Stackable Pallets, 56 x 44 in beverage Footprint

Stackable pallets at 56 x 44 in beverage

A 56 x 44 in beverage pallet from PHS Plastic is rated 30,000 lb static. Bottlers stack tall and heavy, and the bottom pallet carries the stack. The wide deck supports cases of cans and bottles without overhang on the long side.

Stackables do not nest, so their empties stand at full height. For scale, a 30,000 lb static rating spread over the 2,464 sq in of a 56 x 44 in beverage deck is 12.2 lb per sq in; the same rating on a 48 x 40 in deck is 15.6 lb per sq in. This is arithmetic for comparison only, and the rating that counts is the maker's.

Shape and size

• Perimeter: 200.0 in (5,080 mm).
• Diagonal corner to corner: 71.2 in (1,809 mm), which is the room a pallet needs to turn in an aisle.
• Area: 1.590 square metres, 17.11 square feet.
• Aspect: the long side is 1.273 times the short side.

In practice

The beverage pallet is bigger than the common one because the product is: cases of cans and bottles stack in patterns that fill a 56 x 44 in deck without overhang, and a bottler's lines are built around it. A smaller pallet would waste the pattern and a larger one would not fit the line.

Beverage stacks are tall and heavy, which is why the static rating of 30,000 lb on one maker's model matters. But the stack sits for days in a warehouse, so creep is the second question. Ask the maker how long the rating holds, and whether it was taken warm or cold.

The area, next to the common size

56 x 44 in beverage against the other sizes

Questions for the maker

• Static load for the stack height
• Deck type for bottle cases
• Whether your racking or conveyors take the footprint

A note on this page

Because the pallet is large and heavy when loaded, a bottler usually fits handling aids around it: slip guards, tie sheets and corner posts. The pallet does only part of the job of keeping a tall case stack upright.

From the dock

• Creep is slow. A stack that looks fine on Monday may have sagged by the next month in a warm store.
• A damaged pallet at the bottom of a stack is the one nobody sees; inspect before building high.

Words on this page

Footprint

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

Polypropylene

Another common pallet resin, lighter and stiffer than some others, with its own behaviour in the cold.

UL

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

Stretch wrap

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