The executive committee of the National Wooden Pallet and Container Association Recyclers Council recently agreed to ask the association’s standards committee to approve a revision to the NWPCA’s Uniform Standard for Wood Pallets. The proposed revision would change the standard for the number of nails required in each joint of a repaired pallet, reducing the number of nails by one.
The executive committee and the pallet repair task group suggested that a reduced minimum level of fastener quality was appropriate for repaired pallets.
The current standard for minimum fasteners does not reflect successful pallet repair practices, according to the executive committee. Pallet recyclers and their customers are successfully using three 12 ½ gauge nails per nominal 6-inch joint and two per nominal 4-inch joint.
Depending on nail quality, a draft repair standard required at least one additional fastener per joint.
New pallets typically are made of green wood while recycled pallets are repaired or reassembled using used or dry pallet parts, members of the executive committee noted.
Dr. Marshall (Mark) White, director of the Virginia Tech pallet and container research laboratory, who chairs the pallet repair task group, reported that there was no data to indicate that lower moisture content of pallet parts improved the performance of joints repaired with 12 ½ gauge nails. Test data showed that the quality of repaired pallet joints was lower than new pallet joints, but the lower quality did not significantly reduce pallet strength and was considered acceptable to companies that purchase recycled pallets.
Standard-setting organizations, the ANSI and the ASME’s MH1 committee, have adopted the NWPCA Uniform Standard For Wood Pallets as the U.S. standard.
The Recyclers Council executive committee has asked that the pallet repair section of the uniform standard be re-evaluated. They appointed Sam McAdow, a member of the executive committee, to the pallet repair task group that will work with Dr. White to consider the suggested revisions.
