- 38 - 



Another consideration for possible future designs for pallet boxes is 

 the elimination of the pallet completely by using modified forks to lift 

 against rails on the sides of the pallet boxes providing that they can be 

 properly cooled. Modification of handling equipment in this way theoretically 

 could increase cold storage capacity approximately 14 percent over present 

 pallet boxes using regular fork entry space. Since the saving in cold storage 

 space that occurs with present pallet boxes amounts to about 20 percent, it is 

 theoretically possible to increase cold storage capacity in some plants with 

 the right designed pallet box to a point about 40 percent over that when 

 standard boxes are stored on pallets. 



A possibility that might be explored for future pallet box design is to 

 have an airtight pallet box made of metal (fig. 24) „ The thinner walls of 

 metal would increase the storage at least one bushel per pallet box. The 

 metal might give adequate cooling and by devising a fairly tight fitting 

 plastic cover to fit over the pallet box it might be possible to provide the 

 equivalent of modified atmosphere storage similar to that obtained by placing 

 a polyethylene liner on a standard box of fruit. While such a pallet box is 

 not recommended now, it is one that is judged to be worthy of some consideration, 



Future use of pallet boxes may result in the need for a pallet box that 

 can be disassembled and reshipped or one that will be low enough in price to 

 be discarded. 



A knock-down type pallet box could have value in storing fiberboard 

 shipping containers by using the supporting structure of a side or especially 

 made posts to give stacking strength. A future possibility might be a pallet 

 box to be used for shipping tray -packed fruit to eastern markets. Theoretically 

 the strength of the fiber in the container can be reduced, because the stacking 

 strength would be obtained by the pallet box, making it possible to save 

 approximately 10£ per packed box in container cost. This saving might be 

 increased if trays or a rack could be designed to hold the fruit so that the 

 packed trays or racks could be shipped in the pallet box without the expense 

 of a master container. Similar experiments are now under consideration by the 

 cannery industry to ship direct to retail stores without master containers. 



It would appear for most ideal pallet box design that a different pallet 

 box would be desirable for orchard and for warehouse use. For the orchard 

 the pallet box needs to be heavier and should have higher fork entry space. 

 For warehouse use the pallet box should be designed to fit the storage, should 

 have no or low fork entry space, and can be lighter in construction because 

 it will be handled over even floors by adequate capacity lift truck equipment. 

 A special orchard pallet box would be dumped as it came from the orchard and 

 returned for reuse making several trips per season. The fruit would have to 

 be presized and placed in other containers before going to storage to make 

 this feasible. 



The practice of sizing fruit as it comes from the urchard which has been 

 discussed for some years would increase storage capacity by removing the small, 

 light colored, and off grade fruit from the fruit to be stored. In addition, 



