Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/507696
palletcentral.com PalletCentral • March-April 2015 39 you can see from Figure 1 that the maximum efficiency is 71% (with a 3x4 arrangement of pails). Considering the placement of round objects on a rectangular platform, this is relatively good, but the potential for improved efficiency exists. If the pallet footprint is changed to 48x48, then both the length and the width of the pallet are fully covered by the pails, as shown in Figure 2. The result is a maximum footprint efficiency of 79%, which is the highest possible coverage for pails on a pallet. In addition to improving pallet coverage to ensure maximum efficiency, PDS provides the user with enhanced viewing capabilities to improve the support of the items on the pallet. For ease of use, PDS equally spaces pallet components by default. While this practice is convenient, it is not always the best configuration to properly support the load. Hence PDS provides the user with the capability to simultaneously visualize the unit load and adjust component locations. When configuring the top deck, PDS illustrates the interface between the bottom of the pails and the top of the top deck, while the bottom deck configuration illustrates the interface between the top of the pails and the bottom of the bottom deck. When the user clicks on "Show Unit Load", the interaction appears, as demonstrated in Figure 3. The highlighted areas in the figure show locations where the longer, continuous arc of the pail circumference is unsupported. This can lead to product instability, as well as uneven load distribution on the pails themselves, causing potential pail failure. To alleviate this concern, the two middle deckboards can be moved closer together to properly support the pails. The same procedure was performed for the bottom deck and the stringers to ensure that the components are located properly to best support the pails on the pallet (Figure 4). The resulting pallet design will carry three stacks of pails in a 4x4 arrangement. At 50 lbs. each, the total payload for one pallet is 2400 lbs. In addition to the pallet footprint and component placement described above, there are several other key aspects to this design: • Two way pallet – with side access eliminated, the racked across the width option is unavailable. The absence of notches provides a significant increase in strength in the racked across the length condition. • Wing pallet – a 2 in. wing was added to improve strength and better support the pails in the outer columns. Figure 3: Top deck dialog showing the unit load (deckboards equally spaced). Figure 4: Views of top (A) and bottom (B) decks showing the unit load with opti- mized deckboard and stringer placement.