Three Reasons Why Plastic Film Cannot Go Core-Less
Posted on: 1 August 2018
Have you seen this new trend where toilet paper companies make rolls of toilet paper with no cardboard cores? They make rolls with no cores. The idea is that the minute your roll unravels to the last sheet, that is it. No wasted toilet paper scraps glued to cardboard cores, and no cardboard cores need recycling. It is a use-it-and-it-is-done product.
Now, you may be the nature-loving kind that thinks this idea is great for trees and the environment. However, you may also be wondering why other products, such as plastic wrap, have not gone core-less. There are many good reasons for that.
Plastic Wrap Cannot Roll Without a Core
Given the nature of plastic wrap, it is easy to see and understand why plastic wrap manufacturers rely so much on film core suppliers. You cannot, no matter how hard you try, wrap plastic wrap in a perfect roll without a core.
The plastic quickly becomes a jumbled, stuck-to-itself mess. It flattens out on its own, and you cannot get it to pull apart to try and re-roll it. It needs a core around which to wind in order to stay in a neat and tidy roll.
Plastic Wrap Cannot Unwind Without a Core Either
Even if you were able to find or make a plastic wrap roll core-less, then there is the overly complicated task of making it easy to unwind. You would still need to stick something solid in the middle to help the roll unwind evenly.
Without a core, the wrap would come off in stretched and ripped shreds. If you needed to spin and unroll the wrap quickly (as is the case in food preparation factories or shipping companies), then you definitely need a solid core to help keep the roll stable as it is spun around items to be packaged.
You Want and Need the Last Scrap of Film from the Roll
Plastic film differs from toilet paper and paper towel rolls in that the very end of the roll of plastic wrap is not glued down to its core. This allows you to use every inch of the plastic wrap roll, and the tail end of the roll sticks to the rest just as well as the beginning of the roll.
If you could make plastic wrap core-less, there is a very good chance that the end of the roll would be wadded up to give the rest of the roll something to adhere to and roll around. That would be a waste of good plastic wrap.
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