Drum Pallets

Drum Pallets

Drum pallets are specifically designed to transport or store a number of drums, typically either two or four, as a result of circular recessed grooves molded into the top of the pallet. These grooves fit the standard size drum, which is 55 gallons, and stop them from moving around during transportation. Drum pallets are most often constructed from high-density polyethylene since this thermoplastic material provides high strength-to-weight ratio as well as high corrosion and bacterial resistance. Drum pallets are useful in a wide range of industries: they meet FDA standards for the pharmaceutical, agricultural and food processing industries, they meet high ISO standards for manufacturing industries and they meet EPA standards for oil, gas and chemical industries. In addition, many drum pallets offer spill containment capabilities as well as being environmentally-friendly since they can be re-used repeatedly and they are often made from 100% recycled plastic materials.  Drum pallets are often made as stackable pallets, in order for easy storage. The difference between a standard drum pallet and a stackable drum pallet is that the recessed grooves are molded into the top and the bottom of the pallets in order for the pallets to fit securely onto the top of the drums and be supported by their weight. 

Drum pallets are formed using plastic materials because standard wood pallets are unable to handle the weight of standard 55 gallon drums. In order to manufacturer these more resilient plastic pallets, a process known as injection molding is commonly used. Injection molding most often utilized hydraulic oil machines, which utilize hydraulic fluids in order to move the mold through the machine. After pre-heating the barrel section of the machine, plastic pellets are fed though a hopper into the barrel, where they are heated to the melting point. Next, molten plastic is then injected into the cavity of a split die chamber/mold, that is then clamped shut. Lastly, the plastic resin is cooled as hydraulic fluids circulate through the cooling system of the mold and extract the heat. The molded pallet is held in the mold under high pressure until it is solidified, after which it is ejected from the mold. In addition to injection molding, there are five other plastic fabrication processes through which plastic pallets can be manufactured including structural foam molding, thermoforming, compression molding, rotational molding and profile extrusion. An advantage of injection molding is increased durability, which is particularly important for drum pallets since they often have to handle weights of up to 3500 - 4500 pounds.