Solid Wood Products 



2639 



Figure 22-38.— FMC UNI-PAL system for mechanized assembly of nailed pallets. See 

 text for functions associated with numbered locations. (Drawing from FMC Corp.) 



manufactured by Nelson Enterprise, Inc., West Monroe, La., requires five 

 operators: a stringer loader, two machine operators, and two inspectors. Produc- 

 tion rate is reported to be 200 pallets per hour or 40 pallets per man-hour. 



Still another mechanized production line is illustrated in figure 22-39; it 

 produces about 150 pallets per hour with two operators plus one or two inspec- 

 tors. Pallet manufacturers knowledgeable in the use of such mechanized lines 

 estimate pallet reject rates at 2 or 3 percent, all of them repairable. 



For further information on pallet manufacturing procedures, readers are re- 

 ferred to Eichler (1976) and USD A Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory 

 (1971). Also, the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, Wisconsin peri- 

 odically prepares lists of their publications related to pallet design, performance, 

 and manufacture. 



PALLET MANUFACTURING— COST DISTRIBUTION 



Sendak (1973) found that 56 pallet manufacturers in Pennsylvania made a 

 gross profit of about 5 percent on sales; lumber accounted for 50 percent of pallet 

 sales price, nails 4 percent, and labor 19 percent. The remaining 22 percent went 

 for other variable costs (10 percent), rent and depreciation (3 percent), and 

 administration, taxes, and other fixed costs (9 percent). These proportions 

 varied significantly according to degree of plant mechanization. 



Chapter 28 includes economic feasibility analyses of six pallet manufacturing 

 operations, variously mechanized, including one that molds pallets from a flake- 

 resin mixture (sections 28-2, 28-11, 28-17, 28-19, 28-26, and 28-32). 



