Pallet inverters. Either something that you may never have heard of, or something your business couldn't do without.

Pallet inverters turn loads of palleted merchandise to allow the exchange of one pallet for another. Manufacturers and distributors use inverters and exchangers to quickly transfer loads from in-house pallets to less expensive 'transport' ones (in-house pallets are usually more expensive due to having to meet cleanliness standards of the in-house procedures, such as food and drug production). Inverters are also used to quickly and safely straighten slipped loads or to remove goods from damaged / broken pallets without creating additional damage. It was in fact the need to remove damaged units from the bottom of a palleted load that required the actual invention of this piece of machinery.

Pallet inverters, usually a free-standing machine, are often located in production lines. Free standing inverters are loaded by forklift and can takes loads measuring up to 48x48x60-inches high and weighing up to 4400 pounds. When the inverter is activated by an operator, hydraulic clamping securely holds the load in place and the inverter rotates the load 180 degrees onto another pallet or to shift the load for better alignment.

Potential pallet Inverter Users

Any company handling production on pallets is a potential user of a pallet inverter.

Specific uses of pallet inverters include:

1.Recovering broken pallets or damaged goods at the bottom of a stack. It is dangerous in a high traffic/high volume warehouse to store goods on an unstable or broken pallet, so it is common practice to replace substandard pallets before it can cause an accident or delay.

2. Good housekeeping is simplified when switching from shipping pallets to hygienic pallets for processes in food and drug production industries. It is vital for foodstuffs to be switched to hygienic pallets because wood pallets absorb contaminants.

3. Better presentation of finished product in the situation of a broken unit needing replaced and spillage cleaned away. An inverter on the outgoing goods side of an operation will present the goods in the best possible condition.

Other reasons to invert a load 180 degrees:

• Producers of laminated products to laminate other side of MDF board

• Invert cheese during maturation process

• Printers preparation to print second side

• Invert corked wine bottles for long term storage

• Invert bananas for ripening before delivery to market

• Invert concrete sections from steel molds

When dealing with goods, there are many ways that pallet inverters can give value to a business and could even save it money.