturbed or broken, more than likely someone has been trying to help themselves to the merchandise in question. Available in yellow, white, blue, red, or green in quantities of one hundred per case, truck seals are an easy way of keeping your overland deliveries safe, on-time, as well as ensuring that those companies whose goods you’re delivering place that much further trust in you.

Keep your eyes on the road, and let Stamar do the rest.

Stamar: Working Towards an Injury-Free Workplace

According to the Worldwide Cleaning Industry Association (ISSA), the number of work-related injuries per year in the United States runs into the many thousands. Of these injuries, a disproportionate number happen at warehouses and materials handling facilities. Whether that figure is due more to the negligence of workers or of management is a moot point. The essential thing is that these sorts of statistics – year after year – are simply unacceptable since they are mostly preventable; or if not entirely preventable, then at least are able to be mitigated. To that effort, ISSA and OSHA combined to release a comprehensive series of guidelines on how best to implement – and follow through with – warehouse safety. Every major warehouse-related activity that involves significant risk – forklift safety, manual lifting and materials handling, loading docks, conveyors, and workplace trips and falls – is covered clearly and effectively.

Let’s face it, accidents can and will happen. But in an accident-prone workplace, if you see where the problems are occurring, you can use these guidelines to begin making changes. Some of those changes necessarily involve getting the right gear. Safety glasses, hard hats, first aid kits, ear plug dispensers, lifting gloves, and fall protection harnesses are all essential items in any warehouse operation that keep the bad from becoming worse. All these things are items we stock here at Stamar. Since is safe workplace is always a more productive one, it makes strategic sense to place a long-term importance on building an inventory of safety protection equipment. We’re glad to help spread the word, and glad to do our part in keeping our nation’s workers healthy and well-protected.

Our Document Management System Just Got Leaner and Greener

Have you ever been to a restaurant where the waiter accidentally misheard your order, or the chef accidentally didn’t hear the waiter said and as a result cooked the wrong dish? Would you ever want to go back to a restaurant like that? That’s the experience many people have when it comes to dealing with many types of business: somewhere along the chain of communication, something gets lost in translation, and chaos asserts itself. 

At Stamar we believe that orderliness of service is a customer right, not a privilege. In an effort to streamline our turnkey interactions with online customers – keeping them informed of the status of a particular order from the time they make it until the moment they receive the final shipment – we’ve begun implementing Zetadocs.

Zetadocs is a useful tool for any company that prides itself on having greater orderliness, not to mention having less of a carbon footprint. When a customer’s order request finds its way to our inbox, Zetadocs allows us automatically to transcribe the order’s specifics into one standardized format. From purchase order, to warehouse pick ticket, to shipment order, to delivery number – Zetadocs is a convenient (some might nearly say flawless) way for customer and manufacturer “to be on the same page” throughout the course of a particular order. 

Furthermore, in keeping with our ethos of being a greener company, our use of Zetadocs eliminates a huge amount of paper. For example, fax orders via Zetadocs get transcribed onto a computer screen – there’s no printing involved. Wastage and redundancy are things of the past, as are any possibilities for error.

The Uses of Custom Corrugated Boxing and Packaging

If one-size-fits-all boxes were the order of the day for global packaging, then UPS and FedEx executives would doubtlessly be running for Congress. But sometimes, the product one wishes to ship isn’t of a standard size, or even of a generic dimension. Sometimes the product is simply too big for any normal warehouse to have the necessary corrugated packaging at-the-ready to provide a solution. At other times, the product is oddly-shaped, with parts that wildly jut out or spring up from the main body of the item. In cases such as these, it is most likely that your best bet is for a customized corrugated solution.

The fact that there are specific CAM/CAD packaging design programs that can help manufacturers plan and execute customized corrugated designs is of no small benefit. Here at Stamar, we make ample use of both CAD and CAM to determine what the optimal custom-fit for your product is. With our ISTA testing qualifications, as well as our command of vibration and drop testing, we insure that your product will come to no harm on the long journey from warehouse to merchant aisle. We can also work around your own specs and needs, from beginning until finish, to build the best corrugated packaging that money can buy. That’s our final word on the subject, and that, as they say, is a wrap.

Just-in-Time Warehousing Services at Stamar

Just-in-time warehousing was a concept developed in the 80s by big box retailers like Wal-Mart and K-mart, who realized they could save considerable money and manpower by warehousing their retail products and retail packaging at off-site locations. Not only would they save on time-consuming warehousing procedures, but they’d be able to free up more space on their show-floors to sell more items. Then, once they started running low on a particular item in their retail location, they could send notice to their constituent companies to send more of the same products, thus replenishing their stock conveniently and effectively.

At Stamar Packaging, we’re glad to offer JIT warehousing services to all of our clients. With three new distribution centers in addition to our original facility in Addison, IL, we’re able to meet the storage needs (both packaging and otherwise) of any number of customers throughout the United States. Our vendor managed inventory system of management lets you decide how many storage items you need and when precisely you need them delivered by. All you have to do is notify us, and we’ll handle all the heavy-duty lifting and scheduling.