History of Stretch Wrapping Machines: From Invention to Modern Automation

Reviewed and updated by ICD - Week 44/2026

The first commercial stretch pallet wrapper was launched by the brothers Pat and Bill Lancaster (Lantech, Louisville, Kentucky, USA) at a US packaging show in May 1973, after filing patent US 3,867,806 on 4 April 1973. Six years later, on 21 November 1979, the same brothers filed the first patent on pre-stretch, the technique of stretching film before wrapping to save film.

I am Le Van Thang, working with stretch wrappers and packaging supplies at ICD Vietnam since 2011. This industry’s history is often retold with many unsourced dates, so this guide keeps only the milestones that can be checked in patent records, trade magazines, and manufacturer documents; any milestone I could not verify I left out, and where something is our own inference it is stated clearly.

How were pallets secured before 1973?

Before 1973, loads on pallets were held by steel or plastic strapping, or covered with a large shrink film hood passed through a heating oven. Both cost more than stretch film: according to Material Handling & Logistics magazine, strapping cost USD 2-5 per pallet (depending on whether top-frame pallet edge boards were used), a shrink hood cost USD 1.35-1.40, and an early stretch wrapper only USD 0.75-1. These are US prices in 1973.

The shrink hood is exactly what Lantech was working on when it was founded in 1972: the two brothers set up the company to develop an infrared system for shrinking plastic hoods over pallets. It was the cost of the shrink hood (energy hungry, heating the whole load) that led them to try plastic film to get the bundling effect without heat.

Who invented the pallet stretch wrapper, and in what year?

The pallet stretch wrapper was invented by Pat and Bill Lancaster; patent application US 3,867,806 was filed on 4 April 1973 and granted in 1975, and the first production machine was launched at a show of the American packaging industry association (now Pack Expo) in May 1973. Lantech documents give 1972 for the invention; the patent record and the show are both in 1973, so this guide uses the documented date.

They did not build a new type of film. The two brothers tried films already on the market, including dry-cleaning film and meat and poultry wrap, to find one that could both stretch and cling to itself. The first prototype used brakes from a Ford Falcon car and shock absorbers from a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, because at the time neither was used to ordering industrial components. Pat Lancaster recalls that when they described the idea, many people said the film was too thin to hold a two-thousand-pound load.

Patent US 3,867,806 describes a process of wrapping several layers of stretch film around a load: hold the film tail to the load, let the film stretch as it wraps, then attach the tail to the previous layer. A trade magazine called this the “first commercially successful” pallet wrapper, and an interview with Pat Lancaster says their multi-layer clamping system solved the problems that made earlier single-layer systems fail.

The advantage over shrink hoods was summarized by Lancaster himself in a 2008 interview: stretch film cut material to about a third and used about one percent of the energy. The wrapper also removed almost all strapping labor and every risk of a steel strap snapping.

When did pre-stretch appear and how much film does it save?

Pre-stretch (stretching the film before wrapping it onto the load) appeared in the late 1970s: Lantech filed patent US 4,302,920 on 21 November 1979, and Pat Lancaster says the technique cut about another 50% of the film needed to secure a load. The 50% figure is the inventor’s claim, not an independently verified result.

The principle: the film passes through two rollers turning at different speeds; the rear roller is faster than the front, so the film is stretched past its yield point right between the two rollers, and only then reaches the load. The description in patent US 4,387,548 allows the gear ratio to be set from 30% to 300% for different films, and with a power-assist device it can exceed 250%. Many stretch films break at about 500% in a pull test, but in wrapping they are stretched only 100-300%.

Note that the filing date of US 4,387,548 is 8 September 1980, not the same as the first patent’s date although they belong to the same patent family. All three patents are in the names of the Lancaster brothers and Lantech, checked on Google Patents.

ICD Vietnam machine models publish the following ratios (per product pages, accessed October 2026).

How did the self-propelled wrapping robot come about?

A self-propelled wrapping robot is a battery-powered machine that drives itself around a stationary pallet: the first patent found is US 4,095,395 by Joseph Goldstein, filed on 19 May 1977 (a continuation of an application filed on 20 December 1976) and granted on 20 June 1978. Robopac commercialized this type of machine from the 1980s.

In the history published on the Aetna Group site, Robopac was founded in the 1980s (the history section says 1984), starting with a battery-powered robot that drove itself around a pallet of any size and wrapped stretch film. Aetna’s magazine of October 2016 says that in 1984 they bought the “robot” patent of the California inventor J. Goldstein and sold it worldwide, in the US specifically from 1985.

In 1987, Robopac Sistemi was founded to make systems and automatic machines that stabilize pallet loads with stretch film, that is, the automatic machine branch on production lines. The verifiable milestone is 1987, per the manufacturer’s own history; no source was found for the “fully automatic” milestone in the 1990s often seen online.

With a robot, the pallet does not need to go onto a turntable so it is not limited by turntable load, and the machine can wrap right where the pallet sits (per the patent description, the wrapping unit travels around the stationary load). The two ICD Vietnam robot models on sale have these specifications (per product pages, accessed October 2026).

Since when have pallet wrappers had their own safety standard?

The European standard EN 415-6 on packaging machine safety, part 6 on pallet wrapping machines, had its second edition approved on 7 October 2013 (88 pages). Its scope covers 11 machine groups, including pallet stretch wrappers, mobile wrappers, and self-propelled semi-automatic wrappers, which is to say the robot type mentioned above too.

To check whether a specific machine complies, you need to check against the full text of the standard, available for a fee from national standards bodies.

Which generation do ICD Vietnam wrappers belong to?

ICD Vietnam (founded 2011) sells the machine generations above: turntable (ICD-2000 BF, ICD-X100, ICD-T1650F), horizontal wrapping (ICD-S800E), and self-propelled robots (ICD-Maxgo, ICD-XT4550). ICD also sells one Robopac model, the Robopac Plus ICD TP3 wrapper. The full catalog and main specifications are in the ICD Vietnam pallet stretch wrapping machines group.

A real handover example is in the ICD news item on delivering a wrapper to a customer in Hung Yen. To understand how the parts inside a machine (turntable, pre-stretch rollers, controller) work, see the article on the structure and operating principle of a pallet stretch wrapper. If you already own a machine, the guide to operating a pallet wrapper correctly walks through each step, and common stretch wrap machine faults covers the problems that come up most.

Frequently asked questions

In what year was the pallet stretch wrapper invented?

1973: patent application US 3,867,806 was filed on 4 April 1973 and the first production machine was launched at a US packaging show in May 1973. Some Lantech documents give 1972, the year the company was founded and began experiments.

Who invented the pallet stretch wrapper?

The brothers Patrick (Pat) and William (Bill) Lancaster of Louisville, Kentucky (USA), founders of Lantech. They are named on US 3,867,806 and the later pre-stretch patents.

Before stretch wrappers, how were loads on pallets secured?

With steel or plastic strapping, or with a large shrink hood that was then heated. Per US figures from 1973, strapping cost USD 2-5 per pallet, a shrink hood USD 1.35-1.40, and machine-wrapped stretch film USD 0.75-1.

When did pre-stretch appear and how much film does it save?

Lantech’s first pre-stretch patent application was filed on 21 November 1979 (US 4,302,920). Pat Lancaster says it cut about another 50% of the film; this is the inventor’s claim, and the real saving depends on the film, the load, and the wrapping method.

When did the self-propelled wrapping robot come about?

The self-propelled wrapping robot patent US 4,095,395 by Joseph Goldstein was filed in 1977 and granted in 1978. Robopac, now part of Aetna Group, commercialized this type of machine from the 1980s; manufacturer documents say that in 1984 it bought J. Goldstein’s robot patent.

Do pallet wrappers have their own safety standard?

Yes. The European standard EN 415-6:2013 sets safety requirements for pallet wrappers, including mobile and self-propelled semi-automatic wrappers. The standard does not apply to machines made before its publication.

Contact ICD Vietnam

References

• Google Patents, US 3,867,806 (Lancaster, filed 4 April 1973); same source: US 4,302,920, US 4,418,510, US 4,095,395 (Goldstein, filed 19 May 1977)
• US 4,387,548 - Power assisted roller-stretch wrapping process (Lantech, granted 14 June 1983)
• Clyde Witt, 3 Billion Pallets Wrapped and Counting, Material Handling & Logistics, July 2007
• Kevin T. Higgins, The art of observation (interview with Patrick R. Lancaster III), Food Engineering, 2008
• SIS, SS-EN 415-6:2013 - Safety of packaging machines, Part 6: Pallet wrapping machines
• Wikipedia, Stretch wrap (LLDPE material, stretch levels in use)
• History of Robopac and Robopac Sistemi on the Aetna Group site (The Group - History section) and Aetna Group Magazine America, October 2016: manufacturer documents, no link.
• Robot, pre-stretch, and output specifications on ICD Vietnam product pages, accessed October 2026.