Pallet Rigidity, A Major Indicator of Pallet Durability

The rigidity of wooden pallets is influenced by their design, style, type, size, and weight, the quality of the pallet materials, the fasteners used for pallet assembly, and the interaction of wood and fasteners in the pallet joints. Pallet rigidity is determined by performing freefall drop tests, with the pallet dropped repetitively onto one of the pallet corners. We are testing the hypothesis that pallet rigidity can be a major indicator of damage susceptibility and physical durability, and therefore, an indicator of the pallet’s life. This is accomplished by relating the rigidity of 915 wooden pallets with 194 variables to the torsional shear resistance in the plane of the pallet decks, that is, the computed torsional load carrying capacity of all fasteners in all pallet joints. This correlation is determined to be highly significant statistically, a finding which confirms the hypothesis advanced.

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