The Pallet Design System (PDS) is a widely accepted engineering procedure for comparing the performance of competing pallet designs. As part of a new version of the PDS, the objective of this study was to develop a durability model for pallets with structural panel decking. An accelerated rough material handling test system, "the VPI unit-load material handling FasTrack" , was developed to simulate pallets used in the unit-load material handling environments. 100 pallets representing 14 different designs were tested in the "FasTrack." Damages to these pallets were recorded after each test cycle. A procedure relating damage to repair cost was developed. The effect of panel-deck pallet design on the resistance to damage was evaluated in terms of the total number of damaged parts and average damage cost or repair cost. Test results indicate that panel grade and type, species of related wood parts, size of stringer and deckboards, joints, and pallet configurations affect the resistance of panel deck pallet to damage. The plots of average total damage cost, Cu adjusted for repair as a function of test cycle, U, fit the equation: Ct = aU - 1. The equation provided good fits to all the pallet designs tested. Using the initial purchase prices, the average cost and the economic life were calculated for all the pallet designs. The VPI "FasTrack" was calibrated based on the number of physical handlings and the amortized life. Three typical in-field handling environments were compared with the VPI "FasTrack". It concluded that the 30-cycle test period in the VPI "FasTrack" simulates between 2 to 5 years of field uses depending on the field handling system being simulated. Thirty Canadian Pallet Council (CPC) pallets with known 7 years of amortized life in the field were tested in the VPI "FasTrack". The 30-cycle test in the VPI system simulated 6 years of use in the similar handling environment of the CPC pallet used by the grocery industry in Canada. The average total damage costs for different pallet designs were related to pallet structural characteristics using multivariate regression analysis. The shear resistance through the thickness of the top panel deck, bottom deck flexural strength, pallet flexural strength, fastener withdrawal resistance, and pallet configuration were used to predict the total damage cost. A multiple regression model was developed. The model was verified by comparing the predicted values with the tested values of 12 panel deck pallets representing 2 designs. The results indicated that the model is reliable for the future predictions.

Master of Science