Have you ever wondered what kind of plastic is used in recycled plastic pallets?

Approximately 90% of the pallets manufactured today are made with recycled plastics. The blends are all different. Most are HDPE, while others use post-industrial scrap which may include rubber, polypropylene and even silicates. Ground up car bumpers are used in one of our pallet lines. While another line uses fiberglass in the manufacturing process.

When you think of a plastic pallet do you think about milk jugs and laundry detergent bottles?

Probably not… However several years ago, I toured a plastic pallet manufacturer in Canada and this company had truckloads of plastic bottles and containers that they used to create recycled plastic pallets. The process was very interesting:

1. The bottles and containers were dumped into a hopper
2. The hopper cut the containers into little pieces of plastic confetti  
3. The plastic flakes were fed into a giant washer that cleaned them
4. The plastic went from the washer through a dryer 
5. The flakes were stored in bulk containers until it was needed for the manufacturing process

The whole line was so efficient. Plastic pallets are just one example of what can be made by recycled plastic. Imagine what our landfills would look like if we didn't recycle!  

Thanks to recycling, we can offer a diverse line of quality plastic pallets for every application. Recycling is just one way we help businesses shrink environmental impact when using pallets.

Does your company benefit from recycling? If so, please leave us a message below and tell us how. 

Post by: Penny Peirce, Sales Representative
Use of Bales of Crushed PET Bottles by Matthewdikmans licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.

What is a Tech Center Assessment?

Don’t you hate hearing “this is just the way we've always done it”? So why not consider a technical resource assessment? 

The Nelson Technical Center assessment includes the evaluation of pallets, packaging and material handling systems. The main goal is to review current practices in order to recommend improvements.

Top Reasons for an Assessment

• Cost Savings
• Damage Reduction
• Consolidation 
• Optimize Warehouse and Freight Capacity
• Eliminate International Regulations Challenges

The assessment will range from a few hours to a few days, depending on the facility complexity. The Nelson Company will walk the plant, speak with key people from forklift drivers to plant managers and look for cost savings and process improvement opportunities. The typical assessments find average cost savings of 5-10%.

The Tech Center Assessment includes:

• On site assessment and evaluation of current systems
• Documenting the current pallet specs and unitization procedures
• Recommendations to ensure best industry practices
• Cost savings suggestions, when applicable
• A final report outlining findings and recommendations

Overall, the assessment allows everyone involved to re-evaluate designs and processes. This provides you the opportunity to ‘ask why’ and evaluate the procedures. An assessment could help with find solid answers to the question “why do we always do it this way?”

Think an assessment is the next step for you? Leave us a note below and we will set up your tech center assessment.

Post by: Kent Longardner, Technical Sales Manager 

Plastic Pallet Sizes Are Limited

This size may be determined by the measurements of your unit load or perhaps you’re just trying to match your wooden pallet size. But unlike custom wooden pallets, plastic pallets are limited in the sizes that are available. This is because each specific size and style of plastic pallet requires a mold or tool to manufacture it and the production of a custom tool is very expensive and time consuming.  

When a manufacturer makes the decision to spend the time and money to make a new tool, they generally have a commitment from one or more customers to buy large quantities of that specific pallet in order to justify the investment.  However, sometimes a manufacturer will have identified a need in the market for a certain pallet size or design. This need or void in the market often gives the manufacturer the confidence needed to invest in a new mold. 

Custom Plastic Pallet Volume Requirement

The volume requirement to justify a new tool will vary, depending on the style, size and weight of the potential pallet. Keeping this in mind, the “ball park” requirement is usually more than 25,000 - 30,000 pallets per year.

There are also situations where, regardless of significant volume, it still makes sense for an end user to have a new tool made. For example:
​  

• A custom design that solves a product damage issue and eliminates long term damage costs.
• ​​A design that eliminates the need for reduces the packaging costs associated with the unit load.

What if you are looking for a custom size plastic pallet and your needs don’t fit any of the criteria above? There is still an option for you. Existing plastic pallets can be cut down to match your size requirement. With the large number of current plastic pallet sizes and styles, there is usually a pallet that can be cut down to fit your needs or at the very least, get the size close.

What size pallet do you need? If you think it might be a custom size, leave a comment below. We can help you find the right solution for you need. 

Post by: Mike Simon, Midwestern Sales Executive 

Why are the lead boards on a pallet so important?  

The lead boards on a pallet are the deck boards that are located at the leading edges of the top and/or bottom of wooden pallets. The lead deck board performs critical functions in product protection and in material handling. 

 When pallets are damaged during handling, the damage almost always occurs to the leading deck boards. Because of this, there are several improvements that can be made to a pallet design in order to alleviate lead deck board damage.

• Make sure that high quality nails and the maximum number of nails for this joint are being used.
• Specify a stronger wood to be used in the lead deck board position.
• Try switching to a wider lead board. The most common width for this is between 5-1/2” and 6”, though wider material may be available from your supplier.
• Add a second “butted” board directly behind the lead board.
• Consider the use of an alternative material such as extruded plastic or engineered wood.
  
  

Lead boards are important because they protect the product on the pallet during material handling. Understanding the importance of the lead board can save you a major product damage headache. 

Do you have any questions about pallet lead boards? Leave your question below and I will get back with an answer. 

Post by: Rich Reiher, Vice President 

The Nelson Tech Center was recently called into a warehouse to review pallets and solve pallet problems in a flow rack system. 

Problem
The pallets were not flowing as intended within the rack system. Even worse, the pallets were actually damaging the rack system components. The system was rated to support much heavier weights, but something was causing higher than expected stress between the loaded pallets and the flow rack.

On paper everything added up. We had a flow rack system that was strong enough to support the loads, and we had a heavy duty wood pallet that was strong enough to support the loads. But something was not working well together. 

Tech Center Evaluation
During our evaluation, we keyed in on one main area where these two components did not “match” - the middle of the rack.

The outside skate wheel rails were directly under the rigid pallet stringers (2x4’s). The outer skate wheels were not over stressed, and these rows were not damaged. The middle rail, however, was under deckboards only and between the rigid stringers. These deckboards were bending under load around the middle skate wheels. This resulted in the rack component damage and a system that did not flow as intended.

Tech Center Recommendations 
We suggested two recommendations to fix this issue:

• Use two center skate wheel rails, rather than one, so that the pallet is supported by wheels under each of the four stringers.
• Convert to a three stringer pallet with a middle stringer directly over the middle rail.
  
  

Since the rack system was already in place, the more economical solution was to change the pallet design to a three stringer design. We used wider stringers to maintain the previous durability levels, and the rack damage issues and flow issues went away.

Do you have damage to your rack system? Let us know the issue by commenting below. We can find you a solution! 

Post by: John Clarke, Technical Director