Wooden pallets are used for the effective consolidation of packages, packaging and fastening of goods during transportation from abroad. The effectiveness of the pallet lies in the possibility of their reuse, universality, and low cost (pallets are made of any species of low-quality wood, which ensures accessibility without loss of physical characteristics). Daniel T Anderson, an engineering writer at essay help on-time service, emphasizes that pallets can significantly simplify and speed up the process of loading and unloading certain types of goods, as well as increase safety when delivered.
A pallet is a flat stand for rectangular and other types of cargo. It provides bottom slots for fork loaders and protrusions for slings provided for moving on weight. Pallets are used in freight traffic, through which they form enlarged cargo units. CCUs represent a certain amount of goods held together in some way and are used to speed up the loading and unloading operations.
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Types of pallets
There are several types of pallets, and one of the most common is the euro pallet. Standard euro pallets are 1200x800x145. The upper part consists of 5 boards: 3 wide (145 mm), 2 narrow (100 mm), alternating in width. The lower part consists of three boards: two narrow on the sides, and wide in the middle. There is a pallet on 9 legs, the extreme ones have dimensions of 78x100x145 mm, medium ones - 78x145x145 mm.
The dimensions of standard euro pallets correspond to the internal dimensions of the containers. On the right legs of the pallets, there is necessarily the EUR brand mark in the oval. The most common are wooden pallets. Standard euro pallets sizes are defined by the international standard UIC435-2.
Currently, pallets are made of wood, plastic, chipboard, and metal. Pallets vary in weight. The weight of the euro pallet 1200x800 is not specified by the standard, so they can be made of various materials. The most common wooden pallets weigh from 15 to 20 kg, and the weight of wooden double-sheeting pallets is up to 40 kg. The carrying capacity of the euro pallets 1200x800, made of wood, depends on its sort. For the transportation of light goods, for example, clothes, lightweight wooden pallets of the same sizes are used. The weight of lightweight euro pallets 1200 * 800 ranges from 8-10 kg. Such a pallet can withstand a weight of up to 2.5 tons in a static state and up to 1 ton in motion. The maximum allowed carrying capacity of standard euro pallets is 2 tons.
The load can be secured on the pallet in three ways:
1. special packing, in which the weight is held by its own weight, suitable for heavy objects (for example, bags of sugar flour, gold bars);
2. binding fixing tapes, tapes must be durable (can be metal, polymer, woven);
3. wrapping cargo with a special film, most often with a stretch film. The maximum height of euro pallets with a load is 1.8 m.
Standard pallets
The most commonly used types are EUR and FIN pallets, as described before. Here are more details:
Standard pallet sizes in inches and millimeters
1000 mm is converted to 39.37 inches.
Here are some of them:
· Euro pallet (EUR-pallet) - 800x1200x145mm
· Fin pallets (FIN-pallet, Finnish pallet) - 1000x1200x145mm
· Euro Box, typical dimensions of the wooden pallet: 1000x1200x145 mm (Wx LxH). For their production, boards of 10 or 12 cm width are taken. The weight of standard pallets depends on the mass of the elements (bars, planks), which, in turn, determines the type and origin of wood, and humidity indicators.
According to ISO 6780, typical dimensions of the wooden pallet: 1000x12 00x145 mm (Wx LxHypical). For their production, boards of 10 or 12 cm width are taken. The weight of standard pallets depends on the mass of the elements (bars, planks), which, in turn, determines the type and origin of wood, and humidity indicators.
Pallets made from dense, heavy wood can reach 24 kg. If dried porous array blanks are used, the weight of the final product will be 10 kg or less. The load capacity of wooden pallets ranges from 1000 to 2500 kg.
Main dimensions and tolerances are given in the table.
Wide and short pallets
Especially for work with dimensional cargoes pallets of 1200х1200 mm are produced. Such products are practically not used in cargo transportation; they are used in warehouses and production workshops. Wide reinforced pallets are made of boards from 18 to 25 mm thick, their assembly is carried out by means of high-strength twisted nails.
The shortened (lightweight) pallets are 1200x800 mm in size. Such belong to the category of the cheapest, universal in application. Flat four-way pallets of 1200x800 mm are widely used due to low price, good performance. They have a lifting capacity of up to 1 ton, and weight of up to 40 kg.
American Pallets
Talking of standard sizes in North America, it is reasonable to to begin with think almost the bed estimate 48×40 inches (1219×1016 mm), which got to be well known within the 1960s. The 48×40 inch bed is one of the six standard ISO bed sizes (see underneath). Arrange bed GMA has long been the informal "standard" for high-speed supply chains for buyer merchandise (FMCG), although for decades in such beds there were critical contrasts in terms of the thickness and width of the components, the quality of stumble, wood species, affixing materials, the operation of apparatus and the resistance to harm. Since of this changeability, it is imperative to report nitty gritty desires for beds to providers or shippers. GMA pallets are ordinarily sold as unused or utilized (recycled).
The utilize of 48×40 inch pallets has too spread within the supply chains of customer products within the late 1990s and early 2000s thanks to CHEP pallets rental companies, and after that PECO, which made them effectively available to clients within the US (at the time, these pallets were well known in other supply chains, as well as in Europe). One address that emerges concerns the estimate of the CHEP pallets. In North America, the standard CHEP estimate is 48×40 inches. Most as of late, a 24×40 inch semi-pallet was presented. Canada ordinarily offers a 48×20 inches CHEP pallet. At the universal level, CHEP pallet sizes ordinarily meet existing or created benchmarks within the locale of utilization.
Nowadays, almost 30% of US beds are 48 × 40 inches. Take note that they are recorded in width in length, and not in length in width, as given afterward in this article:
Common pallet sizes in the United States
How many pallets fit into a container
Since the size of a standard pallet is 1200x800x145 mm, this allows you to load 11 euro pallets into a standard 20-foot container in one-tier. The width of the container does not allow placing the pallets in two rows equally (along or across the body), therefore, in the first row they put 7 pallets across, and in the second - 4 pallets along the body.
The 40-foot container includes 23-24 euro pallets. In the same way, as in a 20-foot container, one row of pallets is placed across the body, so you can put up to 11 pieces.
In a standard tilt truck with a length of 13.6 m, you can place 32 euro pallets if they stand with the long side across the body (16 rows of 2 pallets - 0.8 x 16 = 12.8 m) or 33 if the pallets stand with a short side - "triples" (11 rows 3 pallets 11x1.2 = 13.2 m). In the second case, the load will be stronger.
Containers of any other size are loaded as preliminary calculations according to the size of a standard pallet and vehicle parameters on the same principle. Cargo standing on a pallet should not protrude beyond the edges. Wooden euro pallets must be durable to withstand the weight of the load.
This is how the arrangement of pallets inside a 20- and 40-foot container (respectively) looks schematically. More location options can be found on the pallet types page.
The use of pallets in freight traffic
The very first pallet can be called a skid. It began to be used in the early twentieth century in American factories for the purpose of consolidation packages for the carriage of weapons. Skid is a wooden board with boards attached on the sides. Over time, the skid was improved, and in 1925 another shield had been nailed to the boards, which was the prototype of the modern pallet.
It is important to distinguish between the pallets and cargo space. In international traffic, the shipping documents often indicate the number of packages. This should imply any unit of cargo that can be overloaded without repackaging.
Nowadays, the use of pallets during transportation has become widespread. This is primarily due to the automation of the loading/unloading processes, as well as concern for the safety of the goods. Thanks pallet cargo is delivered in one piece without any problems of reloading.
Pallet loading with a forklift
Cargo pallets can be classified according to different parameters. So, depending on the service life, you can select disposable and multi-turn pallets. After using disposable pallets, they are disposed of, and multi-turn pallets are used in further activities. Reuse in this case does not affect the degradation of the properties and characteristics of the pallet itself.
By the number of grips for a forklift, there are two-way and four-way pallets. The loader pallets pick up the loader from two opposite sides, four loaders - from four sides. Thus, the likelihood of damage to the cargo during loading is minimized.
Pallets are made from various materials. The most common material today is wood. Such pallets are environmentally friendly, are subject to easy repair, and have a relatively low cost. But very often wooden pallets are forced out by plastic ones. Such pallets have less weight, do not lend themselves to rotting processes, and are easily stored. Metal pallets are also very durable, but due to their large mass, their use is limited. There are also combined pallets that have the advantages of all the
listed materials.
Pallets are also classified by the number of sites for the placement of goods. Pallets are single-coated and double-coated. On pallets of the first type, they place the cargo on one of their sides. Duplex pallets have two tiers, which allows you to place more products on one pallet.
To any type of pallet, cargo is attached by laying (the cargo retains itself due to its weight), due to linking the pallet with fasteners (tapes of fabric, polymers or metal), due to wrapping the cargo with a pallet in stretch or shrink film.
Why standard pallets are important?
Standard-sized pallets can be imperative to extend conveyance productivity and adaptability, for illustration, when the different joins within the supply chain and fabric dealing with hardware are optimized to handle the estimate of a specific standard. The utilization of trucks, warehousing, and indeed dispersion in retail, as well as working with forklifts and other dealing with hardware can be superior optimized much obliged to standard measurements. Adaptability comes into play with regard to the ease of pulling in elective supply chain accomplices, where all interested parties utilize a standard pallet. Essentially, pallets are indispensable.
With respect to the conveyance of pallets, the utilization of standard pallets such as GMA pallets or EPAL pallets permits you to scale any exchange commerce and compete effectively. As a result, pallet buyers frequently get competitive costs. Essentially, standard pallets are for the most part in tall request, so pallet processors are propelled to gather and repair them for resale. Standard utilization of pallets encourages recuperation and reuse.
On the other hand, when acknowledged bed sizes are institutionalized and supply chains are optimized to handle them, resistance to advancements that veer from guidelines may appear.