Drum pallets are plastic pallets or skids specifically designed to transport or store industrial drums. Industrial drums are circular containers used to store solid and liquid materials like fuel, fertilizer, surface treatment chemicals and all other manner of industrial supplies.
Related Categories
Drum pallets usually are fabricated with circular recesses that can securely hold drums in place during transit. Standard drum volume is 55 gallons, so many drum pallets designed for use with one kind of drum may accommodate other drums as well. Drum pallets are most often fabricated from high-density polyethylene, or HDPE, because of its high strength-to-weight ratio as well as its high corrosion and bacterial resistance. Any industry that makes use of drums for materials storage on a substantial scale can benefit from the use of plastic drum pallets. They are more likely to meet FDA standards for the pharmaceutical, agricultural and food processing industries than pallets of other construction. They are also more likely to meet high ISO equipment standards, and many drum pallets offer spill containment capabilities. Some drum pallet designs are stackable, which saves valuable space in transit and storage. Stackable drum pallets feature recesses above and below the pallet's surface to accommodate drums above and beneath the pallet. Such configurations have to be carefully tested to ensure durability, and rules regulating the number of pallets in a stack must be followed carefully to avoid employee injury or hazardous spills.
Most plastic drum pallets are injection molded. Injection molding involves the heating of raw plastic materials to a liquid state and injecting the molten plastic into a mold. Newly processed raw plastic materials can be used, but recycled plastic materials can also be used in the fabrication of new plastic materials. In both cases, the raw plastic material is fed into a conveyance channel that leads to a mold. A shearing screw and the friction it causes as it turns heats the plastic. This heat combined with heat generated by heating elements along the channel causes the plastic to become molten. At this point it is ready to be injected into the mold cavity, which is shaped like the intended final product. The plastic fills the mold and takes its shape. It is then allowed to cool and harden, and when it is ejected from the mold, the fabrication process is nearly complete. The pallet needs only to be deflashed and then shipped to customers. In addition to injection molding, there are five other plastic fabrication processes through which plastic pallets can be manufactured: structural foam molding, thermoforming, compression molding, rotational molding and profile extrusion. Injection molding is the most common process because it is a comparatively simple process and produces durable products.
