EPAL announces the launch of a quality assured EPAL half pallet into its pallet pool.
The European Pallet Association e.V. (EPAL) has made available a new EPAL half pallet with three skid boards. The 800 x 600 mm EPAL half pallet, which is independently quality assured, has been developed in order to offer the market a more robust and longer lasting platform than the current “Düsseldorfer” wood half pallet currently in use. The new EPAL half pallet came into being as the result of ongoing dialogues with trade and industry users as well as field testing. The use of wood as the raw material makes the EPAL half pallet particularly sustainable, EPAL stresses.
“The new, four-way EPAL half pallet is tailor made to meet the needs of the users and combines the flexibility of the half pallet with the advantages of the EPAL system,” says Martin Leibrandt, EPAL CEO. Half pallets are particularly popular in the drinks and food industry, as well as with discount stores and the retail trade.
“In addition to the high quality and loading capacity, the ability to access the pallets on all four sides with materials handling equipment – in other words, from the 600 mm side as well – is important for the users,” Leibrandt elaborates. “With the new EPAL four-way half pallets, goods are easy to manoeuvre within the sales areas and different articles can be displayed on the same sales area.”
The new EPAL half pallet is half the size of an EPAL euro pallet and can be exchanged without restrictions as part of the world’s largest open pallet exchange pool.
In terms of pallet design, EPAL has succeeded in achieving the greatest possible insertion width on the 600 mm side, thereby providing optimum conditions for handling with forklift trucks. It is produced from wood and steel only. The load capacity of the EPAL half pallet is more than 500 kg, with a net weight of less than 10 kg. The seven upper edge boards as well as the six stringer and lower edge boards are 21 mm each. Six 3-mm thick steel angle brackets provide additional stability and protect the four-way pallet against damage in daily use. The new EPAL half pallet, which is ideal for automated warehouses, complies with the ISPM-15 standard and is marked on the steel angle brackets with the established EPAL logo.
The wooden “Düsseldorfer” half pallets currently used on the market are not independently quality assured, which, EPAL notes, had led to them not being accepted by the users.
“Up until now, it has not been necessary to have a license to produce the “Düsseldorfer” half pallets,” Leibrandt explains. “This is why cheap imports are often of poor quality.” With its new half pallet, EPAL can now offer the users this quality assurance, since the pallet is produced and repaired by EPAL-licensed operations. EPAL ensures the uniform high quality of its pallets by means of unannounced audits of producers and repairers carried out by the independent inspection company Bureau Veritas.
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This article first appeared in 2014.