Traditional wooden pallets are used throughout the world’s transportation and packaging industries. While practical, they have a short, tough life and are often difficult to handle when made from rough wood and nails.
Now, a logistics company in Melbourne, Australia – Icepallet – has brought pallet construction and technology into the 21st century, with the first range of lightweight composite moulded pallets. The pallets were developed and produced using a range of formulated minerals in conjunction with an expandable composite epoxy system from Huntsman Advanced Materials.
Icepallet was founded in 2003 after several years of research into existing pallet systems and their perceived strengths and weaknesses. The initial concept for the composite pallet range was developed as a result of these studies and other collaborative work with engineering, chemical and logistics experts including Huntsman Advanced Materials.
Icepallet now produce a range of flat surface, double decker and nestable pallets meeting customer requirements for a lighter yet more durable pallet with enhanced reliability, good impact resistance and a minimum five year’s serviceable working life expectancy.
The pallets are manufactured in a highly efficient one-shot process by compression moulding of an expandable epoxy system (EES). Glass fibre or natural hemp fibres can be used as the reinforcement with the epoxy resin.
The EES impregnates the fabric just prior to polymerisation in the mould with the pressure coming from the expansion of the foaming agent used to force the resin to wet the full thickness of the reinforcement fibre. As a result, the final matrix is low density, giving a low density composite part that is light weight yet still high strength.
The EES process combines impregnation of the reinforcing material, shaping of the component and curing in a single operation. This makes it extremely time and cost effective with very little waste. After demoulding the part is ready for any further surface finishing that is required.
A feature of this new technology, is that the parts are recyclable after completion of their service life, Thanks to some unique process’s in the production chain. This is a very green feature for a composite of this complexity.
This advanced composite pallet offers a number of advantages over traditional wooden pallets: *up to 70% lighter than equivalent timber panels and other existing plastic based pallets giving direct payload and fuel savings to customers: * increased durability with a life expectancy of at least five years but with 10 years being the target expectation: *more resistance to everyday wear and tear, giving better load protection *high impact tolerance *designed for high loading – rated to 2 tonne dynamic loads and 8 tonne static loads *smooth, hygienic design with no nails or sharp edges, so safer for pallet operatives *composite panels are weather, chemical and UV resistant; also moisture resistant and suitable for steam cleaning and chemical sterilisation. *Full colour photographic or company Logo’s can be produced under the surface, whilst RFID chips can be cast in during manufacture for lifetime ownership identification.
The Icepallet range includes pallets suitable for most global commerce and transport applications with special designs for carrying automotive components such as wheels and manufacturing containers including kegs and drums.