Pallet Inverters

Premier Pallet Systems have been officially awarded the Palomat Dealer of the Year.

Being a small team everybody contributes to the sales effort, so it’s nice to receive recognition from colleagues in the industry.

Jane Lawson – Premier Marketing Manager

Premier have been working with the Scandinavian company Palomat since the nineties and have of late worked hard to increase awareness and sales of their pallet dispenser – also known as a pallet stacker. This seems to have paid of for them with the award of Dealer of The Year 2013.

South Africa has come a long way in the pass couple of decades and not least in becoming an important trading nation. As with all emerging economies there is a move to acquire the latest and best equipment. It doesn’t surprise us then that South Africa now has a website solely aimed at Pallet Inverters, Pallet Changers and accessories.

Apparently the South African use of pallet Inverters has been increasing for a number of years. Imports into the country from top suppliers such as Premier Pallet Systems Ltd  shows a real commitment by their industry in improving working standards and offering workers the correct tools for the job.

With pallet logistics a major factor in all warehousing, manufacturing and shipping of goods we can only assume that this will not be the only purpose built pallet inverter website in South Africa for long.

The challenge with  pallet inverters is to make them work with all types of loads

Pallet inverters in one form or another have been in existence for over 30 years now, but as with all forms of technology, things move on.

FS (Free Standing) Turner. Firstly, it is notable that the FS style of inverter (also called pallet inverter) with a single clamping table and accessed by forklift truck, remains the most popular model on the market. As operators prefer not to leave the cab to control the machine, there is a move now to remote control and especially infra-red; however, the basic inversion function remains the same. More loads these days need to be re-inverted into the upright position for better presentation. Using the FS from a forklift truck means the original pallet has to be lifted off first before placing the new one on. This can be problematic.

Pallet Changer.  Therefore, ideas are switching towards systems which recline the load temporarily and return just the pallet to its original position for exchange. The Premier Pallet inverters do just this. It begins by gripping the pallet and enclosing the load from top and sides then reclining everything through 105 degrees. The pallet can now be detached from the product and returned to ground level for removal.

The importance of this operation is that it is no longer necessary to touch the pallet by hand. Increasingly, companies are instituting systems which preclude any manual lifting of loads over 25 kgs, especially anything as awkward to handle as a pallet. The Pallet inverter can be used in conjunction with a pallet stacker and dispenser, one to accumulate the old pallet and the other to dispense the new one.

The challenge with this style of inverter is to make it as universally workable with all types of load and sizes of pallet if it is to become a serious competitor to the traditional machines. One option is to tip the product back into a ‘V’. This works well with some goods, but forces everything to one corner of the pallet; also bagged goods tend to collapse when resting on their edge in this way.