The Effect of Forklift Type, Pallet Design, Entry Speed, and Top Load on the Horizontal Shock Impacts Exerted during the Interactions between Pallet and Forklift

Abstract

Forklift handling of palletized loads produces shock impacts that cause significant damage, affecting the durability and life cycle of pallets and unit loads. Laboratory testing processes using an incline impact tester have been developed to assess the resistance of pallets and unit loads to shock impact damage. A key element of the pallet durability test using the incline impact tester is the intensity of the impact. However, there is a lack of information on the intensity of the shock impacts during forklift handling. The objective of this research was to investigate the effects of forklift type, pallet design, entry speed, and top load on the horizontal shock responses measured during the interactions between pallets and forklifts. Two data loggers, SAVER 3X90 and 3D15, were used to measure the horizontal shock impacts experienced during the same event on both the pallet and the forklift. The results showed that the average peak acceleration of the forklift was 2.98 G; the same event resulted in a 4.4 times greater peak acceleration in the pallet. The average duration of these impacts was 10–12 ms. Pallet design and entry speed had the greatest effect on the response measured for the forklift, while the pallet was most heavily influenced by entry speed and forklift type. The paper mainly focused on measuring the severity of the impacts and did not attempt to correlate the measured impacts to damage experienced by unit loads.