Patent ID: 7937910

Claim:
A method for preparing and depositing a packaging sleeve on a palletized load, comprising: forming the sleeve in a preparation station from a flexible plastic film wound flat on at least one storage reel, taking hold of the sleeve by means of a gripper device equipped with at least one set of grippers movable in the heightwise direction with a vertical translation movement between a raised position and a lowered position, performing transverse stretching in the raised position by moving the four corners of the sleeve apart by means of the set of grippers, after stretching, transferring the sleeve to a position above the load situated in a depositing station, the overstretching perimeter then being greater than the pick-up perimeter, and lowering the sleeve to envelop the load to be packaged, wherein grippers are used in the form of bars equipped with a notch at least at one of the ends thereof to apply a lower stretching ratio at the level of the notch so as to create a lunula on the top and/or bottom face after the set of grippers has been disengaged and the sleeve has been deposited on the load.