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Optimize Your Unit Load with the Millwood Lab

When you’re shipping your product on a pallet, you want to have the utmost confidence that your load will arrive at its destination safely and cost-effectively. At Millwood, we don’t leave it up to chance, we leave it up to science with the Millwood Lab.
 
The Millwood Lab, located in our Vienna, OH facility, is an ISTA-certified testing and design laboratory that allows us to assess unit load performance by simulating real-world hazards that your load could face in transport. During testing, our experts observe how the pallet, packaging and material handling systems perform as one unit. Our lab tests for three types of hazards: inclines, compression and vibration.
 
Our incline impact tester has a 2,000-pound capacity with an articulating sled. The sled can be used in the down position for package impacts into the back-stop. With the addition of a fork-tine assembly to the backstop, pallet designs are tested for impact resistance using the sled in the down position. With the sled in the horizontal position, full unit load systems can be tested for impact or stability.
 
This compression testing method uses a hydraulic ram system with a maximum 50,000 pound load cell. The 60x60 inch platen can be operated as a fix platen system or used in conjunction with an airbag for a uniform load capacity. Various bottom fixtures can be incorporated to test pallets in any support configuration required. The platen can be positioned to test unit loads up to 85 inches tall.
 
The vibration tester is a Lansmont Model 10,000. The 60x60 inch table will handle up to 3,000 pound payloads. The computer controls will perform sine sweep or random vibration tests.
 
With these tests, you can rest assured that your load will be optimized for safe transport. This service is free to all Millwood customers. If you’re interested in having your unit load tested, contact us today!
 
To see our lab in action, check out this video of a recent test we performed for a customer!
 

 

Author: Jessica Chizmar
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