The Pallet

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What is the most utilized and can be the most dangerous tool used in our Light Industrial Industry?  Care to make a guess?  I’m Marty with you here today at Warehouse and Operations as a Career.  Today lets talk a little bit about Pallets.  Pallets are everywhere, we’re around them all day every day yet how often do we really think about them.  There almost just an after thought right?  Yet we have millions of pounds of product up above us in the racks and we’re working under that weight every day.  The pallet has played a significant role in our modern material handling world since the 1940’s.  In the 30’s a boxcar with 13,000 cases of canned goods would take about 24 man hours to unload.  That same load today on pallets can be done in like 4 hours.  I found a great article http://en.lcn-pal.com/wooden-pallets/Articles/The-history-and-the-evolution-of-wood-pallets.aspx and they explained that in the early 1920’s is when we first saw pallets and skids being used.  Prior to this wooden crates, boxes, kegs and barrels were generally used in order to gather, store, protect and move merchandise.  Prior to the wooden pallet we use today, skids were used, made up essentially of stringers attached to a top deck of wood appeared in American factories along with the first low lift trucks.  Stringers are the long outside, usually 2×4 boards and usually one runs down the middle of the skid or pallet too.  Anyway, and as we learned in another episode around 1887 with that first rudimentary, and manual by the way, low lift hand truck showed up and then in 1909 the sleeker all steel low lift emerged.  The development and sophistication of forklifts helped increase the quantity and the variety of materials and products that could be handled.  Our modern day pallets started to evolve around this time, going from skids to the wooden pallet.  In order to facilitate the use of the forklifts, spacers were added in between loads, boards were the added on top of stringers to make skids.  With time, boards were also secured to the bottom of the skids in order to create a pallet.  It was around 1925 when boards were attached to the bottom of these “pallets” and boom, the modern wood pallet was born.

Today we use a few different standard size pallets.  You know how much I like Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallet  so I checked out what they had to say.  It states that a pallet is a flat transport structure, which supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a forklift, a pallet jack, a jacking device or a crane.  While most pallets are wooden, pallets can also be made of plastic, metal, and recycled materials.  Probably the most utilized here in the States would be the GMA or grocery manufacturers association or the 40×48.  I’ve seen the 48×48 handling the larger barrels and drums and Wikipedia shares that the military and cement industry uses a 48×40, I find that a little odd but hey.  Here I see a lot of beverage pallets too that are 36×36.  Walking facilities like I do I see so many different custom sizes I guess you can have a pallet built for just about anything your producing an have a need to store in a warehouse. 

I found some really good information on Pallet Grading at https://nazpallet.com/pallets/grades-of-gma-pallets/ PREMIUM A GRADE PALLET

These are mostly used by retailer where they will sit out on the floor remaining an integral part of a product display and for pharmaceutical and food manufacture’s and suppliers where the cleanest recycled pallet available is required.

• 7 boards on top
• 5 boards on bottom
• 6” lead boards top and bottom
• Avg. top deck spacing 2.5” to 3.5”
• 3 stringers (1-1/2” x 3-1/2”ea)
• 4 way entry
• Flush
• No block or metal repairs to stringers
• No colored or painted stringers

A GRADE PALLET

A grade pallets are more readily available but will have a more worn appearance than a Premium A grade. The specs on an A grade are more consistent than on a B grade pallet and will never have any block repairs to the stringers. The overall appearance is also better as an A grade pallets likely has had fewer cycles than a B grade.

• 7 boards on top
• 5 boards on bottom
• Average top deck spacing 2.5” to 3.5”
• 3 stringers (1-1/2” x 3-1/2”ea)
• 4 way entry
• Flush
• No block repairs to stringers
• Each stringer can have one repair plate to strengthen any split

B GRADE PALLET

B grades are considerably less expensive than A grades and are used primarily for warehousing or shipping where it is likely the pallet will not be coming back.

• Between 6 to 7 boards on top, depending on board width which can be 3.5 to 5.5 wide)
• No less than 4 boards on bottom
• Avg. top deck spacing 2-1/2” to 3-1/2” but can be up to 4”
• 3 stringers (1-1/2” x 3-1/2”ea)
• 4 way entry
• Flush
• Has plugs (repairs) on stringers
• Can be various length and location
• No more than two boards (stringers) thick at any one point
• Chips or partial split boards are acceptable

PREMIUM B GRADE PALLET

The perfect fit between a standard A and standard B. This cost saving pallet will have fewer transfer cycles than a standard B and as a result will likely have fewer markings, chips, cracks or other wear and tear damage.

• Same as a standard B grade but with only one of the three stringers having a plug or other type of repair. May have multiple repairs on the same stringer.

And just as a side note or opinion of mine, never trust an aging pine pallet.  I myself avoid pine pallets at all cost, hey, but that’s just me!

You know all of our warehousing jobs deal with pallets.  I feel it’s everyone’s responsibility to be on the lookout for bad wood, that broken pallet that could end up hurting someone right?  As Unloaders we need to be grabbing good solid wood to stack our product on.  Being a Receiver we need to be not only looking over the product for correct counts and supc codes but verifying that the pallets are clean and in good condition to store them in our warehouse.  Us as pallet runners need to be careful not to break and boards as we’re running under them to carry them to our drop off point.  A broken board is going to weaken the stability of the pallet.  And talk about responsibility.  Being a forklift driver, we’re the last avenue of defense regarding the condition of that pallet we’re about to place in the rack 20 ft in the air!

Even our sanitation departments are going to be dealing with pallets,  if not moving them around, we’ll still be seeing them and we should speak up when we see a weakened, broken, or dirty pallet.  It’s all about protecting and watching out for each other my friends.

I’ve added the url’s to all the research pages I visited in todays show notes, if you have a few minutes check’em out.  I found all of them interesting! If you enjoyed todays show share it with a friend or someone at work!  We’d like to hear from you too, send us a comment or a topic that you’d like us to look up for you to host@warehouseandoperationsasacareer.com.  Another way to start conversations or get some answers is visit our feeds on Facebook and Twitter.  You can find us @whseandops on both of them and we cruise the Facebook Warehouse Equipment Operators Community group on most days as well!  We look forward to you checking in with us again next week.  Until then please be Safe, Talk Safety and lets all remember, we have family members counting on our return each day!