Sharing the load
August 1st 2008 Jane Lawson from Premier Pallet Systems looks at pallet
inverters and the benefits they can provide for any
company that handles palletised loads
Since its launch in 1993, Premier Pallet
Systems has become a world leader in
the supply of pallet transfer systems;
180° inverters in particular.
Pallet inverters have been built at the
company's site at Gressenhall, Norfolk, since
its engineers designed and built the first
machines over 30 years ago. Since then
Premier Pallet Systems has developed a
reputation for innovation and quality and
includes over 10 different models in its
range. Machines are always available for
rental or lease purchase and applications
range from turning bananas for shopperfriendly
presentation in the supermarket or
inverting cheese to assist maturation –
broadly speaking, any company that handles
product on pallets potentially needs a pallet
inverter.
Recently, Premier was approached to solve
problems encountered by Goodpack Crates,
a supplier of multi-trip metal boxes for the
rubber industry, when it was faced with
different options for removing rubber from
its crates.
Peter Boorman, working on behalf of
Goodpack Crates said: "One such option,
which has been successfully addressed by
the use of a Premier Pallet Inverter, involves
the inversion of a full metal box containing
something like 1.2t onto a slave pallet,
where the rubber is then accessible to the
downstream production lines. The Pallet
Inverter is proving to be very satisfactory,
particularly investing in an area of
polystyrene production where major users of
synthetic rubber have adopted this approach
to manipulating rubber."
Hygiene
With hygiene critical, it is now out of the
question for a wooden pallet, which could
harbour chemicals or contamination, to be
allowed into a clean zone. As a result, some
of the biggest users of inverters are food and
pharmaceutical companies that need to
switch incoming goods from wooden to
hygienic pallets for use in production areas.
This principally applies to factories which
manufacture products with a wide range of
ingredients. Packaging material may also
have to be transferred.
In addition, any company that runs a highbay
warehouse or cold store will be aware of
the dangers of racking a broken or unstable
pallet. Therefore, inverters are also used to
guard against sub-standard pallets entering
the system where they can cause delays or
accidents.
In the pharmaceutical sector, products are
often palletised on plastic or other top
quality skids during production and then
switched to cheaper, more expendable
pallets for distribution. Using a pallet transfer
device, goods can be put onto the most
suitable type of unit for distribution
immediately prior to shipping.
Currently at the forefront of pallet
transfer technology are systems that
recline the load temporarily and
return just the pallet to its original
position for exchange. The Premier
Pallet Changer does just this. It
begins by gripping the pallet and
enclosing the load from the top and
sides, then reclines everything
through 105?. The pallet can now be
detached from the product and
returned to ground level for removal.
The most important benefit of this
operation is that it removes any manual
handling of the pallet. Increasingly,
companies are implementing systems which
eliminate any manual lifting of loads over
25kg, especially with something as awkward
to handle as a pallet. The Pallet Changer can
be used in conjunction with a pallet stacker
and dispenser, one to accumulate the old
pallet and the other to dispense the new
one.
If this style of inverter is to become a
serious competitor to traditional machines, a
major challenge is to make it universally
workable with all types of load and sizes of
pallet. One option is to tip the product back
into a 'V'. This works well with some goods,
but forces everything to one corner of the
pallet. Also, bagged goods tend to collapse
when resting on their edge in this way.
Pre-production transfer
Michael Glass of leading pharmaceutical
company, Sanofi Aventis, approached
Premier Pallet Systems to solve the problem
of transferring product from incoming pallets
onto hygienic aluminium pallets before
entering the production area.
Michael said: "When I spoke to Premier I
had not heard of their Pallet Changer, but
after discussion with them and exploring all
the different options they suggested, it
appeared to be the ideal solution to our
problem, meaning there did not need to be
any manual handling of the pallet. We are
extremely pleased with the machine – it
does exactly what we need it to do and is a
very reliable piece of kit."
To keep the cost of these potentially
sophisticated units to a minimum Premier
has produced a simple, universal model with
options to upgrade with additional features
if necessary.
Traditionally, inverters have been
essentially a static piece of equipment.
However, there are circumstances where a
movable unit has benefits. Premier now
offers a mobile 180° machine based on the
"recline and rotate" principle, enabling the
inverter to go to the loads and not vice
versa. This is particularly beneficial in
confined warehouse space or where goods
are in transit from one area to another. More articles from Premier Pallet Systems Ltd: | 
