Low-cost wood pallets are still king, but the reusability of plastics is gaining popularity among manufacturers looking for sustainable material handling options. A major obstacle is today’s high price of plastic raw materials.
The iconic wooden pallet remains a ubiquitous force in the transportation, distribution and storage of manufactured products around the world. Its excellence is largely down to cost, but plastic pallets reign supreme due to their durability, reusability and light weight. Plastic pallets made by injection molding, structural foam, thermoforming, rotational molding and compression molding are gaining acceptance in a range of industries including food, beverage, pharmaceutical, grocery, automotive and more.
The difficulty and cost of handling wooden pallets has always been an issue, but today’s concerns about the environment have led to renewed interest in plastic alternatives. Reusability is the most attractive. Xingfeng plastic pallet manufacturer has won over customers who used to use wooden pallets by introducing low-cost black plastic pallets. This black pallet is made from recycled material. In addition, since international regulations (ISPM 15) require that all wooden pallets for export goods must be fumigated to reduce pest migration, more businesses choose to use low-cost plastic pallets to export goods. Although the cost is a little higher than that of wooden pallets, the use of plastic pallets is simple, simplifies operations, saves time, and the plastic pallets are light in weight, which can save part of the transportation cost, especially when shipping by air. At present, some of our plastic pallets support the installation of RFID, which is convenient for enterprises to manage and track the corresponding pallet usage, making it more economical and feasible on the basis of the cost of each trip, and enhancing the reusability.
Many observers believe that plastic pallets will play a bigger role as companies adopt higher levels of automation in their warehouses. Higher automation demands repeatability and reliability, and the custom design and consistent size and weight of plastics offer significant advantages over wooden pallets, which are prone to breakage or damage from loose nails.
steadily increasing trend
About 2 billion pallets are in use every day, and about 700 million pallets are manufactured and repaired each year, experts say. Wooden pallets dominate, but the plastic pallet market has doubled in the past 10 years. Today, wood accounts for more than 85 percent of China’s pallet market, while plastics account for 7 to 8 percent, according to industry estimates.
Market research analysts predict that the global plastic pallet market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of about 7% through 2020. In addition to durability, reusability, and light weight, manufacturers and users are increasingly drawn to plastics for their stacking and nesting abilities, ease of repair, and rich color options.
Plastic trays date back to the 1960s and were originally used for hygienic applications of raw food. Since then, major improvements in materials, design and processing have lowered costs and made it more competitive. In the 1980s, the automotive market pioneered the use of reusable plastic pallets to minimize disposal costs and eliminate single-use packaging issues. Because they cost more than wood, plastic pallets have always had a place in management pools or in proprietary closed-loop systems for WIP or distribution.
There are various production processes for plastic pallets. In China, the most common is the injection molding process. In recent years, several manufacturers have introduced the hollow blow molding process to manufacture plastic pallets. Furui Plastic Factory mainly uses injection molding to produce plastic pallets. In 2016, it introduced blow molding technology. Now it has developed and designed more than ten models of blow molding pallets, including single-sided nine-legged blow-molded pallets and double-sided blow-molded pallets. plastic tray. Injection trays are still our core product, we produce various styles of injection trays, such as: single-sided nine-legged, Sichuan-shaped, Tian-shaped and double-sided trays. Panel types can be divided into mesh faces or planes. According to the function, it can be divided into nested trays, stacking trays and shelf trays. These light or heavy duty pallets are used for storage, transportation, turnover and other processes.
Post time: Aug-25-2022