PalletCentral • January-February 2020
9
NWPCA Releases PDS 6.1
N
WPCA announced the release of the Pallet Design
System™ Version 6.1 on January 8.
The new version responds to user requests and doubles the number of stringers for
stringer pallets from a limit of nine to eighteen, as well as incorporates the ability to design
and analyze CP7 pallets. This is the first of two releases scheduled for 2020; PDS v6.2 Unit
load for Pails and Barrels is scheduled for summer 2020 that will also include the ability to
design and analyze CP9 pallets.
NWPCA Staff
President/CEO
Brent J. McClendon, CAE, brent@palletcentral.com
Vice President, Advocacy and External Affairs
Patrick S. Atagi, patagi@palletcentral.com
Senior Director, Business Partnerships
Mark A. Barford, CAE, mbarford@palletcentral.com
Membership Services Manager
Mishelle Cavanagh, mcavanagh@palletcentral.com
PDS and Membership Services Manager
Susan Cheney, scheney@palletcentral.com
PDS Structural Engineer
Kristen DeLack PE, kdelack@palletcentral.com
Vice President, Communications
Annette Ferri, aferri@palletcentral.com
Director of Science and Technology Integration
Brad Gething, PhD, bgething@palletcentral.com
Manager, Policy and Public Affairs
Grace Johnson, gjohnson@palletcentral.com
Advisor to the President
John A. McLeod III, jmcleod@palletcentral.com
PDS Software Engineer
Kevin Richey, krichey@palletcentral.com
PDS Finite Element Analyst
Farhad Shahabi, PhD, fshahabi@palletcentral.com
Vice President, Operations and Events
Isabel ("Mimi") Sullivan, msullivan@palletcentral.com
PalletCentral Design & Production:
Driven By Design LLC
Art Director: Caryn Smith, palletdesign@comcast.net
PALLETCENTRAL, Volume 20, Number 1.
PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL WOODEN PALLET
& CONTAINER ASSOCIATION
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at 703-519-0186 or mbarford@palletcentral.com.
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©2020 NWPCA. All rights reserved.
The views expressed in all articles, editorials and
advertisements appearing in PalletCentral are solely
those of the author and advertiser, respectively, and
do not necessarily represent the views of NWPCA.
Council (SEC). Dr. Brad Gething,
Director of Science & Technology
Integration, joins McClendon in Mexico
to conduct a short PDS demo for all
participants of the SEC workshop.
Gething also presented at the Annual
Meeting of the Western Pallet Association
on January 19th. In the presentation,
Gething summarized the new fire codes
on the outdoor storage of pallets and
stressed the importance of working with
your local code official. The new fire codes
were passed in 2018, but many states are
only beginning to adopt them. NWPCA
continues to recommend that your facility
comply with the new codes.
To assist with this effort, a compliance
manual was developed, and can be found
at PalletCentral.com/ComplianceManual.
Pallet Design Course
Scheduled in Richmond
A
pallet design short course is now
scheduled for April 29 and 30, 2020,
preceding the ExpoRichmond dates. The
course will be at the Omni Richmond
Hotel located at 100 S. 12th Street,
Richmond, VA. Taught by NWPCA
Director of Science & Technology
Integration Dr. Brad Gething and the
Director of the Center for Packaging and
Unit Load Design at Virginia Tech, Dr.
Laszlo Horvath, the course will cover the
effect of pallet design and selection on
materials handling costs; fundamentals
of new and remanufactured stringer class
pallet design; designing stringer and block
class pallets using PDS. Registration and
more details will be available soon.
International Year of
Plant Health Kicks-Off
T
he UN's International Year of
Plant Health (IYPH) officially
kicked-off on January 1, 2020.
During this year, NWPCA will observe
the many initiatives helping to preserve
the quality of wooden pallets and
promote continued safe trade. Our
entire industry depends on healthy
forests, and that's why we take great
care to make sure they remain healthy.
We work closely with many groups on
wood packaging issues at the state,
national, and international level. Later
this year, you'll hear more about an
event associated with the IYPH, where NWPCA will represent the wood
packaging sector. A page dedicated to the IYPH will keep you updated at
PalletCentral.com/YearPlantHealth.
