Pallet Styles for Pharmaceutical and healthcare

What matters

Pharmaceutical plants and distributors want a pallet with a surface that cleans and does not shed. Plastic does not splinter, hold moisture or need a wood treatment. The harder question is documentation: where the resin came from, whether it is virgin or recycled, and whether the maker can show it.

One used 48 x 40 pallet listing is described as pharma and food safe but not approved for direct food contact. That wording is the model: a specific statement, carefully limited. Treat anything broader with suspicion.

Footprints and loads

Pharma loads are usually light and dense. The static rating is rarely the limit; the dynamic rating on a high-speed conveyor and a clean deck are.

Questions to put to a maker

1. What is the pallet made of, and is any of it recycled?
2. What cleaning methods does the maker support?
3. What documents come with each model?
4. Is the deck open or closed?
5. Does it nest when empty, and what is the increment?

Trailers for your volume

Suppose 3,830 empty pallets come back in a month. At the maker figures on file that is 4 trailers of Rehrig Pacific heavy-duty nestables (1,200 each), 2 of PHS Plastic's EXP 100 (2,340 each) or 8 of a rackable (540 each). The table runs the same sum for 6 volumes, from 3,830 to 20,100.

A stack worked out

Take a stackable rated 20,000 lb static. The bottom pallet carries the pallets above it, so with each loaded pallet weighing 3,460 lb it can hold 5 above, a stack of 6. With 7,502 lb per pallet it can hold 2 above. This is a ceiling on a flat floor for a still stack, not a promise for a stack that moves or waits.

Words on this page

Stretch wrap

Elastic film wound around a loaded pallet to hold the load together.

HDPE

High-density polyethylene, a tough resin used in many plastic pallets, valued for strength against its weight.

Closed loop

A route where pallets return to the sender after delivery, so the empty trip is a standing cost.

Nest ratio

How many empty pallets fit in the height of one: pallet height divided by nest increment.

UL

Underwriters Laboratories, a safety testing body that publishes fire test standards, including one for storage pallets.

GMA pallet

The 48 by 40 inch North American standard, named for the Grocery Manufacturers Association that popularised it.

Nest increment

The extra height each additional empty pallet adds to a nested stack, measured in inches. A small increment means a short stack.

Footprint

The length and width of a pallet deck. It is chosen to fit the container, the drum, the bag or the receiving rack.