Image 1. ISTA TransPack conference info from their website.
Image 1. ISTA TransPack conference info from their website.

CPULD is proud to announce that our director, Dr. Laszlo Horvath, has been accepted to present Clark Sabattus, his graduate student’s, research findings at the ISTA TransPack global industry conference and forum in May 2023 (Image 1). This is ISTA’s signature, annual event where the packaging community comes together to tackle today’s challenges and shape the future of transport packaging.

Dr. Horvath will share the findings of the 2022 research project titled “Measurement of Hazards Experienced by Pallets During Material Handling.” This project focused on understanding the impacts that pallets experience in the field. Although often overlooked, pallets can become costly for a company if not designed correctly for their specific supply chain.

The creation of a simulated material handling environment in 1993, named FasTrack, has aided in researching a pallet’s useful life. FasTrack simulates a pallet going through a series of trips utilizing material handling equipment, such as forklifts and pallet jacks. It was designed to replicate the environments that a unit load of products may travel through in the field in order to observe the common damage modes that may occur to a pallet.

Forklifts in multiple facilities were instrumented with data loggers (Image 2) to measure the acceleration peak, g of shock impacts, duration of impacts, random vibration intensity and RMS(g) values during forklift handling in the field. This field data was collected from three different types of facilities: a distribution center, a manufacturing facility, and a pallet manufacturer.

Image 2. Clark Sabattus equipping a forklift with a sensor to measure the shock events experienced in various warehouse facilities
Image 2. Clark Sabattus equipping a forklift with a sensor to measure the shock events experienced in various warehouse facilities.

The intensity of shock events measured during the Fastrack procedure were slightly greater than what was observed at the investigated facilities. This indicates that the Fastrack simulation is slightly harsher than the field handling of pallets. Based on the results of these measurements, new intensity levels were recommended for FasTracks’s incline impact tests in order to better represent the real levels of harshness of handling seen in the field.

The results of this study will be used to revise durability testing procedures used in pallet testing standards in order to better represent the current material handling processes found in modern supply chains.