Pallet guru
By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 12/1/1999
There's still much we don't know about pallets. And exciting developments are ahead for this most basic component of materials handling.Twenty years ago, professor Marshall S. White, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, Va., began researching pallets and their performance. He's known worldwide for his CAD/CAM program for designing pallets and containers.
"Doubling the life expectancy of wood pallets is very realistic," White says, citing one likely research outcome. Major R&D on new procedures and on fasteners and fastening techniques will lower raw material costs for pallet manufacture and extend the useful life of the product.
White's vision for the future of the pallet includes optimization of its unit load capabilities-particularly in automated handling environments. But he sees that happening only after closer communication develops among three groups of designers: Those who design handling equipment, packaging, and the pallet.
Currently, White maintains, "the three groups don't communicate very well. Therefore we have an inefficient system of moving products by unit loads." What's necessary, he suggests, "is a common vocabulary." Each design group needs to understand such factors as vibrational interactions and frictional interfaces of pallet, package, and/or equipment in the same terms.
The pallet with a 48-in. x 40-in. footprint "will continue to dominate the North American market for years to come, White suggests. Europallets won't be common in the U.S. for some time. Global standardization won't proceed much further than recent efforts by the ISO organization to propose six standard pallet sizes, he adds. There are huge costs to adapt existing handling and storage equipment to new pallet designs, thus preventing any quick and easy changeover.
Even so, White's research team is studying usage of modular pallets where the unit load size is a half or a quarter that of the 48 in. x 40 in. U.S. pallet. These modular sizes can increase efficiency when the pallet goes from manufacturer directly on to retail stores. "The challenge is to achieve compatibility of modular pallets with existing equipment," however, as White points out
View All Blogs
