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A Better Way to Handle Empty Pallets

The PRD from Automation Plus handles pallets safer and more efficiently, without using any electricity or compressed air.

Posted: February 19, 2016

The PRD uses a unique method for stacking empty pallets, where the operator lifts the pallet over a pivot point to create a mechanical advantage that removes the back strain associated with lifting pallets, which is safer for the operator and more efficient for the forklift driver.

Automation Plus (Stoughton, WI), a division of CSF Incorporated, has invented a new way to handle pallets, called the Pallet Return Device (PRD^TM), which is designed to operate in distribution center pick modules and makes handling pallets (wood or plastic) safer and more efficient than current practices without using any outside energy source such as electricity or compressed air.

The PRD (Patent No. 9,120,630) incorporates a unique method for stacking empty pallets. Currently, stacking pallets requires expensive machinery or intense manual labor (movements prone to injury). The PRD enables a new method, wherein the operator lifts the pallet over a pivot point thereby creating a mechanical advantage to remove the back strain associated with lifting pallets.

Not only is this a safer device for the operator, it’s also more efficient for the forklift driver. The PRD uses a “carriage” to help guide the empty pallets. This feature produces a perfect stack every time, thereby eliminating the need for the fork truck driver to reshape the stack. Getting on and off fork trucks is a real time waster! Additionally, pallets stacked neatly one atop the other removes the hazard associated with falling pallets. A falling pallet or dropped stack is rare, but when they do fall (particularly from high locations) it can be a serious situation.

https://youtu.be/25seRPu–oU

A single pallet can weight anywhere from 30 lb to 70 lb. The PRD incorporates a shock absorbing device that provides a smooth transition from the load position to the unload position. In use, the operator loads the carriage. When the carriage is full, the operator simply releases the load, and lets the shock absorbing device safely guide the stack to a vertical (unload) position. Once positioned, the pallets are rolled forward to a raised outbound location which releases the pallets from the carriage. The operator then slides the carriage back, tilts it to the load position, and it’s ready to receive more empty pallets.

One operations manager who has spent years in both manufacturing and warehousing said of the PRD, “This is the best ‘add-on’ in racking that I’ve ever seen.” For more information, please click here.

Automation Plus, a division of CSF Incorporated, 810 Highway 51 East, PO Box 227, Stoughton, WI 52589, 608-205-1855, Fax: 608-873-7226, [email protected], www.palletreturndevice.com.