Pallet: origin, peculiarities and use

Pallets are necessary devices to move any kind of product from a place to another. We all have seen many types of products carried on platforms, very often made of wood, and moved by specific forklifts. These platforms are called pallets, and although they are widely used in the civil sector by any type of company, their origin is military. The first pallets, indeed, were used by the US Army during the Second World War to bring goods to Europe. With those special types of wood platform everything could be made in an easier and quicker way, and this advantage turned pallet into something to be used also in the civil sector. If nowadays pallets are used all over the world, this is not only due to the fact that they allow you to transport goods in an easier and quicker way, but also because they have a good insulation capacity: the goods that are put on pallets do not touch the ground, and this is something that should not be underestimated if you consider that a wet ground can damage goods.

Many of the pallets that are used are made of wood, but also other types of materials are becoming more and more popular, like plastic and metal. This variety of the materials that are used to make pallets gives each company the chance to choose the type of pallets that is most suitable to transport their goods. It is self-evident that iron pallets, for example, are better than plastic pallets to transport given goods, and vice versa plastic can be more suitable to be used in other fields.

As far as the size of pallets is concerned, we can claim that although there are not standard sizes yet, still there are sizes that we could define as ordinary, and which vary depending on the continent where pallets are used. As far as Europe is concerned, the most used pallets measure 800x1000 or 1000x1200 mm. The first format is especially used for road transport (the most popular one in the Old Continent), no matter if you use van or trucks. In the States pallets have similar sizes: an ordinary platform measure 40x80 inches (1000x1200 mm), while in Asia the most widely used pallets are squared (1100x1100 mm). There are also special types of pallets with different sizes according to the use you have to make of them: some pallets are half the ordinary ones and are used for small deliveries, but there are also much longer pallets used for other types of goods.

Pallets, as already said, are used to carry and move many types of goods, and thanks to the developments that have occurred in this field, it is now possible to choose the best pallet for each category of transported goods. There are lighter pallets that are used for the transport of plastic items, but also much solider materials, which can be used to move very heavy items.