For over three decades the forest products, packaging, and materials handling industries have had access to CAD tools aiding them in designing and structurally analyzing wood pallets and geometrically fitting packaging systems to pallets and unit loads to shippers. However, for only five years, these same industries and manufacturers of consumer and industrial goods are quickly becoming aware of the more advanced capabilities of an innovative supply chain simulation software called Best Load™.
With Best Load users are now able to design and structurally analyze the entire unit load while modeling the mechanical interactions between packaging systems, pallets, storage and handling equipment. With the most advanced uniform compression stress and corrugated container compression strength models available on the market, a truly optimized unit load design can be created. This eliminates the guess work in prototyping prior to lab testing and field trialing. No other software in the market has the capabilities of Best Load.
The experts at White & Company LLC have utilized 35 years of research and expertise to create a CAD product which enables users to take a systems-based design approach to optimize unit loads for their intended supply chains. Beginning with detailed audit information that documents the storage, handling, and distribution environments, users are able to harness efficiencies that have been undetected or overlooked in past practices, discovering ways to quickly reduce the cost of unit loads by up to 18% while improving performance and safety. All too often, packaging and pallet users have assumed their designs are optimal so long as no damages are being noted. However, when the components are designed in unison, one can uncover the ways in which over or under design exists.
Once a Best Load user has input the field audit data to design or reproduce a unit load, they are able to map the stress distribution being imposed on the packaging system by the pallet. Understanding the maximum compression stress is the key way to identify stress concentrations that can lead to packaging and product damage and identify cost saving opportunities. Users are also able to detect unsupported package corners in order to reduce the target compression strength of corrugated containers.
The advanced geometric fit algorithm can be used to generate virtually any column or interlocked stacking configuration. Or the custom loading configuration feature can be used to generate more customized load layouts. Similarly, any full, mixed, or less than truckload layout can be generated for shipping efficiency and dunnage mapping.
For those that only need pallet design and structural analysis capabilities, there is finally an affordable and easy-to-use option with Best Pallet™. Whether stringer or block style, symmetric or asymmetric, the flexible 3D-spaceframe FEA models within the software provide reliable strength and stiffness estimates along with professional specifications.
A comprehensive global wood species database can be used for pallet design, which includes plywood and OSB for decking components. Pallet component quantities, dimensions, and locations can easily be edited numerically or manually, making pallet design a quick and easy process. Pallet wings, lips, and cantilevers can be designated, along with clipped corners and chamfered bottom deck boards. And the entire user interface is available in U.S. or metric units and English or Spanish.
Free span racking systems, warehouse stack storage, and forked handling equipment can be modeled by both CAD tools to account for the mechanical interfaces throughout the intended supply chain which directly impact the pallet performance.
New to the software suite, White & Co. is introducing predictions of how many supply chain cycles a pallet, of the design analyzed, will survive prior to and subsequent to repair. This new durability analysis will require the input of detailed fastener specifications. The fastener is commonly overlooked by pallet manufacturers and users that are focused only on strength and stiffness rather than resistance to dynamic handling. With a pallet being handled approximately 15 times per cycle, the fastener quality becomes an important factor in reducing the potential for damages to the unit load.
The demand of a constantly evolving global supply chain will continue to provide more challenges to designers responsible for safely and efficiently moving products from manufacturers to end users. White & Co. strives to monitor these trends and utilize the latest academic based research to remain at the forefront of the technological development.
Inspired by the continued published works and collaborations of Dr. Marshall White of Virginia Tech, Best Load will remain the most advanced unit load design CAD tool available. A growing network of global users from smaller scale vendor suppliers to Fortune 500 companies are taking advantage of these innovative capabilities.
Editor’s Note: For more information on either software packages, visit www.whiteandcompany.net/ or call (540) 552-1158 or (855) 552-1158.
