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Pallets Move The USAToday, there are about 450 million new pallets produced in North America each year . About 1.9 billion are in use at any given time . The 10 most common US sizes are given in Table 1 along with the typical industries that use these sizes. The 48x40-inch pallet is the most common pallet size in the U.S, representing about 30% of the pallets produced each year. This is typically called the GMA, or grocery pallet. |
Table 1: Top 10 pallet sizes in North America in 2000 (Southern Illinois University)
Pallet Size (in.) Production Rank Typical Industry
48x40 1 Grocery, common in many
other industries
42x42 2 Telecommunications, Paint
48x48 3 Drums
40x48 3 DOD, Cement
48x42 5 Chemical, Beverage
40x40 5 Dairy
48x45 7 Automotive
44x44 8 Drums, Chemical
36x36 9 Beverage
48x36 10 Beverage, Shingles,
Packaged Paper
This list totals about 60% of the annual pallet production. The 10th most common size represents
less than 2% of the market. There remaining 40% of the market includes hundreds of sizes,
typically tailored to specific customers.
Internationally, there are 6 pallet footprints recognized by ISO (4). These are given in Table 2,
along with the regions where they are most commonly used.
Table 2: Six pallet footprints recognized by ISO 6780
Metric size (mm) US size (inches) Region
1200 x 1000 47.24 x 39.37 Europe, Asia
1200 x 800 47.24 x 31.50 Europe
1219 x 1016 48.00 x 40.00 North America
1140 x 1140 44.88 x 44.88 Australia
1100 x 1100 43.30 x 43.30 Asia
1067 x 1067 42.00 x 42.00 North America, Europe, Asia
Pallet Terminology
There are 2 main types of pallet designs: block and stringer. This is true
regardless of
pallet material. A schematic drawing of a stringer class and block class pallet,
along with the
industry terminology for pallet components, is given below. Detailed pallet
terminology can be
found in the ASME Standard for pallets .
Stringer pallets are more common in the United States. With solid wood, block
pallets
cost more to manufacture than the equivalent strength stringer pallets. The
principal advantage of
block pallets is full access on all 4 sides for both forklifts and pallet jacks
(full 4-way). Stringer
pallets allow only forklift entry on the sides if stringers are notched (partial
4-way entry). If
stringers are not notched, pallet jacks and forklifts can only enter on the 2
ends and they are
called “2-way.”
The size of wood pallets is specified as the stringer length, followed by the
deck board length.
Therefore, since GMA pallets have 48” stringers, they are 48x40-inch pallets,
not 40x48-inch
pallets. The size of block pallets is specified as the top stringer board
length, followed by the
deckboard length. Therefore, the EuroPallet is an 800 x 1200mm design. The size
of non-wood
pallets is typically listed as the longer length first, followed by the shorter
dimension.
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