Blog · 11 articles
Specs & engineering
Dimensions, load paths, fasteners and the physics of a wooden platform.
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11 articles
Marking pallets so you can find them again
Wood is a hostile surface for anything you want to read later. Most pallet tracking schemes die on that fact.
ReadCan you rack a used pallet? The honest answer
This is the question we are asked most often and the one where a supplier is most tempted to give a comfortable answer.
ReadWhy an AS/RS rejects a pallet a forklift would not notice
A driver looks at a pallet and decides. A shuttle measures it and refuses. Those are different standards and only one of them is written down.
ReadDesigning a pallet for automation
A human driver compensates for a pallet that is half an inch out. A conveyor does not, and it does not tell you either — it just stops.
ReadReclaimed hardwood usually beats new pine
The instinct is that new beats used. In wood packaging the species difference usually outweighs the age difference.
ReadBlue stain is not rot, and rejecting it costs you money
Every year somebody rejects a load of perfectly sound pallets because the pine has gone grey-blue. It is one of the better bargains in this industry.
ReadThe cheapest part of a pallet decides how long it lasts
Pallets rarely fail because a board broke. They fail because a joint let go, and the joint is the cheapest thing in the build.
ReadDeck coverage is not deck strength
Customers ask for more deck boards when they want more strength. Sometimes that works. Often they have bought the wrong upgrade.
ReadBlock or stringer: the honest decision
Block pallets are better in almost every engineering sense and worse in the one that decides most purchase orders.
ReadOverhang is not a packaging detail. It is a damage budget.
Cartons carry their load in the corners. Hang a corner over the edge and you have removed the part that was doing the work.
ReadYour pallets keep breaking in the same place. Here is why.
Nine times out of ten a failed pallet has cracked in the same three inches of wood. It is not bad luck and it is not cheap lumber.
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