Patent ID: 7111438

Claim:
A packaging method for drawing a packaging material out from a packaging material roll in which the packaging material is wound-up in a form of a roll, and wrapping the packaging material around side surfaces of a loaded object which is loaded on a pallet, the packaging method comprising: detecting that a remaining length of the packaging material has become shorter than a length needed to wrap around the side surfaces of the loaded object; after the detecting, stopping the wrapping of the packaging material around the side surfaces of the loaded object; increasing an amount of the drawn-out packaging material trained on accumulating rollers comprising a set of fixed and reserve rollers by moving the reserve roller away from the fixed roller; fixing the reserve roller and stopping drawing-out of the packaging material, when a trailing end of the packaging material is drawn out to a joining position at which the trailing end of the packaging material is joined together with a leading end of a subsequent packaging material; joining together the trailing end of the packaging material and the leading end of the subsequent packaging material; and after the joining, starting wrapping of the packaging material onto the side surfaces of the loaded object and drawing-out of the subsequent packaging material from a packaging material roll.