Having a few issues
Over the last few days my mind has been preoccupied on work related issues. The one issue I am trying to solve is not so simple and will take a little experimenting. I am hoping this post will get some of the intelligent minds working and maybe help solve this. I can't believe I am always neck deep in something and will get to the bottom of this one.
My pallet wrap which we manufacture is the problem. There is nothing wrong with the product itself but the cardboard tubing that is the core is starting to bubble on the inside. The stock that is in Durban where it is manufactured doesn't have this issue. The problem arises when it comes to Johannesburg and don't know why.
Durban is a sub tropical climate by the coast so at sea level. The stock is transported by road to Johannesburg. the stock is all protected and covered so no transport damage.. It is one particular size core that is bubbling and not all of them either, maybe 10 percent or less.
We increased the thickness and quality of the core and it has helped but it is still there. The cores were 3 mm thick and now we are up to a 6 mm thickness. I thought it could be the change in altitude as Durban is by the coast and Johannesburg is at 5900 feet above sea level.The rolls are under pressure already and thought it could be this.
My other theory is the moisture in the air and as they travel up to Johannesburg the drier it gets so maybe if the cores have moisture in them then they somehow get a little weaker.My hunch is the factory that is making them in Durban is not letting them dry out and then selling them and that there is still moisture in them when sold.
I honestly don't know what to expect as it only happens on the stock coming to Johannesburg.Does anyone have any thoughts or experienced something similar (doubtful). I personally think it is around moisture and the core isn't fully dry when being used by the factory doing the pallet wrap.I will get to the bottom of it and seem to end up being a specialist in whatever field I get involved in.
Humidity.... Moisture in the air down here has been excessively high of late @cryptoandcoffee almost feel like a fish in a warm/hot water fish tank some days of the week.
Heck sometimes I think if you stand still for too long you will grow mold!
Think you are on the right track of reasoning, packed in humid climate, possibly whilst drizzling had a fair amount this season. Packed tightly/securely onto trucks for the journey under tarpaulin possibly creating it's own humidity (ecosystem) under direct sunlight, cardboard gives under pressure of swelling/drying out.
Hi Joan. There is something I am sure. I have delved a little deeper today and it looks like the curing process takes 4-7 days for the glue to dry and reach peak strength. There is no ways my factory is waiting that long and have no idea how old those tubes are. If i was manufacturing orders of 100 000 tubes at a time I would give the customer the hurry up as soon it was ready. The factory is using the tubes within 2 or 3 days so they haven't dried out and that is why we are having some failures with collapsed tubes. I hope I am right as this is a problem I didn't want. My customers trust me enough to know I will fix this issue so it is buying me some good will time for now.
Everyone wants everything yesterday.
Curing time on tubes needs to be notified to factory, perhaps this happened playing catch-up on orders with electricity upheaval countrywide. Drying ovens may have been on/off upsetting the process, affecting the glue.
Not an easy one to play detective on, very annoying though. You may have to go back as far as chemicals used in cardboard manufacture and/or glue used, was anything different in what was used. R&D labs should keep samples of incoming and outgoing products they supply.
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Wow, that is indeed a conundrum. From what it sounds like, you are probably right. I wonder if you could try putting a silica pack in the middle of one of the rolls before it makes the trip to see if that absorbs anything. Like they use for food to reduce moisture etc. Does the damage to the tube reduce the effectiveness of the shrink wrap? Are you just concerned that it doesn't look very good to your customers? I guess that would be another thing I would consider. Is it just optics or is it impacting the performance.
Been doing some investigating today and it looks like the tubes need 4 days to cure to reach their core strength. This is obviously not happening currently and the factory needs to wait a little longer before production and order differently to what they are currently used to. The problem occurred when I came on board with some big customers. Just shocked I had to find it out and not the cardboard manufacturer.
Glad you are getting to the bottom of it!
When you take the cores to a higher altitude, which causes them to dry out, it shouldn't cause them to become any weaker. In the contrary, the tensile strength of cardboard or paper should increase as it dries out. Or at least that's what I think.
It's surprising what kind of a difference air pressure differences can make. In the summer of 2002, I visited Austria. One day, a couple of friends and I took a cabin lift from a valley (at 500 m) to a mountainside (1600 m). I bought a bottle of water and we continued climbing until we came to the top at 2140 m. By that time, the bottle made up of thin plastic was empty. I screwed in the cap at the top and we proceeded to descend. By the time we had reached the valley, the bottle had become very noticeably deformed. It had lost, if my memory serves me correctly, about one fifth of its volume.
My guess is that some amount of air is trapped between the core and the pallet wrap. Because the core is much softer than the hundreds of layers of wrap put together, the air will cause weak spots in the core to give in.
5900 feet equals about 1800 m. That's even more than the difference in altitude between the top of my Austrian mountain and the valley floor.
Air getting trapped between the core and the wrap would explain the randomness of the locations of the bubbles on the inside of the core.
Possibly that could be solution to why. I have checked with a manufacturer in Johannesburg for the reasons and the answer was that the cores take 4-7 days to cure. The glue has to dry out to give it it's strength. I don't think they are even waiting 2 days before using them which would make sense. The cores are collapsing where the glue is still wet. Interesting problem but also frustrating. I like your story though and hope this isn't the case.
That story makes a lot of sense. Perhaps what you're looking at is caused by both as it doesn't happen in Durban.
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I think a thicker tube with the correct curing time will be ok. The manufacturers in Johannesburg don't have the same issues. However saying that I saw a competitors roll this week and there was signs of bubbling, but not as bad. I was hoping you were going to answer as you work things out.
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