Shrink wrapping palletized goods

An apparatus for shrinking a heat-shrinkable hood over a stack of goods, the apparatus comprising:

• an upright guide adjacent the hooded stack of goods;
• an upper frame vertically displaceable on the guide and provided with a heater capable of shrinking the hood and specifically designed to shrink a closed upper end of the hood;
• a lower frame below the upper frame, vertically displaceable on the guide independently of and below the upper frame, and provided with a heater capable of shrinking the hood;
• and
• respective upper and lower drive means connected to the frames for vertically displacing same on the guide independently of each other.

A method of shrinking a heat-shrinkable hood onto a stack of goods, the method comprising the steps of sequentially:

• a) positioning the stack of goods in a treatment station with the hood pulled down over the goods, a lower end edge of the hood hanging down below a lower end of the stack of goods, and an upper closed end of the hood on an upper surface of the stack of goods;
• b) heating the hanging-down lower end edge of the hood by means of a lower heater and thereby shrinking the lower end edge in under the lower end of the stack of goods;
• and
• c) simultaneously heating the upper closed end of the hood by means of an upper heater independent of the lower heater while moving the lower heater independently from the upper heater and vertically upward from the lower end edge of the hood to simultaneously shrink the upper closed end down onto the upper surface of the stack while shrinking side regions of the hood inward into engagement with side surfaces of the stack of goods.