Pallets are those big, flat wooden structures that hold commercial products for shipping. You have probably seen them at a major retail superstore while they are restocking shelves. There are approximately two billion wooden shipping pallets in the United States.
Pallets of the wooden variety come in several different shapes, sizes, and load capacity. Thanks to wood pallet companies in Wisconsin, we can provide you with a better understanding of wooden pallets.
Frame Types
There are several different frame styles for wooden pallets sold by wood pallet companies in Wisconsin. The two most popular are stringer and block.
Stringer pallets use a frame with three or four parallel pieces of wood to support the top deck boards. The top deck boards are nailed to the stringers to create the pallet.
Block pallets are usually stronger than the stringer pallets. Block pallets have both parallel and perpendicular support wood beams.
Shapes and Sizes Vary
Wood pallets are available in two shapes: square or nearly square.
Since there is no universally accepted standard for pallet sizes they vary by manufacturers and country but there are two popular sizes in the United States.
The standard North American two-way pallet is 48 inches by 40 inches. The stringers are 48 inches long and the deck boards are 40 inches long. These pallets have a load static bearing weight of 2.7 tons and a dynamic bearing weight of just a little under one ton.
Heavy duty two-way entry pallets are approximately 44 inches wide by 48 inches long and have three stringers and weigh about 80 pounds.
Types of Wood
The type of wood used in manufacturing pallets varies greatly depending on the country of origin.
Pallets made of softwood are the least expensive while hardwood pallets are more expensive and more sturdy.
