When you have complex shipping, storage, or handling needs, a custom pallet can be the perfect solution.
While custom pallets may look straightforward, their design directly affects how products are stored, handled and transported. When you work with a custom pallet manufacturer like Alberta Pallet, you’re ensuring your complex and unique needs are met. Whether that’s uncommon dimensions or weight and strength challenges, a custom pallet tailored to your specific needs can help keep your products properly supported throughout storage, handling and transportation.
So, what should you consider when choosing a custom pallet? Here’s a simple guide to understanding how strength, weight, and cost influence pallet design, and how we balance all three when building a pallet for your application.
What Goes into a Custom Pallet?
Design starts with the application rather than the pallet itself. Before manufacturing can begin, we first need to understand what you’re moving, how it will be handled, and the conditions the pallet will encounter.
Before choosing a custom pallet, consider the size and weight of your product, how that weight is distributed, how the pallet will be moved, whether it will be stacked, and how and where it will be transported and stored. These details help determine the appropriate pallet design.
From there, our advanced Pallet Design System (PDS) software allows us to customize individual pallet components, including block sizes, grain direction, and deckboard configurations, based on your load requirements and handling conditions.
Each custom pallet can then be designed and analyzed to ensure optimal performance for your specific load and conditions. This technology allows us to deliver highly reliable pallets without the need for costly, time-consuming physical testing.
Building for the Right Strength
The weight of your product is only one consideration. How that weight is distributed, whether pallets will be stacked, and how they will be handled throughout transportation can all affect the amount and placement of support required.
A knowledgeable custom pallet supplier should engineer a pallet that provides exactly the strength your application requires, no more and no less. The result is a cost-effective pallet that performs reliably without using more material than the application requires. A properly designed pallet can provide the structural support your load requires while helping reduce product damage and unnecessary material use.
Balancing Pallet Weight
When dealing with a heavy load, it can be tempting to assume that a heavier pallet is automatically a stronger pallet. While adding material can increase strength, it can also add unnecessary weight to the pallet itself.
This is where a custom design can help. By determining where material is actually needed, we can design for the required load without automatically adding more lumber throughout the pallet. This can help control pallet weight, material use, and associated shipping costs. Pallet weight may be particularly important when you’re shipping large volumes or when freight weight affects transportation costs.
However, there are applications where additional material and a heavier pallet are necessary to provide the proper support you need.
Managing Cost Without Sacrificing Performance
Pallet dimensions, the amount of lumber required, design complexity, and order volume can all influence the final cost of a custom pallet. While creating a custom pallet may sound more expensive, ensuring your pallet works for your exact needs could end up saving you money down the line.
When your pallet is built heavier by using more lumber than necessary, this can increase costs, shipping weight, and material waste. The opposite is also true: “underbuilding” can create unnecessary risk of structural failure and product damage.
Work With a Custom Pallet Manufacturer in Calgary
Every load has different requirements, which is exactly why there isn’t just one pallet design that works for every application. At Alberta Pallet, we use PDS technology and high-quality SPF lumber to manufacture custom pallets designed around your specific load and handling needs.
If a standard pallet isn’t quite right for your application, talk to our team about designing a custom option that is.