17, 20 or 23 Micron? Choosing Stretch Film Thickness by Load Type

As a working rule of thumb: use ~17 micron film for light, uniform cartons on loads under roughly 300 kg; ~20 micron for mixed or general loads, which is the safe default for most Malaysian warehouses; and ~23 micron or above for heavy, sharp-edged or irregular loads. The table below summarises it. But micron is only a proxy — what you are really buying is puncture resistance and holding force, and the shape of your load matters more than its weight. This guide gives you the rule of thumb first, then the reasoning, so you can tell when the rule does not apply to you.

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These ranges are indicative and assume typical hand-applied cast film of reasonable quality — the standard 17–23 micron hand rolls we stock on our pallet stretch film page. A poor-quality 23 micron film can perform worse than a good 17 micron one, which is exactly why the rest of this article matters.

What does micron actually measure — and what does it stand in for?

A micron is a thousandth of a millimetre, so the number on the box is simply film thickness. Nobody actually needs thickness, though. What holds a pallet together is two properties that thickness roughly correlates with:

• Puncture and tear resistance — can the film survive contact with corners, edges and protrusions without holing, and if it does hole, does the tear stop or run?
• Holding force — how much containment force does the stretched film exert on the load, and does it keep exerting it through a hot truck journey?

Thicker film generally gives you more of both — but film formulation matters as much as gauge. Modern multi-layer cast films achieve at a lower micron what older single-layer films needed extra thickness for. That is why “what micron do I need?” is a useful starting question but a poor final one; the better question is “what does my load do to film?”. For the broader buying decision — hand versus machine rolls, cast film behaviour, price per kg versus price per pallet — see our stretch film buyer’s guide for Malaysia.

Why does load shape matter more than load weight?

The packaging industry commonly sorts pallet loads into three profiles, and this classification predicts film failure far better than weight does:

• Profile A — uniform: cartons stacked flush into a clean cube, nothing protruding. The film touches flat surfaces only. This is the easiest possible load, and it is where 17 micron earns its keep even on fairly heavy pallets.
• Profile B — semi-uniform: mostly regular, but with some protrusions, mixed carton sizes or small overhangs. Corners and edges contact the film at points rather than faces. Most real distribution pallets live here, which is why ~20 micron is the everyday default.
• Profile C — irregular: sharp edges, sticking-out parts, unstable or oddly shaped items — machinery, fittings, drums, furniture. The film is under constant point-loading and abrasion. This is 23 micron-plus territory, often with extra measures on top.

Here is the practical consequence: a 500 kg pallet of flush-stacked rice cartons is an easier wrapping job than a 150 kg pallet of metal brackets. The rice pallet is heavy but kind to film; the brackets are light but lethal to it. Buyers who choose micron by weight alone routinely over-spec film for heavy uniform loads and under-spec it for light spiky ones — paying too much on one line and getting transit damage on the other. Weight still matters at the extremes, but profile decides first. Our older post on choosing the right stretch film for pallets covers the same ground from the product side.

Should you go thicker, or go better?

When a load needs more containment, thicker film is one answer — but not the only one, and often not the cheapest. You have three levers:

• Up-gauge: move from 17 to 20, or 20 to 23 micron. Simple, and the right move for genuine profile C loads. The cost is proportional: film is sold by weight, so 23 micron costs roughly a third more per pallet than 17 micron at the same coverage.
• More wraps or a better pattern: extra bottom wraps where pallets get fork damage, a second band at the load’s weak height, proper 50% spiral overlap. Often fixes a “film problem” that was really a technique problem, at minimal extra film.
• Better film: a higher-performance multi-layer film at the same or lower micron. This is how many operations “down-gauge” — run thinner film that outperforms their old thicker one. Worth trialling if you wrap serious volume, because the per-pallet saving compounds.

The honest caveat: down-gauging only works with good application. Thin high-performance film applied at slack, inconsistent hand tension gives you the worst of both worlds. If your wrapping is manual and variable, a mid-gauge film with a proper wrap pattern is usually the more forgiving buy. And for genuinely sharp profile C loads, no film change beats cheap cardboard corner boards — they turn a point contact into a face contact, which is worth more than several microns.

What are the signs your micron is wrong?

Your own damage patterns will tell you, if you read them correctly:

• Film tears or holes at corners during wrapping or transit — the film is losing to point-loading. Up-gauge, or keep the micron and add corner boards on the contact edges. If tears start at fork punctures near the pallet base, add extra bottom wraps as well.
• Film is intact but loose on arrival, load has shifted — this is almost never a micron problem. Loose film means insufficient applied tension or a poor wrap pattern: hand wrapping at low stretch, missed overlap, no locking of film to the pallet base. Buying thicker film and applying it just as loosely gives you a thicker loose wrap. Fix tension and pattern first.
• Film relaxes after a day in a hot container — at Malaysian ambient temperatures of 30–38°C, stretch film’s holding force naturally decays somewhat over time. If loads leave tight and arrive slack after long hot transit, wrap with more stretch (so the film has more elastic recovery in reserve) or discuss a higher-retention film grade — before assuming you need more thickness. If your goods genuinely need a rigid, locked containment rather than elastic holding, that is a different product conversation: see stretch film vs shrink wrap.
• Film snaps repeatedly during hand wrapping — either the film is below-spec (some cheap rolls measure thinner than the box claims, or use heavily recycled resin that tears easily), or the operator is stretching over a sharp edge. Try a known-quality roll of the same micron before up-gauging.

The pattern to notice: tearing problems point to gauge or edge protection; looseness problems point to application. Diagnose before you buy, and you will often spend less, not more — stretch film sits alongside the other consumables on our packaging materials page where over-speccing quietly adds up.

Frequently asked questions

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