Wood Pallets Research Paper

If your small business moves and stores items on pallets, it is essential that everyone who works at your business knows how to behave around pallets in a safe manner. Here are four pallet safety tips that you should go over with all of your employees.
Handle Wood Pallets With Gloves
Wood pallets should also be handled while wearing gloves. Over time, the nails that hold together wooden pallets can become loose and protrude outward, which can result in injury if the pallet is handled with bare hands. Wooden pallets are also prone to developing splinters as well, which is why they should only be handled while wearing gloves.
Wood Pallets Should Be Inspected
Before using a wood pallet, it should be inspected to make sure that their are not loose nails or boards. At least once a week, all the pallets that your business uses should be inspected to make sure they are still safe. Over time, the wood in the pallet can become weakened and unable to support the same weight that it was previously. Wood pallets that look worn out or weak, have loose nails, or have loose boards should be properly disposed and recycled. You should stress that damaged or weak looking pallets should not be continued to used; having a pallet break while a large load is on it could result in serious injury to your workers and is not worth the risk.
Pallets Should Be Stored Flat
When pallets are not in use, they should not be stored on their side.When pallets are stored on their side, the risk increases that the pallet could fall over. This could result in injuries to your workers and damage to the pallet itself.
Instead, pallets should be stores flat on the ground. They can be stacked on top of each other flat on the ground as well. However, you should refrain from stacking empty pallets higher than about shoulder height; you don’t want the stack to become unsteady and topple over.
Weight Limits Should Always Be Followed
If you have shelving set up at your business, where the pallets and belongings are stored, it is vitally important that weight limits are always followed.
You should visually posts the weight limit for pallets on goods on each of your shelves, and make sure that all of your employees knows the limits and how to determine if there are too many goods on a particular pallet. It is better to use more pallets and shelves, and put less items on each pallet, than it is to over stack your pallet and have your pallet shelving system collapse. This could result in injuries to your workers and could cause you to loss product as
well.