Sometimes our experts in unit load design must tell a potential customer that his or her idea for using plastic pallets simply won't work. In this case, it was also a safety concern.
A horse barn was having issues with their horses getting wet feet and developing hoof rot. Their thought was to line the floor of the stables with plastic pallets so any liquids would flow through the deck of the pallet and the horse's feet would stay dry. Seems reasonable, right?
Well, here's the issue. Plastic pallets have weight capacities based on evenly distributed loads.This stable owner thought surely that a pallet designed for a 2200 lbs load should be able to adequately handle the horses because a horse only weighs 1200 lbs.
It took more than an hour of patiently explaining that four 6-8" round points of hoof contact (supporting 1200 lbs of continually shifting horse weight) did not make for an evenly distributed load. In the end, the stable owner agreed that the plastic pallets would be an unsafe solution for solving the issue of hoof rot.
Plastic Pallets - A Collection of Unique and Unusual Applications
Plastic Pallets
